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If traffic lights were synchronized, drivers would seldom have a yellow or red light to run (“Red-light crackdown,” Aug. 6).
I can’t imagine why the most automated nation in the world can’t do this. I do not believe that anyone is seriously interested in traffic safety until all of our traffic signals are consistently and reliably synchronized.

Derrill Tarbutton, Thornton

READER COMMENTS

As an admitted impatient driver with over 20 years of professional driving, may I ask a few questions?

Since traffic patterns and speeds are not only dependent upon distance but terrain (going uphill will slow traffic while going downhill speeds it up) does the system time the lights for the general traffic pattern, rush hour or use a sensor system to read speeds and a computerized program to adjust lights? Which is more important north/south or east west? One will have to take dominance as the traffic on Colorado Boulevard, for example, impacts the traffic on both Monaco Boulevard and Evans Avenue. Do we adjust, taking into account the last question, for road construction, make no changes or turn off the synchronization for the section of road impacted? Is there a weather adjustment to allow for slippery conditions and slower speeds or do we keep the same light timing and hope the drivers slow down enough to make the slower speeds work? Finally, who will make these decisions and how much would it cost to develop, install and maintain such a system? And how do we pay for it?

The only time light synchronization works is when traffic volumes are low to moderate. Unfortunately, during rush hour volumes, somebody has to stop for the cross traffic lights. During off-peak hours, I have made every light (without speeding) southbound on Monaco from MLK to 14th (which is out of sync with the rest) then from there to 8th Ave (where I turned off - they get back in sync after one starts back up at 14th). During rush hour, it's impossible to do for a number of reasons, including the fact that many folks are distracted when the light turns and don't start up immediately, other folks have 'run the light' on the cross street - and it seems there are folks who have decided that during rush hour, the posted speed limit (even if only 30 MPH) is WAY too high.

momma y says she "is an admittedly impatient driver". Does that mean she is one of those inconsiderate jerks, who when the roads are snow-packed & icy & traffic is backed up on either thoroughfare, insists, despite clearly seeing that there is no way on earth to get through the intersection on pulling into the cross area anyway because after all her time is more important than the folks on the cross street? How about when she is on the way to a concert at what used to be Fiddler's Green (which starts while rush hour is still going on)- is she one of the inconsiderate jerks coming off the freeway who blocks traffic on Arapahoe or Orchard so that traffic - if lucky - manages to get 1 car thru when the light is green for them? If the police in either case could get to major intersections they could make city ticket quotas (yes, I know - there are no quotas) for the month in a day.

I want to see intersections that have 'left on arrow only' have it both directions. I have watched members of the "me first" generation who were already stopped behind the line decide that since the 3 cars in front of them (only 1 of which was in the intersection & had a right to go when the light changed) go thru after the light turned red, do the same - preventing the poor suckers who have 'left on green arrow only' from getting more than 1 car thru legally - if that.

momma y needs to understand that what she is asking for is technology that has yet to be developed on the programming side. Does she really think any community can afford a well programmed super computer to handle traffic lights when they can't or won't get a computer to handle more serious issues?

Metro area roads (both freeways & surface streets) were not built to handle rush hour loads - and as the area has grown & spread, can't always handle the load on a Saturday morning when folks are heading to the CU game. I want those "ticket" lights implemented during rush hour - and the folks that get caught repeatedly, should start getting points as well.

This subject matter has been addressed. The initial complainant was labeled a kook in general consensus.

This is such a silly idea, but might work if you were only person on the road or everybody was in precise sync. Maybe we should all sit in the back seat and let the robot drive.

Silly? In San Francisco, 19th Avenue from Daly City to the Golden Gate Bridge is sufficiently synchronized that you can drive across the city and hit only a couple of red lights. Herndon and Shaw avenues in Fresno, Calif., the two major thoroughfares in the north end of the city, are synchronized sufficiently to get from Highway 99 to the town of Clovis with few stops. Even at rush hour.

This isn't to say you never hit a red light when the lights are synchronized. But surely a cosmopolitan, enlightened and up-to-date city like Denver can do better than an overgrown cowburg like Fresno.

I've been to San Francisco, and maybe it has bad days, but the traffic flow is certainly not what I'd call good. But it's an old city, built on a hill complete with cable cars and winding roads, and I still enjoy it.

Studies have shown that people drive faster during the yellow light phase, so I suggest that we just eliminate the green light phase altogether and just have the yellow and red. This would alleviate all of the wishy washy dawdling these Libberals like to wallow in.

All I ask is that the green light for the little road coming out of Taco bell isn't timed for 40 seconds while the rest of us on the intersecting six-lane highway fall asleep waiting for it to change. Did Taco Bell pay for this extravagance? If I agree to buy more chalupas, will Taco Bell please shrink this phase down to about five or six seconds? I'll even ask for hot sauce, I promise.

Sorry I was unclear in my post. I am impatient because I don't like waiting behind badly timed lights. That said, I don't run lights and I have a habit of trying to be as courteous as possible. And I also try to maintain a steady, reasonable pace. Sometimes I would like to take a mallet to the lights.

My questions were intended to illustrate that it is impossible to satisfy everyone and impractical to try.

There used to be a number of lights that became flashing red/yellow from midnight until six in the morning.

Sorry my sarcasm was mislabeled.

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