Monday, December 29, 2008

Green light go...

It's nice to see that the City is getting back on track and working on issues that the taxpayers see as much needed improvements. Someone told me that if you travelled from Montague to the bridge you would have to stop at over 20 traffic lights but once you got off PEI you could drive all the way to Toronto without coming across another one. Hopefully this study might see a few less lights as opposed to looking to install more...
Capital takes stock of gaps in traffic lights
DAVE STEWART
The Guardian
The chair of public works in Charlottetown has begun the process of making traffic flow through the city much easier. Coun. Terry Bernard said a city resolution calls for the city to issue a request for proposals, the purpose being to hire an engineering firm that will look at every single traffic light in the city. “We’re getting an engineering consultant to look at all our signalized intersections. We want to go through the data of all that we have,’’ Bernard said. The public works chair said the goal is fourfold — synchronize all traffic lights, see that traffic lights have the ability to flash red and amber during the early morning hours, update the technology so that vehicles aren’t sitting at a red light when there’s no traffic coming in the other direction and to give the fire department the ability to activate the green light when they are heading to emergencies. Bernard said the only intersection in Charlottetown that is tied into the fire department is at Kent and Queen streets. When a fire call comes in and the trucks are deployed they are guaranteed to get the green light at that intersection. “They would have the ability to flip a switch and have the lights changed so when they reach that intersection it’s green and the other sides are red.’’ As for the traffic lights themselves, Bernard said they vary. Some use the new technology while others need to be updated. “This is why we want an inventory of what is actually at each intersection. Let’s go through every intersection; tell us what’s there and then we know what we need to do and what we want to do.’’ One of the more glaring problems, Bernard cited as an example, is at the intersection of University Avenue and Allen Street and the Sobeys lights on Allen Street. “Why is it that the Sobeys light and the University and Allen (lights) don’t work (together)? Well, University Avenue doesn’t have the timer, apparently.’’ The city is expecting federal money will help do the work when the consultant’s report comes back. That should happen in a few weeks.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I for one rest easier knowing Councillor 'Bubbles' Bernard is heading up improved traffic flow through the City.

This is the same Councillor who announced the tripling of commercial water rates without any warning to the business community only a short four years ago...

If I had business interests near any traffic lights, I would keep 'Bubbles' record in mind.

Toodledo.

Anonymous said...

You know I can believe that. If I leave the cottage I don't recall any traffic lights until I get to St. Stephen/Calais, except for a couple of RR x-ing lights on the TCH. I think if they are actually able to properly sync the lights in Ch'Town that would be a big help.

Andrew said...

If Charlottetown is seriously considering updating its signalized traffic lights then I really hope they create a central system which can control the lights. Giving traffic controllers the ability to manually control which lights are green and which are not would allow the city to clear out massive lineups during seasonal rushes. On December 23rd my drive north on North River Road took well over 30 minutes because our current system was only opening up the green light for around 60 seconds a cycle.

I have also heard of mid-way sensors that can resolve long traffic delays by prioritizing the path which has the highest volume of traffic.