The Observation Deck

Hi,
Just read this article, 6 Cities That Were Caught Shortening Yellow Light Times For Profit.

Well, thank goodness, no one in NE Ohio is doing this. Can you image?

But another point of the article is that by lengthening the time of the yellow light, red-light violations drop dramatically. I believe this could also reduce accidents. Lives could be saved. I know City Council wants to save lives. So, please consider enacting legislation to extend the time of yellow lights in Lakewood. I'm sure a local TV news station would cover it. Any one running for office or reelection?

Interesting post. I tried googleing the effect on yellow light time and safety and just came up with page after page about the rigging of yellow light times to support red light cameras.

While I am no expert on traffic safety I would think if anything is going to be changed as far as the timing goes it should be the time at which both lights are red. Far too many time have i see people roll up to red lights at 30mph, notice that the opposing light is yellow and never get on the brake as their light turns green at the nic of time. Does that make sense? I advocate holding people at red in both directions for a extra few seconds. For what it's worth.

I think that the current and continuing traffic control improvements which were begun in past administrations are a good safety measure. Specifically, they offer predictability for the driver. The new pedestrian countdown lights tell a driver exactly where in the 5 second yellow light interval is. So, instead of "flooring" the gas to get through the yellow with an unknown amount of time remaining in the interval, a more reasoned decision can be made by a driver.

I have to say that in my 30 plus years of involvement in Lakewood politics and government I have never heard of any proposal by an elected official or public safety official to "rig" or use trickery in the traffic control systems.

As a point of personal pride, I would point out that in my campaign in 1975 one of my issues was upgrading to computerized traffic lights for greater efficiency and safety.

Like Yogi says --- "You could look it up." (If the new Sun Herald has an institutional memory, that is).

Hi,
Stan, you said,

I have to say that in my 30 plus years of involvement in Lakewood politics and government I have never heard of any proposal by an elected official or public safety official to "rig" or use trickery in the traffic control systems.

I wish they were all so clean on attempted eminent domain abuse. They did employ "rigging" and "trickery" upon Lakewood in declaring Scenic Park blighted. To date, not one has apologized or admitted they were wrong and those of us that fought their efforts have saved them from a fiscal disaster.

Don--- Agreed, but not apropos to this post. Stan

Stan Austin wrote:As a point of personal pride, I would point out that in my campaign in 1975 one of my issues was upgrading to computerized traffic lights for greater efficiency and safety.

They had computers in 1975? Cars? Electricity? What were the lights before the upgrade, a person holding a piece of driftwood with red berries smeared on it?

Corey

Hi,
Your probably right. Stan. Your comment was probably meant only as a statement of fact. But I didn't want deck hands to think all our elected officials actions were devoid of "rigging" and "trickery". You were merely speaking in the one specific area of traffic control systems, correct.

In which case, I hope they consider extending the yellow light and maybe a little time of them both red. Do you know Stan, if they currently have a period of red both ways?

Don---the timing of red and green is specific for each intersection. The preference is in favor of the maximum traffic flow in a prevailing direction - East/West or North/South while still allowing adequate time for a pedestrian to cross.
Stan

Stan--- Agreed, but not apropos to this post. Don


I'm talking about lengthening the time of the yellow light. And additionally, perhaps having both lights red for 3-5 sec. Both can be done in the confines of what you said.

There are quite a few side street intersections on Madison and other main streets where the lights change for no reason whatsoever. No cars, no pedestrians, no bicycles or anything else waiting...nothing...and the light changes. Cars stopped for nothing then accelerating...wasting gas. Madison/Lewis and Bunts/Athens are a couple of the worst ones. I'd like to see this changed.

Well since we are on the subject of lights. I have been concerned about the light at the Hilliard/Madison intersection. The crosswalk is not long enough for anyone other than a healthy person to make it safely across. The scary thing is there is no delay between the light turning red and the crosswalk turning green. Often times kids start to walk while cars are still legally going through the intersection. This is a major intersection because of Harding. I believe in the past few years there have been a few hits and according to my boys several near misses, I've seen a few near misses myself. I think that a study of that intersection is in order before someone gets seriously hurt.

Danielle Masters wrote:Well since we are on the subject of lights. I have been concerned about the light at the Hilliard/Madison intersection. The crosswalk is not long enough for anyone other than a healthy person to make it safely across. The scary thing is there is no delay between the light turning red and the crosswalk turning green. Often times kids start to walk while cars are still legally going through the intersection. This is a major intersection because of Harding. I believe in the past few years there have been a few hits and according to my boys several near misses, I've seen a few near misses myself. I think that a study of that intersection is in order before someone gets seriously hurt.

Danielle-
I agree totally with you on this intersection. Over the past two years I have brought this intersection up with several people and the response is always, 'They are middle school kids, they are big enough to cross themselves.' I couldn't disagree more with this statement.
Early this summer I was nearly hit by a car while crossing from the corner of Madison/Carable(infront of Goddess Blessed) to the Hilliard/Madison corner.
Very frightening.
The driver of the car screamed at me that it was my fault. I was crossing on the timed WALK(with the numbers that count down the time one has to cross).
The problem is, the cars heading EAST from Hilliard taking that slight turn onto Madison have no idea that when they have the green light to go those crossing Madison to Hilliard have WALK at the same time.
My son and his friend also had a very close call at the same intersection. Luckly they saw the car, stopping suddenly, but the two collided bikes and did some damage to both bikes. Luckly neither boy was seriously injured.
I did speak with Ed Favre last week and he assured me he would look into this intersection and see what could be done to make it safer for the MANY pedestrians who cross there everyday.

Stephanie, what bugs me is it is not just middle school kids crossing there. The middle school kids at least can run, which they have to do in order to make it across, but the elderly and the disabled who need a little more time have no chance of making it across the street before the light changes. I'll go ahead and twist Mr. Favre's ear on this intersection too. I'm glad I am not the only one who is concerned.