A Simple Solution to One of Grand Junction’s Confounding Intersections

There's an intersection in Grand Junction I frequent and am constantly frustrated by. Here's why.

The intersection is Highway 50 at 27 Road. If you're not familiar with this intersection, this is why it's so confounding.

Traffic traveling on the Highway have two lanes plus turn lanes going each direction.

Where 27 Road intersects with the highway it's one lane each direction with no turn lanes.

When the light turns green and there are multiple cars on each side of the intersection, it's an unintentional game of chicken. You try to guess whether the line of opposing traffic will turn onto Highway 50 or continue on 27 Road.

At this point, you're probably thinking, just put turn lanes in on 27 Road. Great idea, except the road, doesn't appear wide enough to add turn lanes.

I'm no genius, and it took me a long time to figure this out, but the answer is so simple it makes me wonder why some traffic engineer didn't figured it out years ago and fixed it.

The solution is this. Instead of having the lights on both the north and south side of 27 Road turn green simultaneously, alternate those lights so only one side is green at a time.

That simple change, plus a left turn light, and the intersection not only becomes safer, but less frustrating.

Is there a Grand Junction intersection you could make better with a simple solution? I'd love to hear your ideas.