No Right on Red? Town Meeting to Consider Traffic Signs

Have you ever come to an intersection with no other cars in sight, only to idle impatiently because an ill-conceived traffic sign forbade you from turning right while the traffic light shown red?

Fred Lebow has, and he's sick of it. The at-large member of the Advisory Committee has presented Town Meeting with a non-binding resolution that would urge the Transportation Board to reconsider the use of the no-right-turn signs across town and, presumably, take many of them down.

"It improves traffic flow, it improves efficiency, it uses less fossil fuel, it's better for the environment," Lebow said. "There's really not a good argument not to do it."

The "no turn on red" signs, which are posted at most controlled intersections in Brookline, date back to the energy crisis of the 1970s, when the federal government began to allow drivers to turn on red lights in an effort to reduce engine idling and fuel consumption. At the time, municipalities were allowed to opt out of the change by posting signs forbidding the practice, and many—like Brookline—did.

But given renewed concerns over climate change and energy use, Lebow believes it's time to reconsider those signs. And at least some members of the Transportation Board, which oversees traffic rules and regulations in Brookline, agree that the time has come.

"There's actually quite a number that probably need to come down," said Michael Sandman, chair of the Transportation Board. "I wouldn't say it's been a high priority, but it's one of the things we need to do."

Sandman said the signs are appropriate in many intersections, particularly near heavily used pedestrian crossing or when drivers can't see oncoming traffic, but added that many are unnecessary.

"They should be an exception to the rule," he said. "They should not be viewed as the norm or the default."

There is some disagreement about how or why the signs went up in the first place. Todd Kirrane, the town's transportation administrator, said a traffic study would have been conducted before each sign was installed, saying they "were not put up haphazardly."

But Brian Kane, another member of the Transportation Board, disagreed.

"I think a lot of those signs went up without a lot of study, without a lot of traffic data," he said. "They were just put up as a knee-jerk reaction to what citizens thought they wanted, so I think we should take a look at them and see if they're warranted."

Kane said the Transportation Board has removed some no-turn-on-red signs in the past, particularly during the renovation of Beacon Street. But he said the board has never taken a systematic approach to reviewing the placement of the signs, partly because the town's two-person Transportation Division already has its hands full managing routine maintenance and traffic-calming requests from residents.

"Until we can staff that up to an appropriate level, it's really hard to look at this stuff systematically," he said.

But Fred Lebow, the petitioner behind the Town Meeting article, says he's pushing for action sooner than that. Though his current article only has the power of a non-binding resolution, he says he plans to follow up with a more forceful article at the next Town Meeting if he doesn't start seeing results.

"They've got six months and it will be a tougher warrant article if they don't," he said.