Is the Walmart intersection a stoplight full-employment program?
Walmart intersection.
I am a Los Angeleno; I was born with a steering wheel in my mouth. I know driving (over a million miles in at least 10 countries and no chargeable accidents). But the Walmart intersection is beyond me. So I randomly asked people in the Centro Laguna and the Walmart parking lots what they thought about Lakeside’s newest “traffic improvement project”. Here is a sample of what is printable in a family newspaper.
“I think it was designed to let the traffic police give us more tickets but even they don’t understand it,” said Stan, a Canadian who lives in La Floresta.
“It is my worst nightmare,” said Royal, “ because I have to go through it every day and every day it is a mess.”
“It is amazing how a traffic light actually increases traffic”, Monica said as she was loading her car in the Walmart parking lot. She said something in Spanish to her passenger and they both cracked up pointing to a car going the wrong way on the road in front of the parking lot.
“It seems like the government – whichever government it is, I can never keep them straight – had a mission to install as many lights as possible with no regard for how they impacted traffic- this was just a stoplight full-employment program. Drivers be dammed,” cracked Roger, an American eating a hamburger at Centro Laguna.
“If you have to ask, you have not driven through it,” Rebecca told me, her meaning clear from the scowl on her face.
I had to agree with them. I came from Chapala this morning and needed to turn into Walmart.
You can’t. The entrance into Walmart from the Carretera is blocked. There is no way to make a left turn into Walmart if you are coming from Chapala and no way from the Libramento. At least I don’t think there is. There is a double traffic light over what could be a left turn into Walmart from the east, but it is either red or green – never a green arrow. As a very polite cop who pulled me over recently told me that in Mexico you can’t make a left turn on a red light or a green light; you have to wait for a green arrow.
But there is no green arrow, so think it is OK. At least the car three ahead of me thought it was ok and he turned left into the Walmart lot on a green light after oncoming traffic on the Carretera waited for him.
I was chicken. My solution was to go down to the La Floresta sculpture, make a U-turn then a right into Walmart, after enduring the traffic backup. Getting out of Walmart is equally dicey – a left turn across the Carretera, but at least there is a light.
I also noticed that most people have not figured out the red arrow on the approach to the Carretera from the Libramento, especially bicyclists who are not sure what the cars think they should do and if the cyclists guess wrong, they end up under a car.
I think Roger had it right – the Walmart intersection is a traffic light full-employment program that is not really intended to improve traffic or cut down accidents. But maybe when all the barrels and tape and barriers are moved I will be proved wrong. I hope so. Patrick O’Heffernan
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