I exited the Galleria's Banana Republic parking garage (the blue garage, I believe) last Saturday evening, and attempted that crazy right turn onto the LBJ feeder road. It's hard enough just to get onto the road; I had to wait for about 20 minutes for traffic to move forward. But those of us who are trying to turn left onto Inwood need to get into the far left lane, which is almost impossible.
I was able to make it, and was sitting about five cars back in the left lane for about a minute when I began hearing ambulance sirens. In my rear view mirror, I could see the ambulance coming up in the far left lane, but there were at least a dozen cars behind me, and cars stretched back all the way past the previous light at Montfort in the other two lanes.
Dallas drivers have a lot of faults, mainly that they're selfish, but they at least clear out when an emergency vehicle is trying to get through. The problem was, we had nowhere to go. And the light remained red for another two minutes.
It's bad enough that the red light lasts for three minutes, causing traffic jams right outside of the Galleria's busiest parking lots. Sometimes a police officer is there directing traffic, which helps, but it seems the problem could be at least alleviated with a shorter red light.
Not to mention that when emergency vehicles are trying to get through, drivers need to be able to move safely — and there's nothing about that vehicle-jammed raised ramp that feels safe. As I was sitting there listening to the sirens, all I could think was that three minutes could mean the difference between life and death for someone. I pray that wasn't the case.
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