Opinion Talk

By The Love Hack

July 31, 2008 8:07 AM | Link to this

Lip synching excuses for traffic violations is difficult too. Turning a red back into a yellow requires double talking to a cop. It’s best to record the best of your rehearsed excuses, and lip synch as it plays on your car stereo.

An approach to traffic signal synchronization is to use the formulas involved in crossword puzzles, where one errant letter ruins the whole puzzle. The only words needed are green and groan, but the crossword puzzle approach only works if you write them in formal pig latin. Then, simply connect all the words so that they let everyone go at once like a demolition derby ballet. That way, at the end of rush hour, drivers in atlanta will be left with only their steering wheels and a rear bumper. Then we can walk and save gas, and capture bin laden and everything.

Another problem with synch lights is with unsynchronized nerds who dont go when it’s green, but sit there and pick their butts. One unsynchronized nerd can ruin an entire morning’s synch.

By Jay

July 31, 2008 8:12 AM | Link to this

The worst thing is going down Roswell Road between Marietta and Roswell at 5:30 am and being stopped by a light where the only cross street is an apartment complex, and NOBODY is at the light!

These low volume intersections should only stop traffic if somone is pulling up to the intersection.

By Jay

July 31, 2008 8:15 AM | Link to this

One of the longest red lights… Briarcliff @ Clairmont (at least 4 minutes)

By TomG

July 31, 2008 8:17 AM | Link to this

What bothers me more then anything is traffic signals that ALWAYS activates the left turn sequence when no car is present. Cities and counties should be forced to fix all broken detectors. The longest red lights are those on intersections that cross GA 141 & PIB

By AsleepAtThe4MinuteLight

July 31, 2008 8:35 AM | Link to this

No amount of synchronizing, lane additions, HOV lanes, traffic circles, etc. can ever overcome the staggering number of bad/rude/ignorant “drivers” in metro Atlanta. If the current laws were enforced and “drivers” were considerate, traffic would move along better. Unfortunately, the cell talkers, 50mph-in-the-left-laners, Dale Jr-wannebes, the unlicensed/unskilled, and those who leave 10 car lengths in front of them so we’re stretched out to Macon on one side and Greenville on the other, will forever conspire to keep us in gridlock, with only 4 or 5 able to get through a green light cycle.

By Duluth

July 31, 2008 8:49 AM | Link to this

Peachtree Industrial Blvd through Duluth is horrible. Coming from Suwanee, the traffic backs up at GA120, as the light allowing on coming traffic to turn left holds forever. You get through that light, then you get stopped at River Green Parkway’s light, and the light at Dunkin Donuts, and them the one at Pleasanthill. Bam, bam, bam, & Bam. Once through Pleasanthill, you get stopped AGAIN at Howell Mill. If you are unlucky, you get behind a slacker who doesn’t know where the accelerator pedal is, and very slowly move up the hill.

By Victor

July 31, 2008 9:31 AM | Link to this

Now that they have put traffic lights on every single block in Midtown, it would be nice if they synched them up. We just drive from red light to red light and all of the intersections get gridlocked because people pull into them to wait for the light at the next block to change. This causes cross street traffic to back up because it cannot proceed because the intersection is blocked. It’s like driving in Bombay. Not exactly the international city I want Atlanta to become!

By DirtyHippy

July 31, 2008 10:04 AM | Link to this

Dale Jr wannabees…nice. If we had more of those there wouldn’t be any traffic!

By Tucker

July 31, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this

The worst light intersections to me are in front of Northlake Mall. People turning onto LaVista from Briarclife seem to play a game of how many cars can we fit into the middle of the intersections. Granted the light are not in sync, but it would help if people would move into the intersection when the light n front of the Wachovias changed to green. Sometimes people have to wait atleast 2 lights before they can go straight. Ths is not a new problem, it was happening before all of the changes were made.

By Rick

July 31, 2008 10:08 AM | Link to this

None of you will believe this, but I swear it is true: I once got every light on Pleasant Hill, between I85 and Buford Hwy, GREEN!. It was amazing, I got out of the car and fell to my knees.

By Chaz

July 31, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this

You can’t complain about Atlanta’s poor air quality and ignore the thousands of cars idling at intersections because of some arbitrarily-timed stoplight. Traffic sensors are not complicated and when the traffic stops coming down the cross street, the main artery needs to be set loose. Common sense. Any close series of traffic lights, like at a highway overpass, need to be synced, or else you get gridlock immediately. Common sense.

