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There are many aggravating things that happen while you will encounter around Worcester. Many of these problems revolve around morons behind the wheel, but I would say that many more problems come from unnecessary traffic lights. For instance, one of the main reasons Kelley Square is so awesome and works so well, is because there’s no light. We don’t need a machine to tell us when it’s our turn to go. We just go when we feel like it. The city NEVER takes down traffic lights, but they constantly are adding new, superfluous lights that ironically create more traffic than they dissolve. On that note here are the 12 most pointless lights in Worcester.
12. James Street
The problem I have with this light is there is no street intersection here. They just threw up a light so that pedestrians can cross the street. Anyone who hits the walk signal at this light so they can go and get their groove on at the Dance Ranch should be sent to Siberia. If you can’t figure out how to cross a street, which really isn’t THAT busy of a street, then you don’t deserve to go country line dancing.
11. Hope Ave/Southbridge St
Another new light that we don’t need. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this intersection when this was a stop sign. Now they’ve added this and it literally CREATED traffic where none existed before. The worst part about this is that trucks are constantly coming from the highway and taking the right onto Hope Ave. If you’re coming from Auburn, good luck turning left onto Hope Ave. You’re gonna be there all day while some Polar truck tries to maneuver a bunch of Seltzer that will eventually sit on the rack at Shaw’s for the next four months.
10. Riverside/Soutbridge St
Yet another light that did not exist five years ago. Things were JUST FINE with this intersection, but OF COURSE they had to add a light right before you get to the even bigger clustefuck at Southbridge and Cambridge St. I’m sorry, but the only people who need this light are people coming from Riverside St, and are using it as a cut through to avoid the Cambridge/Southbridge St debacle. We should NEVER accomodate people taking shortcuts. If you wanna do that, more power to ya. But you’re on your own. That’s how shortcuts work.
9. Cutler/Grafton St
Yes, I realize there is an elementary school right here, but it doesn’t mean we have to put up a traffic light. Soccer moms everywhere will be up in arms that we think this behemoth needs to be taken down, but the bottom line is that’s why we have crossing guards. Plus, what the hell is Cutler St? The only reason you would ever need to use that street is if you’re cutting over to Dorchester St or you’re just looking to score some cheap weed with a bunch of seeds in it.
8. Highland/West St
Worst street in Worcester. It’s too skinny, people drive like morons, and you’ve got two extremely busy restaurants right here (the Sole and the Boynton). All this light does is make it a million times worse. I’m just opposed to having lights at side streets that 99% of people have never driven down before. West Street is one of those.
7. Harlow/Lincoln St
Back when Harlow Street school was still doing it’s thing this light actually came in handy from time to time. Now it’s just a traffic sandwich. Harlow Street leads you absolutely nowhere. If you’re one of the five people per day that is coming up from Harlow Street, then that’s on you to figure out a way to pull out onto Lincoln Street.
6. Newbury/Chandler St
The only thing more aggravating than the endless parade of people who walk in or across Chandler Street on their way home from a busy day of buying scratch tickets at Kirsch Liquors, are the lights on Chandler Street. They’re every five feet. The worst part about this light is it follows two other lights on Queen and Piedmont. But at least those side streets actually cross Chandler. What the hell does Newbury Street do? This is basically the same thing we have with the Cutler-Grafton situation. You have an elementary school right there, so some soccer mom who lives in West Tatnuck said, “What about the children?” and some City Councillor threw them a bone and tossed up this God-forsaken light.
5. Pleasant/Sever/Piedmont St
The cultural district of Pleasant St is always good for a show. It’s one of those parts of town where able-bodied men stand outside all day, presumably because they’re all retired at the age of 34. I wanna be in and out of Crown Hill as quickly as possible. There should be ZERO lights here, although I could accept one. But why two??!! And the worst part is the lights aren’t coordinated. You see in this picture the light was just green on Piedmont but red at Sever Street. Then right on cue when the light at Sever turns green you will be able to advance a grand total of 15 feet before having to stop at the red light at Piedmont and see what Gary Rosen got for lunch at the Pickel Barrel. Whoever designed this should have to listen to a Robert Blackwell-Gibbs poetry jam for punishment.
