The biggest news in Martinsville these days is not what’s coming but what’s leaving.
Traffic lights – five of them, to be exact.
That light at Walnut and Church will be missed.
Walnut is a little bitty street running from Main to Church (and not vice-versa, because it’s a one-way). It sort of takes over from Franklin Street, the one that runs north from Liberty Street past the Clocktower and up through town between TheatreWorks and the MHC Heritage Center & Museum in the old courthouse. The top of Franklin Street stops at Main Street, between the NCI King Building and the museum. At the other side of the intersection is Walnut, which almost takes over from where Franklin left off, but is the slightest bit to the left. There, you can turn right onto the one-way Main. However, should you decide to continue your northern-bound journey, you may, for a split second, turn left against the grain of the one-way Main Street to quickly jog over onto Walnut.
That stoplight at Main and Franklin is going to remain, according to a PSA put out by the City of Martinsville. However, the one that is where Walnut meets Church is on its way out.
The City is training us for that already. The traffic light is still there, but instead of showing red, yellow or green, it flashes red the whole time from Walnut, and probably yellow from Church (I haven’t been that way yet). The new stop signs are in place, and it’s a matter of time before the traffic lights come down.
The thing about Walnut Street is you always could turn left (not right – Church is another one-way) at red, be it a stop sign or traffic light, as long as you stopped and looked and made sure no vehicles were coming up Church. However, because of the street parking, it often is hard to see what’s coming. If a large vehicle were parked near there, which often is the case, something could be barreling toward you, and you’d never know. Hence, though we could have turned on red, the green light was a welcome indication that it would be OK to make your turn, when it was hard to see.
Now, your turns at Walnut will have to involve a lot of calculations. Can’t see around the huge van parked on the corner? Strain your neck; stretch around; look behind it. Another huge vehicle? Keep looking. Then keep track of each car you see way up Church Street, and follow its path while making sure nothing else is behind it, before casting your lot with a nearly blind left-hand turn.
Other intersections where stop signs will replace traffic lights are Jones and Main, and Church Street at Moss, Bridge and Broad.
By the way, I had a heck of a time writing that sentence. I got confused by the road names and then it occurred to me why. Jones Street is a street with an identity problem. It starts off at that five-point intersection with Depot and Franklin and Liberty, then after a slight jog at Main becomes Wall Street, only for a block though, between Ma’s Cakes and the post office parking lot, and then is called Bridge Street as it runs down the hill between the post office and Jefferson Plaza.
Ironically, the City’s PSA graphic which shows the stoplight removals is still showing the stoplight that was the very first to go. The map shows a traffic light that is not there anymore. That confusing five-point intersection at Liberty, Depot, Jones and Franklin used to have a traffic light, but it was removed and replaced by stop signs a year or two ago.
Stopping at that five-way intersection works great about two-thirds of the time, when everyone at that intersection knows the rule: When two or more drivers reach that intersection at around the same time, the one on the right goes first. The one or ones on the left wait their turn(s). To be specific, in Virginia Code that is Article 2. Right-of-Way § 46.2-820, and in my experience, the same goes for other states too.
However, about a third of the time I reach that intersection, someone seems either confused or simply quite selfish and reckless. The wrong person goes first. Or if there is more than one vehicle in any of the waiting roads, as soon as the first vehicle on a road goes through the intersection the one behind him goes too, regardless of other cars waiting their turns on the other roads.
So at Liberty/Depot/Jones/Franklin, it all goes quite smoothly except for when it doesn’t, so whenever you get there, you just have to take the attitude that no one else knows what they’re doing, so you must to be very careful and patient and forgiving.
Or you can just avoid that intersection altogether, which is what I used to do, until I became the executive director of the MHC Heritage Center & Museum in the old courthouse, which is right above that intersection, and had more reason to use it.
Perhaps it all sounds confusing. But reading the City’s explanation, and some of the comments on the new plan on social media, there’s the thought that motorists would drive more slowly now down Church and in town, and stop more. When there are traffic lights, the theory goes, people drive faster to get through them, even speeding up at intersections, especially at yellow lights.
Time will tell. But for now, let’s all watch out an extra amount.
