The intersection of Geležinis Vilkas and Ukmergės st. “The Bermuda Triangle?”
At least two intersections can be singled out in the capital, where it is very easy to get stuck. One – descending from the so-called Šeškinė hill along Ukmergė street. The intersection with Iron Wolf Street could safely be called the Bermuda Triangle, because it’s easy to lose your common sense. The intersection is very wide, so even with good intentions, it is sometimes difficult to calculate whether you will get stuck or pass.
And the stuck drivers start behaving like flies in a spider’s web: they get distracted, look for escape and fly to the bus stop, thus causing even more chaos. Because A just public transport does not pass.
Crossroad marked “Koriu” in Vilnius
Is the Vilnius government aware of this problem? Indeed, it has been for at least five years. And is it solved? Here’s to 2019 there was a police raid to the yellow “honeycomb”. Is it enough to educate or punish drivers?
Kalvariju Street is dominated by public transport
Another, much smaller, but no less problematic – Kalvarijų st. – Constitution Ave. intersection point. Both intersections are marked, by the way honeycomb. Go boo honeycombs becomes a short respite for drivers during peak hours. Or it swallows cars like the Bermuda triangle: only the smartest survive.
At the end of the working day, the reader took a video of this happening on Kalvariju Street. The bus of route 53 crossed the intersection while the traffic light was green. But got stuck due to a queue of vehicles that formed in the direction of the Green Bridge (two traffic lights before it). The 1G route bus entered before biting him, even though the intersection was still busy. And it got stuck along its entire length, thus completely blocking the intersection for cars driving along Konstitucijos Avenue. He tried to drive forward, when the traffic moved on Kalvariju Street, and he got stuck again…
VIDEO: Public transport blocked Kalvariju st. and Constitution Ave. intersection in Vilnius
Bearing in mind that Konstitucijos Ave. at the end of the working day, such traffic organization is completely inefficient. There have been cases when, when leaving the municipality to Karoliniške, “Waze” suggested choosing a detour – to run as far away from this area as possible.
So what to do, how to finally improve the situation during the peak?
Driving teacher A. Pakėnas: it is not enough to change curbs, you need to build streets
Artūras Pakėnas, head of driving school “AmpliusLT”, speaking about the so-called “Bermuda triangle” on Geležinio Vilko and Ukmergės st. intersection, you notice that it is practically impossible to pass it without getting stuck during the rush hour. This is because the intersection is congested (in both directions). Therefore, the scheme invented by the designers does not work.
Lukas Balandios / 15min photo/15min in the studio – a conversation about the situation on Lithuanian roads, Artūras Pakėnas
Evaluating the situation on Kalvarijju street, A. Pakėnas notices that the intersections are blocked due to the lack of culture.
“In bus and trolleybus fleets, the focus is likely to be on keeping up with the schedule, but not how to get there.” The schedule is the priority, and everything else is thrown away. That is, if there is no requirement to follow the rules, except for the logic “the bigger, the more right”, this is the illustration we have. On the other hand, people start to lose patience when such extreme situations arise. Drivers are not used to waiting, so they rush and rush.
So they don’t pay attention to the intersections drawn or marked with honeycombs: if you don’t drive on it and don’t take a position, you won’t drive at all. So, when a certain peak limit is reached, the culture disappears and the hives become “invalid”. If there are no police in such places, self-regulation no longer works,” says the instructor.
The municipality sends to the police, the police to the municipality
It is a well-known fact that the mentioned intersections are monitored by municipal cameras. Maybe the monitoring staff is counting the offenders?
When asked how many public transport drivers and how many car drivers have been fined for such a violation of the KET, the municipality’s media relations specialist Gabrielius Grubinskas suggests contacting the police.
Jorūnė Liutkienė, chief specialist of the Communication Department of the Police Department, explains that the “honeycombs” at the intersections were an initiative of the municipality, so its employees monitor the images through cameras. So they should receive information about violations at intersections.
It is true that people can report violations through the portal e-policija.lt. Then the information will reach the authorities.
Vilnius VPK photo/Reid moment
“Police officers themselves organize targeted preventive police measures to prevent violations at intersections. We cannot separate these violations from the general statistics”, comments J. Liutkienė.