Meanwhile, the Campbell administration spent millions on computers and gear to sync the lights, but couldn’t find a ‘minority contractor’ (ie, one that would feed him kickbacks) to implement them. Not common sense, but standard operating procedure around here.

By Eric

July 31, 2008 10:57 AM | Link to this

Going south on Juniper at North Ave. and Ponce de Leon in morning rush hour - ridiculously long red lights! Also, you can count on stopping northbound on Piedmont at Roxboro regardless of whether anyone crosses. Removing No Turn on Red could also keep traffic flowing. And yes, left turn arrows when no one turns is agonizing. It takes too long to go anywhere in this city. Sick of it all!!

By Eric

July 31, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this

Not only rude drivers (Asleep At): No amount of synchronizing, lane additions, HOV lanes, traffic circles, etc. can ever overcome the … staggering number of building permits, such as the new gigantic apartment/condo complexes along Cheshire Bridge and Lindbergh when those roads have not been widened since they were built circa 1940s. There is no city planning, only growth without limits - a simply horrible policy!!

By mark

July 31, 2008 12:15 PM | Link to this

Synching lights sounds great…But where would the idiot untrained renta-cops fit in with their wonderously clueless halt everything “traffic assistance” at Collier and Peachtree so one fatso can make a left turn to enter/leave Chick-Filet at the peak hours of traffic?

By songbird

July 31, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this

North Avenue travelling East every evening is gridlocked from Coca-Cola at Lucky Street for about two miles until you get past Piedmont because of unsychronized lights.

This City/State will never change its backwards ways due to poor leadership at all levels of government.

By SN

July 31, 2008 2:34 PM | Link to this

Ashford Dunwoody Road btwn 285 Per Ctr East. 1 minute to go a mile one day and 8-10 to go that same mile then next.

Memorial Drive & 285 interchange. Ever since the construction project stared its a mess now.

By Red

July 31, 2008 2:41 PM | Link to this

I remember during the last election cycle, Governor Sonny said, if reelected, he would direct the legions of pot smokers over at the DOT to do just this; synchonize the traffic lights. Still waiting…

By MANGLER

July 31, 2008 3:03 PM | Link to this

Less is more, especially with red lights. The fewer the lights, the fewer the chances of gridlock occurring.

Continual right turn lanes with the yield signs are nice, assuming there is an appropriate acceleration lane provided past the merge (like a highway but at a red light).

Wherever possible, side access roads should be (or should have been) built to funnel multiple smaller intersections, like those coming from neighborhoods or shopping centers, into one red light or one intersection.

Overpasses and highway interchange-like treatment should be given to highly congested areas (Pleasant Hill and Buford Highway comes to mind). This eliminates a red light for half the traffic at the intersection.

Bypasses, while expensive, would seriously help areas of severe congestion, like crossing over a highway interchange. This would mean dedicated lanes (and there would only need to be one each way) that skirt around, over, under, or parallel to the main interchange for all traffic that isn’t getting on or off of the highway, but just trying to get across it. Which leads into also having some more roads that cross over a highway but don’t access it. This way, people that aren’t interested in the highway don’t have to deal with it.

Targeting specific troublesome intersections that cause traffic to back up into other places. You could have gridlock in certain areas, but if you eliminated one key bottleneck, the rest flows smoothly.

But the main way to help with congestion is for drivers to be “nice” to each other and let others merge in, merge out, and backing off from tailgating as much. But I realize finding funding for major projects is much more likely to happen than that.

By db

July 31, 2008 3:44 PM | Link to this

Juniper southbound is beautiful, if you go to work early enough. Also, Capital-Piedmont to Monroe is great after hours. You should get a good majority of the lights. This leads me to believe that the lights were once timed, for traffic patterns in 1950!

If Atlanta “wants” to become an international city, it first has to be a national city. Petty things such as timed stoplights, better signage, addresses on buildings etc. etc. would just seem natural. It would cut down on your “idiot drivers”. Which just became idiots because they can’t see signs, causing them to veer at the last second in front of you, causing you to stop and miss the next light. D*mn!

By Michael

July 31, 2008 4:18 PM | Link to this

Hosea Williams @ Mayson……I think the city has been facilitating the drug dealers and their customers in Edgewood/Kirkwood for far too long. The light at that location is set to change green as soon as a car on Mayson hits the sensor…..giving the druggies an easy exit after dealing!

By traffic stopped cold

July 31, 2008 4:29 PM | Link to this

Hey rick, did you get out of your car and fall to your knees cause you were pulled over by a gay cop?

bwa