By Lu Qiang
Siping Road, as one of the three vertical and three horizontal roads in Shanghai, plays an important role in connecting the north and south of the urban area. Over the years, the Hongkou Traffic Police have constantly adjusted the relevant road facilities along the road according to the actual situation, so as to adapt to the changes in traffic volume and ensure no congestion in the roads along Siping Road.
After adequate investigation and statistics, the Hongkou Traffic Police found that vehicles passing the intersection signal lights of Wuhua Road along Siping Road from the north to the south will encounter the intersection signal lights of Guanzhong Road when driving more than 30 meters, causing the vehicles on Wuhua Road to stay at the intersection. Some drivers are even confused by the two groups of signal lights and run the red light.
Wang Jichuan, a police officer from the service and road facilities brigade of Hongkou Traffic Police Detachment, told that due to the short distance between the two signal lights, vehicles have been stranded at the intersection of Wuhua Road on Siping Road, and vehicles turning right on Wuhua Road are often blocked in front of the signal lights at the intersection of Guanzhong Road.
With the strong support of the Hongkou District Construction Management Committee and the Transportation Center of the Hongkou District Construction Management Committee, considering that the motor vehicles at the intersection of Guanzhong Road could not turn left when entering Siping Road, but only could turn right to merge into Siping Road, the Hongkou Traffic Police integrated the two groups of signal lights at the intersections of Wuhua Road and Guanzhong Road into one group, and moved the crosswalk at the south of Wuhua Road’s intersection to the north as a whole, connecting the ground markings of motor vehicles and non-motor vehicles at the intersection of Guanzhong Road. Meanwhile, a stop and yield sign was installed at the intersection of Guanzhong Road.
Therefore, the traffic lights at the intersection are clear at a glance. The vehicles from the north to the south along Siping Road can pass through Wuhua Road smoothly. The right-turning vehicles on Wuhua Road will no longer be stopped by the traffic lights. The right-turning vehicles from the east to the north along Guanzhong Road will pass orderly according to the stop and yield sign, without affecting the main road of Siping Road.
The adjustment measures have greatly increased the traffic rate at the intersections, reduced illegal acts, and improved the safety factor of pedestrians crossing the streets.
In addition, the Hongkou Traffic Police re-planned the motorway of Siping Road near Quyang Road in the south north direction, changed the left-turning lane of the original second lane into a straight lane, and changed the sign above the lane accordingly. After the implementation of the measures, the passing rate of through vehicles is greatly improved, and besides, the passing rate of left-turning vehicles and the number of vehicles to pass are both improved, eliminating congestion nodes.
Except for Quyang Road near Siping Road, the above two intersections were reconstructed in the middle of September. Through data comparison in the same period, the average hourly traffic rates at the intersection of Wuhua Road and Siping Road increased by 32.1% in the morning peak and 4.8% in the evening peak on working days; at the intersection of Siping Road and Quyang Road, the average hourly traffic rates rose by 20.77% in the morning peak and fell by 3.83% in the evening peak on working days, respectively. During holidays, the average hourly traffic rates at the intersection of Wuhua Road and Siping Road increased by 27.55% in the morning peak and 14.08% in the evening peak, respectively; the average hourly traffic rates at the intersection of Siping Road and Quyang Road increased by 30.18% in the morning peak and 7.87% in the evening peak, respectively.