JUDU specialists monitor intersections, but do not provide numbers
According to municipal specialist G. Grubinskas, road traffic rules apply equally to all road users, so blocking the intersection with a vehicle is not justified by the behavior of drivers of buses or trolleybuses, or other cars.
“JUDU Traffic Management Center specialists monitor the situation at intersections through video surveillance cameras, and when violations are recorded, the information is transferred to the police. Every week, JUDU specialists discuss violations committed by drivers of public vehicles with representatives of carriers. The aim is to ensure that bus and trolleybus drivers comply with the Road Traffic Rules, as this is one of the most important components of safe passenger transportation,” says G. Grubinskas.
Additional scoreboards will not be built
However, do municipal specialists agree that the existing design of intersections does not meet today’s needs. In other words, it is not always possible to calculate whether you will get stuck on the honeycomb or not? Maybe it would be worth showing drivers a timer – how much time is left until the traffic signal changes?
G. Grubinskas explains that all traffic light intersections in Vilnius are managed adaptively. This means that the green signal time for each direction is allocated by monitoring traffic flows in real time. For example, if there is an increase in traffic in any direction, more green signal time is allocated to that direction, and if there are large gaps between moving vehicles (single vehicles cross the intersection when the traffic light is green), in order to make more efficient use of the signal time, the green signal time for that direction is shortened and redistributed accordingly to other directions.
Such adaptive functioning of intersections allows more efficient distribution of traffic signal time and reduces queues of cars standing and waiting at traffic lights for a long time.
Since the signal time in the system is calculated and changed in real time, it would not make sense to use signal time reference boards, because it is impossible to display the duration correctly in the adaptive mode. The recalculated timing of the signals on the scoreboard would cause the time to suddenly change, thus encouraging hasty actions by drivers and possibly more accidents, which would only add to the congestion.
Irmantas Kuzas, communication specialist of the Vilnius municipality, adds that when there are obstacles at the intersection or behind it, such as traffic accidents or narrowing of the road, the effect of the traffic light system may be limited. Other unregulated intersections and nearby streets also affect general traffic.
For example, Geležinio Vilko and Ukmergė st. the throughput of the intersection is also affected by the nearby Konstitucijos pr.–T. Narbuto str. ring, so the traffic lights of the mentioned intersection work at maximum bandwidth intervals.
window.fbAsyncInit = function() {
FB.init({
appId: ‘117218911630016’,
version: ‘v2.10’,
status: true,
cookie: false,
xfbml: true
});
};
(function(d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) {
return;
}
js = d.createElement(s);
js.id = id;
js.src = “https://connect.facebook.net/lt_LT/sdk.js”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
#Vilnius #intersection #blocked #cars #public #transport #situation #Bermuda #Triangle #Business
The situation at the intersection of Kalvariju Street and Konstitucijos Avenue in Vilnius has become a point of concern, especially during peak hours. Recently, the intersection was completely blocked by public transport vehicles, which highlights the inefficiency of the current traffic organization in the area. Artūras Pakėnas, a driving instructor, noted that intersections like the one at Geležinio Vilko and Ukmergės streets are notoriously congested, making smooth traffic flow virtually impossible.
He emphasized that merely modifying curb designs is insufficient; the infrastructure needs significant improvements to accommodate the current traffic patterns. Pakėnas pointed out that the focus on maintaining public transport schedules often overlooks the rules of the road, leading to gridlock. Drivers, in their rush to avoid delays, tend to disregard traffic markings, further complicating the situation.
Efforts to address these issues have revealed a lack of coordination between municipal authorities and police. While municipal cameras monitor these intersections, tracking violations appears to be ineffective, with both agencies deferring responsibility when queried about the enforcement of traffic regulations.
Municipal representatives acknowledged the complications presented by the existing intersection designs but described the adaptive traffic light system implemented in Vilnius, intended to better manage the flow of vehicles. This system adjusts the green light duration based on real-time traffic conditions, aiming to alleviate congestion. However, the absence of additional tools like countdown timers for traffic signals may leave drivers uncertain about when they can proceed, potentially exacerbating frustrations.
Ultimately, there remains a pressing need for a comprehensive evaluation and redesign of traffic management strategies in Vilnius to improve conditions during peak traffic times and enhance overall road safety for all users.
