The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to AskTheMayor@thelakewoodscoop.com.
Question:
Dear Mr. Mayor,
An all too common occurrence is 2 cars colliding at the intersection of New Hampshire and Cedarbridge. I was thinking that a good idea may be, to make a small pause between the red light and green light. Just for 2 or 3 seconds that all directions are red. This way, the spillover traffic in the left turning Lane will have time to make the left turn without trying to go quickly before the next car comes. Unfortunately many times, that quick turn ends up with an accident… Maybe this will help.. Thanks for all your great help in this town!
Response from Mayor Coles:
Good morning,
Thanks for the idea. Our traffic engineers are working with the county to see if something like this can be implemented.
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I hear the idea but just to play the other side, isn’t this just continuing a line of bad behavior of rushing to make a turn that shouldn’t be made. If we start implementing this too much in other places then won’t the problem get worse when people realize they have an extra few seconds after a light turns red?
This would help those 1 or 2 cars who are already in the intersection but had to wait for the oncoming traffic to stop before they can go and need a few seconds to make the turn before opposite traffic starts going.
If you are not in the intersection when the light turns red you are not allowed to make that turn. If someone decides to take advantage of the light being red all 4 ways for a few extra seconds, that would be illegal and no different than anyone running a red light anytime.
We need computerized lights that analyze traffic from each direction in real time. All too often one direction takes 3 light cycles to clear the light while the other direction is clear.
How about, go on green, stop on red and don’t enter the intersection until it’s clear to turn.
@cedarbridge if you wait till it’s clear you’ll never get anywhere in this town