The City's Solution to the Congestion on Boca Chica Boulevard — Make it Narrower
By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon
Of the many issues Brownsville needs to address, infrastructure has to be at the top of the list. Ask almost any Brownsvillian and they'll tell you the streets are in a state of disrepair. Potholes and flooding streets are big issues the city engineer's office needs to address.
If poor infrastructure is at the top of the list, traffic congestion should be listed up there as well. For a city this size, we have unbelievably long traffic delays. Yesterday, I went to pick up a friend to go have lunch. I live close to Downtown and he lives off Dana Road close to the intersection of Alton Gloor Boulevard. It took me almost half an hour to get to his house.
At any given time throughout the day, traffic is bad at certain choke points in the city. Among these choke points is Boca Chica Boulevard. From Central Boulevard to the Four Corners intersection, Boca Chica is a demolition derby waiting to happen. For some reason, the city has not looked into timing the traffic lights to allow for a smoother flow of traffic, particularly around the Paredes Line Road-US Highway 77 area. It isn't at all uncommon to have to wait through several rounds of red lights to be able to make your way through that part of BC.
Recently, the far right hand lane of the eastbound BC lanes has been closed off, reducing the eastbound lanes form three to two. Making the turn on to BC from Palm Boulevard means quickly merging to avoid the closure underneath the expressway.
It appears as if BC is in the early stages of having extensive repairs and renovations. According to an article submitted to El Rrun Rrun, plans are in the works to install medians on BC's center lane similar to the ones on Ruben Torres (802) from the expressway to South Padre Island Highway.
This means people wanting to make a left hand turn on BC will have their options limited to areas where the medians will open up — people will have to amend their usual routes in order to avoid being blocked off by the concrete medians. The article also referenced the elimination of traffic lights, including the one at the intersection of BC and Simpson in front of HEB and the Boca Chica Tower.
We here at the Beacon feel this is going to make BC more of a mess. The solution is not to narrow the thoroughfare and remove traffic lights. If you have a bottleneck along one of the city's main arteries, you don't fix the problem by restricting the flow of traffic at the bottleneck, and you certainly don't remove a traffic light at the entrance of one of the city's busiest grocery stores.
If anything, BC should be widened. If that isn't possible, there is another solution. The Beacon published an article addressing this before, but it is worth repeating. Brownsville needs a transportation management center staffed by people with advanced training in urban planning and staffed with people who monitor traffic 24-hours a day.
Brownsville should also consider segmenting the Brownsville Police Department to include a traffic department. If there was a dedicated patrol that concentrated on traffic enforcement, there would be fewer scofflaws committing traffic infractions and causing dangerous road conditions.
This is yet another example of the local government failing to fix a problem by making the problem worse.
Of the many issues Brownsville needs to address, infrastructure has to be at the top of the list. Ask almost any Brownsvillian and they'll tell you the streets are in a state of disrepair. Potholes and flooding streets are big issues the city engineer's office needs to address.
If poor infrastructure is at the top of the list, traffic congestion should be listed up there as well. For a city this size, we have unbelievably long traffic delays. Yesterday, I went to pick up a friend to go have lunch. I live close to Downtown and he lives off Dana Road close to the intersection of Alton Gloor Boulevard. It took me almost half an hour to get to his house.
At any given time throughout the day, traffic is bad at certain choke points in the city. Among these choke points is Boca Chica Boulevard. From Central Boulevard to the Four Corners intersection, Boca Chica is a demolition derby waiting to happen. For some reason, the city has not looked into timing the traffic lights to allow for a smoother flow of traffic, particularly around the Paredes Line Road-US Highway 77 area. It isn't at all uncommon to have to wait through several rounds of red lights to be able to make your way through that part of BC.
Recently, the far right hand lane of the eastbound BC lanes has been closed off, reducing the eastbound lanes form three to two. Making the turn on to BC from Palm Boulevard means quickly merging to avoid the closure underneath the expressway.
It appears as if BC is in the early stages of having extensive repairs and renovations. According to an article submitted to El Rrun Rrun, plans are in the works to install medians on BC's center lane similar to the ones on Ruben Torres (802) from the expressway to South Padre Island Highway.
This means people wanting to make a left hand turn on BC will have their options limited to areas where the medians will open up — people will have to amend their usual routes in order to avoid being blocked off by the concrete medians. The article also referenced the elimination of traffic lights, including the one at the intersection of BC and Simpson in front of HEB and the Boca Chica Tower.
We here at the Beacon feel this is going to make BC more of a mess. The solution is not to narrow the thoroughfare and remove traffic lights. If you have a bottleneck along one of the city's main arteries, you don't fix the problem by restricting the flow of traffic at the bottleneck, and you certainly don't remove a traffic light at the entrance of one of the city's busiest grocery stores.
If anything, BC should be widened. If that isn't possible, there is another solution. The Beacon published an article addressing this before, but it is worth repeating. Brownsville needs a transportation management center staffed by people with advanced training in urban planning and staffed with people who monitor traffic 24-hours a day.
Brownsville should also consider segmenting the Brownsville Police Department to include a traffic department. If there was a dedicated patrol that concentrated on traffic enforcement, there would be fewer scofflaws committing traffic infractions and causing dangerous road conditions.
This is yet another example of the local government failing to fix a problem by making the problem worse.
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