The Editor,
There is a traffic challenge happening on Shaughnessy Street southbound between Lougheed Highway and the railway underpass:
People driving along Shaughnessy towards downtown in the outside lane see a sign indicating that their lane will be closed ahead. Overly polite people often try to change lanes far before reaching the barrier ahead, thinking they would be rude to go to the end of the lane and budge in.
That thinking is wrong.
People need to move all the way forward to the barrier so that traffic doesn't build up behind them. Such build-up has been tying up the Lougheed/Shaughnessy intersection. When cars fill up the lane that is eventually blocked off, that lane is being used for the purpose it was intended and not left empty and wasted. Merging then usually occurs on a polite basis of every other car going forward at the narrowing point.
This common occurrence is, of course, complicated at this particular location because some people are trying to cross two lanes in time to do a left turn into Shaughnessy Station shopping centre.
Julie Roberts, Port Coquitlam
