Downtown Traffic Signals

[ToolMan]

TRAFFIC SIGNAL CHANGES!

Beginning Saturday, November 17, downtown's traffic signals will switch from simultaneous green to progressive green (domino effect rather than all at once).

The goal is to reduce stops which should reduce travel times, emissions and fuel consumption.

City engineers will be watching traffic closely to evalute the new plan and make adjustments as necessary.

[dbigtex56]

Wow. We're finally getting back to where we were 20+ years ago.

Lights used to be timed so that if one travelled at exactly 24 mph on north-south downtown streets, he could hit every light green.

[Jax]

Why did they change it?

I've often wondered why they all turn red at the same time.

[Vertigo58]

Wow. We're finally getting back to where we were 20+ years ago.

Lights used to be timed so that if one travelled at exactly 24 mph on north-south downtown streets, he could hit every light green.

Absolutely true.

Although with the rail there now, its a whole new enchilada.

[MidtownCoog]

I rememer the 24mph. Although I thought it was 19mph. This was very handy buzzing out of Power Tools at 3:00am.

What do y'all think about the timers/clock things on some of the lights?

They are already out of whack. Some have extended timing from 0 to yellow to red. Some go from 1 to red with no yellow.

Hopefully this will fix that.

[ToolMan]

Why did they change it?

I've often wondered why they all turn red at the same time.

They 1st did this because of all the construction that was going on, and because of the train. Along the East / West streets that cross Main Street affects the train. Right now the train has signal priority, meaning that the cross streets will serve the train as soon as they can

[Jax]

Although with the rail there now, its a whole new enchilada.

I thought we were talking about streets like San Jacinto and Fannin that [mostly] don't intersect with the train.

[desirous]

Smith/Louisiana and Fannin/San Jacinto are the streets that need it. There's not as much east-west travel downtown.

[marmer]

I remember pretty well that it used to be both around 1985-1990 or so. It would do about six to eight simultaneous greens during rush hour (not sure about the morning, very sure about 5 PM) and then change to sequenced 24-mph greens during the day and later evening. I remember Bell Street, near First Methodist Church, was out of sequence and very annoying. My friends and I used to speculate if multiples of 24 mph would also work...

[RedScare]

Actually, they retimed everything as part of Mayor White's traffic signal timing initiative. Apparently, the belief was that having them all change at once improved mobility. Whether the problems in keeping them in sync or studies showing it did not improve mobility is the reason for switching back, I do not know.

[lilyheights]

Whatever the reason, I'm thrilled! I can finally drive properly downtown again -- watching the third light in the sequence, just like my mom taught me.

I understood from a traffic engineer that the traffic controllers were too old to cascade and work with the train traffic light requirements. Perhaps they've replaced the controllers finally?

[Subdude]

So wouldn't it work the other way as well? If you hit a red light, wouldn't you continue to hit them all the way through downtown? Now that would be annoying.

[musicman]

So wouldn't it work the other way as well? If you hit a red light, wouldn't you continue to hit them all the way through downtown? Now that would be annoying.

if you hit them all the way through, then you wouldn't be stopping on red.

[ricco67]

Damn.

That means I can no longer turn on a yellow and catch the next green.

That's going to suck for awhile.

Ohwell.

[ssullivan]

Actually, they retimed everything as part of Mayor White's traffic signal timing initiative. Apparently, the belief was that having them all change at once improved mobility. Whether the problems in keeping them in sync or studies showing it did not improve mobility is the reason for switching back, I do not know.

Yes, but everything changing at once was there a few years before Bill White was elected mayor. I remember when Louisiana was first rebuilt (I think it was the first street in the downtown streets project completed) around 2000-2001 and all of the lights were synchronized to change at the same time. This was before MetroRail too.

[editor]

Toward the end of the Brown administration there was a lot of talk about adjusting the traffic lights this way. Too bad it took all these years for it to happen.

[musicman]

Toward the end of the Brown administration there was a lot of talk about adjusting the traffic lights this way. Too bad it took all these years for it to happen.

the brown admin ensured that they weren't sync'd so that they could get some type of transportation initiative passed. what is interesting is that i was just downtown and there is no rhyme nor reason as to light cycling. 2 were red 3 were green 3 were red. definitely something has changed in the last week.