4. Wrentham/Pleasant St
Pleasant Street sucks. I don’t know what it is about this street that brings out the naniburger in everyone. But if I’m trying to go from Tatnuck to Newton Square, I ALWAYS choose Chandler Street, because for whatever reason people drive normally on Chandler. This light here makes it even worse. Who the hell is coming from Wrentham Road? Why not have another light 50 feet ahead at Beaconsfield? Just put lights on every side street in Worcester that people use more than five times a day.
A lot of people think this light 300 feet down the road needs to go too:
If I had to pick one, I’d keep the one at Moreland St. At least Moreland Street goes somewhere. People who have lived on or off of Moreland can tell you how impossible it can be to turn onto Pleasant Street at rush hour. At the same time, the way this light was set up is moronic. It should be blinking red/yellow at all times except for rush hour. And it certainly shouldn’t have a left turn only signal coming from Tatnuck. I’m telling you, the people who design these things are diabolical dooshnozzles who live to make your life more aggravating.
3. Gold/Madison Street
In my life, I think I’ve seen no more than three cars who have actually been coming from Gold Street. You know who’s coming from Gold Street? A bunch of John’s who are bringing back their “girlfriends” to Crystal Park. And yet I never seem to fail to hit the red light here.
2. Cambridge/Douglas Street
Seriously? What the hell is the point of this thing? Granted Douglas Street is one of the most magical avenues in the Woo, but NO ONE uses this pointless street. And where does Douglas Street bring you exactly? Oh yea, NOWHERE. Traffic lights should only exist when two streets with an actual puprose intersect with one another.
1. Airport Road
Fuck this light and everything it stands for. Airport Road is the greatest street in the history of the world. Look at that thing. A divided two lane highway that brings you from Webster Square to Tatnuck in five seconds. So hot. I understand that TJ Maxx has a shift that lets out at 3:00 PM. So toss up a blinking yellow and only have it function between 3:00-3:15. Problem solved. Instead we get this eyesore. And you know who’s fault it is? Worcester State. They created this with their dumbass parking lot that no one ever uses. And they wanted us to plow over the Chandler ballfields? Oh yea, I’m sure that would’ve gone real well. After all, they have such a solid track record of alleviating traffic in this city.
Anyway, did we miss any? Feel free to share your comments to let us know how badly we screwed this one up.
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31 Comment(s)
The worst light is at norton dr. It is the longest red light. Especially at midnight where there is no traffic coming out of St Gobain. It should be a flashing yellow.
I hate driving on Highland because it is a cluster…. But if that light wasn’t there no one would ever let anyone turn onto or off of any of the like 20 side streets on each side. The road is so narrow that everyone would be sitting there for 20 minutes while some guy is trying to take an unrealistic left a few 100 feet up. The only time people in Worcester let you go is when they’re stopped anyway!
The highland street light is necessary..it is a very busy street..it gets congested sometimes because it is very narrow
Pretty much nailed it although a few of these like James street were put in because its like trying to cross a NASCAR track. Bit fuck gold street. I run that light everytime. We don’t have traffic light cams here in mass so why people obey these ridiculous lights when no one is there is beyond me.
How about the one way light on lake park, fuck that light!
The light near Worcester Walmart before you turn onto the bridge from old millbury st. ITS SO LONG and half the light is a green right arrow when people can turn right on red whenever they want (oncoming cars willing)! I get that it helps with the Walmart traffic, but they need to sensor it or make the light on old millbury st a blinking yellow light. Sucks for residents!
Turtleboy – Here’s a protip from me to you, free of charge. Try posting your blogs during business hours instead of after 5 pm when everyone is home from work. Cube Monkeys like myself are looking for a good read while we procrastinate our already days late monthly financial reconciliations. It’s Monday, I’m still feeling the effects of my 48 hour weekend bender, and I want to read some good ole’ Clive bashing. Give the people what they want!
Ride the Turtle!!!
You do realize you are commenting on an article that was posted at 1:00 right?
