For many Westside students, their commute to school includes passing through the now infamous intersection of 90th and Pacific; the intersection west of Westside. For many people, myself included, a commute to Westside is not very difficult and on a Sunday it is very easy to get to Westside and will take at most, five minutes. This is not the case when I commute for school.
For me, driving down Center street and down 90th street is very quick and painless. But as I approach Pacific street, I always run into cars lined up, waiting on a red light. The simple fact is that the 90th and Pacific intersection does not have allow enough time for enough cars to turn onto Pacific street to get to Westside.
There are two main issues to the intersection. First, the turning lane onto Pacific as you head south does not last long enough. There are a few neighborhoods north of Westside that use 90th to get to Westside. From 7:30-8:00am, these cars line up in the 90th turning lane and often overflow the turning lane. Then what happens is the green arrow that allows people to turn east onto Pacific does not last long enough, and there are many cars that cannot make the turn.
The second issue for this intersection is the green light as you travel north on 90th. Cars traveling to Westside need to turn left on this intersection to be able to turn into the senior lot at Westside. Unfortunately, the green light for 90th street does not nearly last long enough for this time, and only 5-7 cars will be able to get through the light. This creates a back up in traffic on 90th, the same traffic I experience when I travel to Westside.
The solution to the issue is very simple. Between the time of around 7:30 to 8:10, simply let the turning signals and green light for 90th st. last longer. Doing this will allow more cars to turn onto Pacific street from the turning signal and also allow more cars to turn right onto Pacific. Once Westside has started school, the traffic dies down and 90th and Pacific’s light can be change back to its original time schedule.
