What's in a name?
Plenty, it appears, according to Coquitlam resident Dave Jonsson, who is pleased to announced that the city has installed a delayed left-hand-turn signal at the corner of his namesake (almost) intersection.
Now, instead of waiting several minutes to turn left on to Johnson Street from David Avenue westbound, Dave Jonsson and his fellow commuters from Burke Mountain and Westwood Plateau can scoot through.
Why is Dave Jonsson making the announcement and not, say, Dan Mooney, the city's manager of transportation?
Maybe because Jonsson feels a special affinity for this intersection, which although spelled differently, is part of his daily life.
"I pass through here twice a day," says the Coquitlam Alliance youth pastor and Burke resident. Thus, when he found himself so frustrated with waiting for two or three lights to get through, he thought: "Why don't I just call the city?"
Sure enough, about four months after he made his complaint, a new delayed left-hand-turn signal was installed and Jonsson had a laugh when the transportation worker jokingly said the fix was made because he and the intersection shared the same name.
It wasn't really that easy, of course. The intersection had been monitored for months and the city noticed the problem as commuters were looking for ways to get to central Coquitlam while avoiding PInetree Way, which has been under construction for months to make way for the Evergreen Line.
"David Avenue is quite an arterial street," the city's Mooney said. "We had made some improvements with the widening of lanes in 2012 and 2014. That improved it, but it was kind of an interim step as traffic volume is growing."
With analysis, the city found that the the eastbound lane traffic could handle a shorter light so the advance left signal was installed, although it only operates when three or more vehicles are stopped in the left-turn lane. If there are fewer vehicles, or if vehicles arrive after the arrow has stopped flashing, left turns can still occur after yielding to oncoming traffic.
For drivers however, the new traffic pattern is a relief, especially in the morning, and Dave Jonsson can take a little credit for the upgrade.
"It's my intersection, after all."