Considering it was the latest and the only blog posted from today when I commented, I didn’t really have a choice. Take the constructive criticism in strides pal, we’re playing for the same team.
Used gold and madison multiple times. Worked at MedStar which is over on Washington St and its a lot easier than trying to turn left off of washington right across from the Burger King
The same meds tar that refuses to use Washington or Gold street but would rather complain over and over about cars parked on Green st??
The same meds tar that uses lights and sirens to transport a patient from a nursing home to their doctors appointment??
I look forward to reading this again in a couple of weeks when the T&G blatantly copies it.
I drive shuttles on Lincoln street every week and that light on Harlow street is the most annoying light ever. They need to make it on a sensor or something. I hit it every single trip up and down Lincoln. They also need a cross walk guard for all the drunks, druggies, and idiots running into the street.
Also agree with Jen about the annoying double-lights at McKeon and Blackstone River Rd. Those also do not sync up well and just cause more backup of traffic than they fix.
Front St & Commercial St has got to be one of the worst. It’s rare for cars to need to turn from Commercial onto Front, so the light only serves to back up traffic downtown. I was so happy when the city took it down last fall and put up a stop sign, but they’ve since replaced it.
Pleasant/Sever/Piedmont is ridiculous – those lights rarely sync up!
I actually find Highland/West to be useful, because I have to use West as the way to get from Elm to Highland. If Elm didn’t turn into an obnoxious one-way mess at Linden that takes me in the opposite way from where I want to go, then I wouldn’t have to use West, but right now it’s the best way to get to Highland (other than Park Ave, which is way too traffic-heavy at most times of day). It’d be hard to turn from West onto Highland in either direction, especially left, if the light wasn’t there.
This was recently removed, and now has a stop sign. Yay!
Fuck Gold and Madison! Hate that light!
The light was probably a necessity when Wyman-Gordon had a large industrial complex in operation at Gold and Madison, with shift changes every 8 hours and trucks coming in and out. That has slowly been dismantled since the late-80’s and an example of a light that is no longer needed! I know government works slow, but over two decades later none of the powers to be have noticed Wyman’s has pretty much evaporated and the light is useless?
West Mountain St.
3 lights within 100′.
And one of the lights faces a house. How great would that be to have to wait for a green light just to pull out of your driveway?
i think the most pointless light is the one over by the railroad tracks when you are turning left onto black stone rd….the ones at that has 7-11 at the intersection….there is a light and then like 200 yards later there is another light…God forbid if the second light is green but the first light is red WTF???
That light is there and timed to keep idiots from stopping on the tracks while they wait at the other red light. Without it, some moron gets nailed by a train because he was sitting on the tracks at a red light and the city would get sued.
W. Mountain St. – 3 traffic lights within 100 ft of each other and when one turns green the other turns red!!
Holy s**t!
I just posted the exact same thing!
and! you cant even see the lights because theyre always in the sun and have some sort of weird glossy finish
The Lincoln Harlow light is pointless yes, and nobody bothers to use the crosswalk signal either. All Harlow street does is serve as a shortcut to the school bus yard.
The Cambridge/Douglas Street light is there cause of the park, for people to use to cross Cambridge.
Many on the list were installed due to the traffic patterns of old. And honestly, I would rather leave them as is instead of the city removing them and passing the savings on to us tax payers.
They should just have pedestrian crosswalks with the blinking light like the ones on Main st.
In Soviet Russia, light turn you.
Growing up in Tatnuck Square, I have driven down Pleasant St and over the airport more times than I can count. Fuck the Moreland St light and the airport light. There is not one sing fucking legit reason for either of these lights. All they do is fuck your shit up when your trying to autopilot home after a long night of making bad decisions at The Blarney Stone. Also, there is no reason whatsoever to be making a left turn off of Moreland St. There are any number of other ways to get off that road heading inbound. Fuck these lights up the ass, dry.
Well damn
The light on James Street was added because of the insane amount of pedestrian accidents that occurred there. The dumbasses cutting through Worcester from Leicester didn’t think it was necessary to stop for people in the road.