This sign is so dumb it’s funny. The speed limit here is 30 mph, and I don’t think anybody driving up to this sign for the first time at that speed can figure out what the heck they’re supposed to do. There are three lanes on Fannin approaching this sign, even though it only shows two. That little lane way off on the left side of the road is obscured by the Metro platform I’m standing on to take the picture. So if you need to make a left, it doesn’t look like there’s any place for you to go except on the tracks. But then there’s that no driving on the tracks sign below.
Fortunately, nobody seems to pay any attention to the sign: they realize that the lane abruptly ends and they find a gap in the next lane over. The only people that get in trouble are those trying to turn left onto Hermann, and I’ll bet nobody even tries to do that anymore.
This kind of nonsensical signage is typical of the convoluted traffic solutions Metro devised when figuring out how to run the light rail through the medical center. Remember what a disaster the first months of the light rail were? There were 63 accidents in the first year of operation (25 times the national average for light rail!). They reworked the signage in the Medical Center how many times? Now that Metro is planning to expand Houston’s light rail system, I wonder if they’re really up to the task?
On a related note, there’s a post over at the Gulf Coast Institute about a town in Germany that is trying to improve pedestrian safety by removing signs. Without signs, they say, people will pay more attention to their driving. That might work in Germany, but I don’t know if it’ll work here. Our signs are already ignored.