[MidtownCoog]

So if you were downtown yesterday you noticed the entire grid was out of sync. Two blocks green then red N/S and E/W.

Hopefully they have it fixed today. I'll find out in about an hour.

[cottonmather0]

Damn.

That means I can no longer turn on a yellow and catch the next green.

That's going to suck for awhile.

Ohwell.

Tell me about it. The past two mornings have been TERRIBLE getting stuck at every single red light with no rhyme or reason. Until this week, my route to work and my route from work were pretty simple - keep going in one direction and then turn when you get to a yellow light, keep going in the new direction similarly and turn again on the yellow (or with the counting down walk signals, which are AWESOME), and so on and minimize the numbers of red lights and time spent waiting at them. Now it's all stop and go from I-10 to my office and back again. You might get a green light when you turn and you might not. Then when it does turn green, you get to go ONE BLOCK and stop again. UGGGH.

I don't get it. What was wrong with the old system? Synchronizing the lights to stay green for your whole trip down a particular street is great if you always stay on that one street, but who does that? Most people aren't driving through downtown, they are driving to a destination in downtown and have to turn at some point. What a mess this is.

Maybe Coog is right that something was out of sync because the whole thing felt like one big cluster____.

[hokieone]

yeah this "amazing" new change is actually awful. i take capitol in through downtown every day and i hit at a lot more red lights than i used to, sometimes i would only get to go one block and the next one was red. it used to be 3 cycles tops to get to the parking garage, this morning that at least doubled. i agree that the "all greens at once" system probably could have used some tweaking, but this is awful. hopefully they get it fixed soon.

[MidtownCoog]

They fixed it. I just drove down Fannin from 1-10 all the way to HP and turned right. Could have kept going. This will take some readjusting to.

[GovernorAggie]

I drove it this morning too. Pease from Dowling into downtown with a little *pausing*, but no stopping. It's GREAT!

[MidtownCoog]

City still working out kinks in stoplight sequencing - Houston's new stoplight sequencing plan wasn't quite ready for peak time.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5317864.html

Remeber, you read about the problems first on HAIF. We scooped Chron.com

[MovingSoon]

Can anyone expalining how timing could work? It the light switching is timed in ne direction it would not work in the opposite - right? Is it for one-way streets only?

[T 2 THA C]

I do not know how the timing works but going to the Rockets game down La branch and leaving down Louisiana it was awesome I did not have to stop on those streets.

[memebag]

Can anyone expalining how timing could work? It the light switching is timed in ne direction it would not work in the opposite - right? Is it for one-way streets only?

It's a wave. On two way streets, the wave lets cars flow in one direction without interruption. Houston has one way streets downtown.

[musicman]

we were downtown earlier today and neither the east/west nor north/south streets were sync'd up. maybe during the week it is working better but sunday's sure suck.

[CDeb]

Can anyone expalining how timing could work? It the light switching is timed in ne direction it would not work in the opposite - right? Is it for one-way streets only?

If the streets are on a consistent grid pattern (same distance between the cross streets along the arterial), it can be done. It can even ben done with irregular spacing, but the "through band" (the length of green time seen at every light when traveling down the arterial) will be narrower.

[MidtownCoog]

What a mess this has become. 26-November and they still are trying to get it right.

I think Travis, Fannin, Smith and Milam may be in sync. But the rest of downtown is all out of whack.

In the parts that do work its like driving in a parade or a block of cars. That's just asking for a wreck. I prefer not to have a "wingman" as I drive downtown.

[Mr. Chenevert]

What a mess this has become. 26-November and they still are trying to get it right.

I think Travis, Fannin, Smith and Milam may be in sync. But the rest of downtown is all out of whack.

In the parts that do work its like driving in a parade or a block of cars. That's just asking for a wreck. I prefer not to have a "wingman" as I drive downtown.

Over the weekend, it was wonderful. I stuck to mostly Fannin and San Jac, but noticed that even Webster was synced up.