Time someone said this !!!! djf Getting Around: Updating traffic signals would save motorists time, fuel and money

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06015/637703.stm


Getting Around: Updating traffic signals would save motorists time,  
fuel and money

Sunday, January 15, 2006

By Joe Grata, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Fred Mielo, of Churchill, thought about the time, gas and money he  
wastes sitting at red lights, waiting for them to turn green while no  
traffic is in sight in any direction.

"If we could eliminate outdated traffic signals and stop signs, many  
that seem to be placed for a few residents, or maybe just to slow  
traffic, the consumer might save a buck or two a week," he wrote.

Even if it's 50 cents a week multiplied by 52 weeks a year, and then  
by 2 million vehicles in the Pittsburgh metro region, that's a lot of  
moola. A lot of fuel savings. Less air pollution. Less temptation to  
run red lights.

We've reported this many times, many ways, but transportation  
officials ignore it. They're focused on the big picture, building  
roads and bridges.

PennDOT has a queer system whereby it pays for most traffic lights  
and controls their installation, then makes municipalities  
responsible for operating and maintaining them. The municipalities  
cannot replace, modify or re-time the signals without PennDOT, except  
for the city of Pittsburgh.

Because of the horse-and-buggy rules and procedures, traffic lights  
in a relatively short corridor can fall under a dozen political  
jurisdictions, every one with its own special interests and ideas.  
They pass the buck or blame. Most don't have the funds to hire a  
traffic engineer or update signal equipment. Some don't care.

It's no wonder that Mr. Mielo is forced to stop for, or be  
unnecessarily delayed by, so many red lights, even where there's no  
traffic, even in the middle of the night, even in this high-tech age.

I've reported this previously: A 1996 study by the Southwestern  
Pennsylvania Commission, our master transportation planning agency,  
estimated that it would cost $35 million to modernize our traffic  
lights. The study predicted drivers would use up to 12 percent less  
fuel.

By now, every traffic signal in Western Pennsylvania should have been  
evaluated, updated with "smart" models, interconnected in major  
corridors and retrofitted with fiber-optic lights requiring low  
maintenance and less electricity.

Signalized intersections where conditions have changed and vehicle  
volumes have dropped over the years should have been converted to  
four-way or three-way stops to manage traffic satisfactorily.

Many "No Turn on Red" restrictions, imposed in a hurry when they  
became law in the 1980s and which have shown no appreciable safety  
benefit, should have been removed. It isn't rocket science.

The SPC report is 10 years old and still gathering dust.

But instead of carrying out its recommendations, the same  
transportation bureaucracy is looking at traffic lights in the 10- 
county region. Again!

With support from PennDOT, the SPC is engaged in what's called a  
Congestion Management Process, "a strategy to manage congestion  
through the region and facilitate movement of people and goods."

The process is said to include a monitoring program to measure travel  
times and delays on more than 100 specific corridors experiencing  
congestion. Data on one-third of the system is monitored every year  
by a vehicle traveling in traffic during morning and evening rush hours.

The experts take three years to find out what a commuter can tell  
them any day of the week on the Parkway West, Parkway East, Route 88,  
Route 51, Route 28, Interstate 279, Route 228, Route 30, Business  
Route 22, Freedom Road, Second Avenue, East Carson Street, Ohio River  
Boulevard, Mosside Boulevard, West Liberty Avenue and the Homestead  
Grays Bridge.

I have no idea where the planners find another 84 or so corridors  
with "unbearable congestion" in the region. I assume Possum Hollow  
Road in Westmoreland County isn't on the list, but you never know.

According to the SPC, the Congestion Management Process rates 26  
possible strategies to address traffic congestion, including "signal  
improvements, intersection improvements, improved transit service,  
park-n-ride facilities, ride-share programs, Intelligent  
Transportation Systems and access management as well as lane  
additions, new interchanges or new highways."

Have you ever heard so much baloney?

In 2003, the Pittsburgh region finished in a 16-way tie for last  
place in "traffic signal coordination" among 75 urban areas evaluated  
by the Texas Transportation Institute, a credible outfit.

By now, I wouldn't be surprised if we're No. 75.



Exhibit No. 1. Bill and Harriet Murray, who live on Freedom Road in  
Cranberry, contend daily with the busy intersection where their road  
intersects with Routes 19 and 228, so they know.

The couple believes the timing of the traffic signals is  
"unbalanced," although PennDOT says that it optimized the timing  
during intersection work last year, and it has since monitored and  
adjusted the lights "to ensure maximum benefit to motorists."

Then why, Mr. Murray asked, do drivers coming east on Route 228 or  
west on Freedom have such a short green light that only seven or  
eight cars in the queue get through as the light cycles, while maybe  
30 cars get through on Route 19?

"The way the lights are set may have been fine 10 years ago," Mr.  
Murray said. But now, "in addition to being exasperating, it creates  
a dangerous situation when cars try to beat the light."

PennDOT said it was up to Cranberry officials to change the timing on  
the lights, but only with the department's approval, part of the  
runaround.

PennDOT sent Mr. Murray's letter to Cranberry "to inform them of your  
concern." He can find it in the dead-letter file.



Exhibit No. 2. Don Walker, of Morningside, votes the "No Turn on Red"  
sign on Stanton Avenue at Chislett Street as the most useless of many  
in Pittsburgh.

"Going east [on Stanton], oncoming westbound traffic can't move when  
the light is red. Chislett is one-way heading north, so nothing is  
coming out. To your right, traffic is normally very light. So why,  
oh, why, must one sit there, unable to make the right turn? Sigh."

I rest my case.



Elsewhere. The New Mexico Department of Transportation has paid $50  
million to a private rail company to buy 51 miles of mainline  
railroad rights of way to establish commuter rail service to  
Albuquerque.



Believe it! The deck area of 25,307 PennDOT-owned bridges totals more  
than 2,500 acres, enough to cover Pymatuning Lake in Crawford County.



Plate du jour. Retired sports writer Ray Kienzl, of Whitehall,  
recently spotted the Pennsylvania personalized license plate WAJASAY  
in the South Hills. NUTTIN.





(Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata () post-gazette com or 412-263-1985.)

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