38 — Friday, September 25, 1998 - North Shore News Ae north shore news NEWS photo Mike Waketieid THE new low read connector is a great addition to the North Shore road system, reports traffic guru Shaun Conlin, however he does have a concern or two about the green arrow signais at 1st Street and Welch Street (above). Soi nice in fact, that I drove ita few times just for the fun of it. Perhaps youve driven it ¥ Forsaking the high ’- road thatis Marine Drive, you: take the Jow road head- -, Jhg east from Gapilano Read. - You zip along Welch Street, “aszalways, but now you're di erted:at Garden Avenue 0 the new and . ‘oved, completely over- - “haule and revitalized Ist -. - .: Street, bypassing the slow eee! oft uttered single-lane Welch. ing smoothly beside the railroad tracks, passing “Pemberton Ave you join effortlessly the-old Ist Street and carry on. "But wait, there's more! Ar the intersection of Ist ‘and Fell, where once was“ placed an inexplicable four- “ way-stop going nowhere, you now have the prudent option . of continuing on cast, over and through a super sweet S- curve of a bridge and scam- lessly joining, 2nd Street, which now pops out at and with 3rd Street, t. beside De Dutch Pannekock House. Marvellous. As mentioned, I drove this new connector a few times, so impressed was I. However, cach and every am~—-veage | motored along cast- bound and terminated my thrills at che 2nd /3rd Street intersection, F encountered a small frustration. You -ee, where 2ad Street . meets 3rd Street there is a traffic light regulating drivers who now must curn right onto 3rd Strect, or two traf- fic lights to be exact, one for each of the wo designated right turn (and, incidentally, right-turn-only) lanes. Every time I came to these lights 1 invariably ended up in a wee traffic line-up as drivers sat patiently -and waited for said lights to turn grecn (actually, waiting for wo flashing green arrows pointing right to exhibit themselves). “Moo,” said 1, waiting for che lead bovine to make his bullish move. Get it? Peopie wanting to make a right turn sat there at a red light waiting fora green fight. Waited at a red light, wanting to make a right. Waited. People! People! Here in beautiful British Columbia it is perfectly lawful to make a right turn on a red light (providing, of course, that we stop first and proceed only if it is clear). I understand that there is some confusion duc to the dual-turn-lane nature of the intersection. After all, a right turn is usually per- formed from the curb lane and into a curb lane. In this situation, the outside lane is also a turn lane, which means drivers are to turn from the outside lane on 2nd to the outside lane on 3rd (the left tanc}, crossing an entire lane of traffic in the process. However, it is perfectly lawful ro curn right from either lanc — into the appro- priate lane — even if the light is red (and if it’s safe to do so). It’s still. a right turn, after all. It’s still rhe same shade of red. Now, [I’m a relati' patient fellow, bur this partic- ular non-utilization of an otherwise common driving, practice has me grinding my teeth a bit. Unfortunately, there are morc than a few drivers with slightly less patience than myself who have taken to honking the horn every time some bewildered, glas eyed, cad-chewing driver sits idly at the red for no real rea- son. There’s so much honking, in fact, that the city has been inundated with calls from area residents asking traffic engineers to net so much fix the intersection, but to make the incessant honking cease. Look, folks, sitting there like so many cows waiting to be slaughtered is counte the concept of that who! new low road connector. Keep it moving. Turn right on the red. Go already. Moo, Be safe. ~All-Nissan car show a success OVER 100 Datsun and Nissan owners showcased the objects of their affections recently at Waterfront Park. benasad Darsun, ddition, participants an Shaw & Shine raised $750 tor the B.C. Heart and Stroke Foundation. The annual event at the popular North Vancouver park featured severt Show vehicles supplied by Nissan, including a black Stillen Maxima. he most plen Datsun 510 (of v tollawed closely by Datsun Zs and ZXs (36), roadsters (12) and trucks/pickups (six). in the All ful model was the cla ich there were 37 entries), Se ee ee ee een el TTENTION JEEP OWNERS! 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