Thoughts on Missoula’s Brooks and Dore Traffic Light

Missoula's newest traffic light is expected to be at Brooks Street and Dore Lane.

This of course has been the site of numerous traffic fatalities, and since I use that intersection every day, the on-again/off-again/on-again decision to install traffic signals got my attention.

I talked to Tom McGlaughlin, owner of Paradise Falls located at the intersection and he can't wait. He thinks it's long overdue. I tend to agree and I know that some of the reluctance to install traffic lights there has to do with how it will effect the flow of traffic southbound at Brooks and Reserve, just a few hundred feet away. I'll leave that to the engineers.

I don't know your thoughts, but my major concern is that left turn corridor between Dore and Reserve. I hope they can do some partitioning on it once the lights are installed because the "sharing" format can be frustrating and confusing. It's not bad now with the demise of KMart, because not too many people make left turns southbound into that parking lot. But once new businesses are in that location you will have folks northbound on Brooks wanting to make left turns on Dore and southbound folks on Brooks wanting to make left turns into that parking lot, all using the same lane.

So since I'm sure the name of the game is not Left Turn Chicken, here's hoping they find a way to divvy that up a bit. DB