PEACHTREE CORNERS, Ga. — A team of Georgia Tech seniors may have solved a traffic headache that has frustrated Peachtree Corners drivers.
The four engineering students spent the fall semester studying the intersection at West Jones Bridge Road and Peachtree Corners Circle where backed-up left turns spill into through lanes during rush hour and children from a nearby school cut through traffic.
“The kids like to cross diagonally across the intersection without a marked crosswalk,” said Phoebe Ellis, one of the students. “They want to be as quick as possible.”
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Their solution is called a displaced left turn.
In a traditional intersection, drivers turning left must wait for a dedicated signal phase. A displaced left turn shifts those drivers into a separate lane earlier so they can go at the same time as straight traffic. That means shorter waits and fewer close calls between turning cars and pedestrians.
“It gets very backed up,” Lauren Sisk told Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson. “This left turn fills past the turn bay, so it can prevent the straight movements to get by.”
If built, it would be the first three-leg displaced left turn in Georgia.
The students also proposed adding a crosswalk where more children cross. City officials reviewed the proposal last week and expressed interest in a lower-cost alternative with the new crosswalk and improved signals, according to the students. The full redesign costs around $2 million while the smaller fix comes in at $50,000.
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“At the end of the day, we’re not professional engineers, so it’ll have to be a whole process after if they actually accept it,” Ellis said. “We really trust our design and put a lot of work into it.”
If the city moves forward it would likely hire a professional firm to develop construction plans based on the students’ design.
“It’s like our culmination to our engineering degree,” said Sisk. “It’s kind of like, oh, you learned a lot in classes, but can you actually apply it to the real world?”
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