Three years after the city of Plano invested $1.8 million in a project involving the redesign of the intersection at Legacy Drive and Preston Road, it is doing away with the controversial design.
“The public did not accept the intersection,” said Public Works Director Gerald Cosgrove. “People did not like the idea of having to turn right to go left.”
The council approved more than $1 million to build a "Michigan left turn" at the intersection of Preston Road and Legacy Drive in July 2009.
The design, also called a “Michigan left turn,” allows drivers to make right-hand turns in the intersection itself. But people seeking to make a left will do so in a special lane cut through the middle of a median on a divided highway.
The intersection allows traffic to continue moving without waiting for light or causing major traffic tie-ups that sometimes cause bad driver decisions.
Some Plano residents oppose the traffic concept.
“I try to avoid it at all costs, because I do get stuck in it,” said Plano resident Rosie Medrano. “People are confused by it, and they’ll stop – they don’t even know if they’re going the right way.”
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Numbers show the intersection design has improved traffic flow in the highly congested West Plano area.
It has also cut down on the number of accidents in the area.
However, it’s proved unpopular with Plano City Council.
Cosgrove adds in three years, only one person has come to him with a favorable review of the project in practice.
While the city is planning on doing most of the removal and redesign work itself, which Cosgrove says will mostly involve changing signage; they must wait on Texas Department of Transportation approval before beginning any work on Preston Road, a state highway.
The intersection cost about $1.8 million to construct in 2010.
Cosgrove says that money is not a wasted investment – much of the funds went toward the widening of Preston Road, a high-traffic route in Collin County.
