The Chronicle‘s Rad Sallee reports that the city is finally beginning to synchronize traffic signals in a way that makes sense:
In recent years, the lights have changed color simultaneously in stretches several blocks long, a setting adopted to simplify traffic patterns during the Metropolitan Transit Authority’s eight-year reconstruction of downtown and Midtown streets.
At the time, city engineers said deteriorating mechanical control boxes and a mix of new and old equipment would have made sequencing difficult.
Motorists responded by speeding to cover as much ground as possible before all the lights turned red. But the now-sequenced lights do not reward the speeder, who will have to slow down or stop at every intersection.
Sequencing makes driving easier and reduces long waits at red lights and their resulting emissions, Wright said.
The sequenced lights extend from Bagby to Chartres and Commerce to Webster — the inner freeway loop.
Wright said the cost of timing them was about $90,000. The program moves next into Midtown and then to north and west Houston, he said.
It was really nice of Sallee to help the administration push off blame for the first round of synchronization that wasn’t done quite right. Funny, though, that the Mayor’s press release announcing his big synchronization initiative in 2004 didn’t mention any of that.
Back in June 2007, city officials seemed to treat Chron columnist Lisa Falkenberg in an exceedingly condescending manner when she raised questions about the city’s flawed synchronization efforts. Five months later, it looks like the city is finally conceding her point(s).
