Do city workers/planners come here, Traffic Lights (Phoenix, Scottsdale: casinos, buses)

[edhhjrs]

I've been driving in central phoenix for 30 years and the timing of the traffic lights is just plain bad. Why must you go 10mph over the speed limit to catch a green light. If you drive normal (speed limit or a little less with traffic) you will hit a red light every time on every road even on different times and different days. So you're either speeding wasting gas, or sitting at a light wasting gas and time. And please don't say it's to control traffic flow, it will happen 7am on a sunday morning. So:

1) Who controls the lights

2) The main lights are 1 mile apart for most of phoenix, why does the light change yellow/red when you're a 1/4 mile or less away from it. Why not half way, real simple.

3) Why do small side roads (say 2 cars) make 30 cars on a main road have to wait in both directions

4) Name one main road you can drive normally and go for more than 2 miles without having to stop in phoenix. I know of a couple side roads where you can go 3 or 4 lights or moe without hitting a red if you go 5 to 10 mph over the speed limit.

Finally, 1.5 Billion for a light rail system is a joke. Could have upgraded to a smart traffic system and couple hundred electric/clean buses. Buses are way more flexible. The rail will be junked in 20 years. It should have been built to go to bars and casinos, better use. I'm going to go drive 1 mile and hit 3 red lights driving 5mph under the speed limit.

[ElleTea]

I sat at a light in Scottsdale last week for a good long while. The light stayed green for the same amount of time for a parking lot with no cars leaving it as it did for the traffic I was in (2 lanes of traffic backed up as far as the eye can see.) So, all at the intersection had to sit and wait for a green light for nobody, then allowed about 4 cars go from my lanes. Makes ZERO sense.

[DetroitN8V]

This drives me insane. The lights here are not timed at all and when you do get stuck at a red, they take a while to change. As messed up as metro Detroit was in many aspects, they had the timing of lights down. Without a lot of traffic, if you stayed within around 5 mph of the speed limit, you'd see nothing but green lights, as it should be.

[LBTRS]

I thought I was the only one that thought the lights here had no timing whatsoever. Glad to see I'm not alone. Seems you can't drive down a street here without having to stop at every single light.

There are some bad ones that go under the I10 over here on the west side. You sit at a red light forever and watch a green light 100 yards in front of you. As soon as your light turns green you go about 50 yards the one in front of you turns red and you have to sit at it forever.

[KurtAZ]

Pretty typical...I think our Traffic Engineers want you to stop rather than be able to conserve gas and brakes by improving traffic flow. I think they all failed their "Traffic Flow" finals and got government jobs.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

I thought I was the only one that thought the lights here had no timing whatsoever. Glad to see I'm not alone. Seems you can't drive down a street here without having to stop at every single light.

There are some bad ones that go under the I10 over here on the west side. You sit at a red light forever and watch a green light 100 yards in front of you. As soon as your light turns green you go about 50 yards the one front of you turns red and you have to sit at it forever.

The times when I can see this would be useful. It is the same thing around the 101 when they want to corral the amount of traffic going onto the freeway at one time. You sit on red "this" side of the overpass, then a green light takes you to another red on "that" side of the overpass, THEN you finally hit the onramp...and the meter lights. Annoying, yes, but that actually makes a little sense. It keeps people from blowing through the intersection before the ramp and charging onto the freeway where it is already clogged.

[Ponderosa]

There's a couple places where they have done a good job. One of my favorite drives is through downtown Phoenix. Starting at 19th Ave you see a sea of lights ahead of you. And they all turn green after the first one if you drive the SL.

[Ponderosa]

Originally Posted by LBTRS

I thought I was the only one that thought the lights here had no timing whatsoever. Glad to see I'm not alone. Seems you can't drive down a street here without having to stop at every single light.

There are some bad ones that go under the I10 over here on the west side. You sit at a red light forever and watch a green light 100 yards in front of you. As soon as your light turns green you go about 50 yards the one front of you turns red and you have to sit at it forever.

Goodyear is just horrible. The lights are all on traffic sensors that respond as cars approach, so it is just random reds. They have been doing some tinkering on Estrella to give priority to N-S traffic but eventually they have to let the people out at Lower Buckeye, I suppose. I heard they spent thousands on a study to synch lights north of Van Buren too. It appears they wasted their (our) money. At least most Goodyear lights are quick though. You don't have to sit too long. You can grow old and die waiting for lights in Avondale. And we have lagging lefts, which IMO, ought to be everywhere.

My least favorite light ever was Alameda at Rural in Tempe. Lord, you must wait five minutes for that one. Nowadays, I detest the one at MC85 and Cotton. It is 1 minute red for Cotton and it makes absolutely no difference if cars are coming the other way or not. 1 minute may not seem long but if you do it several times a day, it is truly maddening.

[KurtAZ]

Originally Posted by Ponderosa

There's a couple places where they have done a good job. One of my favorite drives is through downtown Phoenix. Starting at 19th Ave you see a sea of lights ahead of you. And they all turn green after the first one if you drive the SL.

Ray Road from the 101 West into Ahwautukee is the same...if you hit a green and do the SL (maybe 5 over) you can hit every light...but you have to time it correctly.

[grmi66]

Drive up and down Buckeye from Avondale to the airport visiting clients most of the day. The lights are not too bad at all. Worst part is how torn up Buckeye is from all of the heavy semi-truck traffic.