No Turn on Red: What's Up With the New Restriction at Mansell and Crossville?

A new gas station, thousands of cars passing through daily and high rates of speed are the three things that precipitated the need for no turning right on a red light at Mansell and Crossville roads, say Roswell Transportation Department staff.

The relatively new RaceTrac at that corner has people flying across several lanes of traffic in an attempt to pull in, according to the city's field studies. But even before the gas station was there, the intersection was listed as one of the city's "Top Ten High Accident Locations."

Southbound Mansell right turn rear end accidents were predominant.

"We had a lot of them," Roswell Transportation Department Director Steve Acenbrak told Patch. "These were associated with uncertainty of whether to stop or go during the right turn movement. We think the no right turn on red will clarify when to go and reduce these rear end accidents."

According to Acenbrak, because of the geometry of the intersection, the mast arm pole also had to be placed where the stop line was set back a good ways from the intersection so that drivers could see the signal. 

"If vehicles were allowed to turn right on red, a vehicle in the left lane would block the view of westbound Crossville oncoming traffic for the driver in the right lane, increasing the chance of a right angle collision," he said. "We did not feel that it was safe to allow this condition to continue."

The city had previously changed a permissive left turn on a green light to a left turn on a green arrow only from Mansell because of consistent accidents at the intersection. The no turn on red was the other obvious need, according to Acenbrak.

"It was our conclusion that making the right-turn-on-red restriction [was] the safest option for this intersection," said Acenbrak.

The restriction was put in place, March 28.