This is a spot which is crying out for a traffic light. Since the intersection of Hartford and
Windsor only allows local northbound traffic (southbound is turned around so that the exit ramp to
Mopac can use the space), a cyclist must either cross here or go down one of the previous cross streets
to Lamar (equally dumb). However, by traffic engineering standards this intersection will probably never
get a signal because there's not enough car traffic on the cross street and they typically don't count
cyclists. Even if they did, I can't recommend this crossing to anyone short of advanced commuter status
as it requires a left onto a narrow 4-lane high-traffic street used as a freeway entrance into downtown
and the University of Texas. And we'll probably never see a large
number of cyclists here until a signal is put in since it looks so scary, so it's the typical
catch-22.
For an advanced commuter, the problem this intersection presents is time - it occasionally takes as
long as 5 or 10 minutes to find a big enough gap to turn left. After that, it's a nice quick 500 feet
downhill to the spot where Windsor splits off and heads southerly towards Enfield while the car traffic
all goes on 24th towards UT.
