;

I reported this issue here over two years ago (161458). You can see what type of action it got. I also sent a letter to the previous administration on it, was told they would look into it, but no sign that anything was ever done. Also, there was a third posting here on this (762469) that was closed, for some reason (certainly not because it was fixed). So that's where this one stands.

I will send the letter again, this time to the new administration; we'll see if they are really interested in making changes to business as usual around here. I recommend that you and your friends do the same. It IS possible to get City Hall to do things, if people take the time to let them know.

Thanks,

I agree with Bob. Upon reflection I recall using that bank a few times and when I went to pull out of the lot the light DID turn green for me a few seconds after I pulled up to it. That could mean the signal DOES have a sensor to tell when someone needs to exit the bank but for some reason the light turns red for main street on it's own every couple minutes for no reason.

All they need to do it set it so it only gives the bank exit a green when someone is waiting for 10 seconds so a few cars can exit. There is no other reason that light should ever stop Main Street traffic.

Sensors cost money. Installation of a sensor probably costs a small fortune. Likely to involve an engineering study, multiple workmen, heavy equipment, 2 or 3 cops getting overtime pay to "direct" traffic while chatting on their cellphones, etc., etc.
Just programming the light to change every X number of minutes is probably very inexpensive.

That light is also useful for pedestrians and I use the crosswalk button there.

It should have had a sensor installed in it when the light was put in... hard to imagine a situation at that corner where there would ever have been enough traffic to warrant an automatic light for the cross traffic (ie, bank)... if not, shame on them.

As for pedestrians, yes, it is needed, but I find it hard to believe that there is not another intersection that has a) a sensor for cross traffic, and b) an option for pedestrians.

I have seen times where 10 cars have been stuck at this light, waiting for... that 1 car from the bank that took the right turn and left the scene. since it seems too much to ask for them to change it to trigger (or, even maybe see if it has a sensor that's broken?), perhaps the left-turning bank traffic could be rerouted out to the back entrance of the bank?

BTW, I timed it once... the "main" street had the light for 20 seconds in one direction, and 15 in the other... the bank had the light for 20 seconds. I think the previous administration's "solution" was to change the bank to 10 seconds.

No, stopping Main Street at that intersection every 2 minutes or so so MAYBE a car can exit a bank once in a while and MAYBE someone may want to cross is not a good enough reason for the current situation.

The light seems to have a sensor as it turns the light red when someone wants to exit the bank. The problem is it continues to go red every few minutes even when no one is waiting. Seems like an adjustment.

I have watched the light from Target and it goes green for the bank, whether any cars have tried to leave the bank or not. If there *is* a sensor, it is broken because it thinks there is always a car trying to leave the bank.

IT IS A LOVELY STOP. LOOK AT THE UNIQUE VIEW OF THE ARMPIT OF CONNECTICUT AT THE VERY LIGHT you are referring too. WHERE ELSE COULD ONE ABSORB THE INBALANCE OF INDUSTRILIZED BLIGHT, MASS Section entitlement living, ABANDONED BUILDINGS, GOODWILL TYPE STORE FRONTS AND CHURCHES INSTEAD OF BASIC ECONOMICS IN A SO-CALLED BUSINESS DISTRICT. OH well....the land that time forgot has imploded but it must be realized at the top for the need of a State take over.

Born-Charger-Black and Blue.....If you want a better town, you will have to move to either Texas or China. That is where our jobs went thanks to our fascist politicians.

There is NO need for any sensor on any lights in downtown because there is not enought traffic in this town to worry about. Ansonia DOES NOT have a traffic comission thus I was told that the Police are in charge of the traffic flow. There is no department for traffic in the towns list of departments.

I do want to thank everyone who gave their opinions here, and that shows that people DO care about where they live. To bad many politicians don't!

I suggest that one call their ward alder-person with a complaint. The police will just make jokes about your call, while they eat donuts, if you call them

Bob, here is the problem. It's 2014... the valley has changed greatly. There are TONS of people living in Ansonia that did not grow up here. When I say "Who is your alderman?" they have NO IDEA. In fact, they have no idea what a "ward" is. I am from another part of the state originally and none of the cities in that area have wards and few have alderman.

Is there a map anywhere online people can look at to tell what "ward" they house happens to be sitting in, who to call and a link to that person's e-mail since at this time all alderman should be available via e-mail.

The ward/alderman system is just not familiar to many... so they come here. Maybe if you grew up in Ansonia and know the system better but most don't.

If possible, the light should be adjusted to run on-demand for an entering vehicle or ped cycle only.
There doesn't seem to be a need for the original programming which was for a 2-way Tremont Street.
Pedestrians do, however, need a phase at this intersection. Remember, pedestrians have the right-of-way before vehicles on all roads. That is the law. Because of this, the sight-line distance from the south is not sufficient to completely eliminate the signal, which does prevent speeding cars from maintaining a high rate of speed, particularly if they catch the preceding signal in green phase. Ped cycles shut down all directions for a 20 second period to allow the elderly and disabled sufficient time to cross. It appears that there is also a sensor for the bank exit, again because there are insufficient sightlines to allow traffic to enter RT115 in an unsignalized condition. 10-15 seconds may be enough for this phase but this older signal may not accommodate varied phase lengths. If it is possible they should probably eliminate the timed cycle and just use the pedestrian or vehicle-activated phases (this may not be possible because of its age).
Total replacement of the signal and timing devices could cost as much as $200,000 for signal equipment with ped phases. This signal equipment is city-owned.

By the way, does anyone else see the description of downtown Beirut that the poster-with-a-thousand-aliases, today "Born-Charger-Black and Blue", apparently sees in the photo?? I think he's hallucinating again.

Planner,

I think you may have hit the nail on the head in your response.

"There doesn't seem to be a need for the original programming which was for a 2-way Tremont Street."

That would explain why the signals DOES seem to have a sensor to give right of way to those who want to exit the bank but continues to go red on it's own all day and night stopping Main for nothing.

If it indeed has a sensor for the bank and INCORRECTLY is still programmed for 2-way traffic on Tremont that would explain everything. Of course, if Tremont was still two way there the signal would make sense. However, it seems Tremont was made one-way and the signal was not reprogrammed so it's turning red to let people enter Main from Tremont, which no longer occurs.

Now how do we get if fixed? Anyone had a toolbox and ladder? LOL

It is hard to believe that today's people cannot find the web site for the city of Ansonia, and find out who their ALDER-PERSON is. It took me about 5 seconds to find that out, thus I believe that this LIGHT is in the first ward, and it is covered by 2 alder-persons, complete with phone numbers. I am tired of people complaining but then they refuse to do 5 seconds of work. It must be the educational system. While it is rather enjoyable to read complaints, one phone call can get you some information on who is in charge of the cities traffic lights. I could have even given the alder-persons phone numbers here, but I think people can figure out how to get them.

"Total replacement of the signal and timing devices could cost as much as $200,000 for signal equipment with ped phases. This signal equipment is city-owned."

I bet O'Brien Tech could do it for under $10000 - lol. No wonder our taxes are sky-high.

Hey Bob Guy,

It's 2014. The reason things don't get accomplished in small cities and towns is because of the "old fashioned way" of doing business. ONE resident picks up the phone, they call City hall or in this antiquated case, their AlderPERSON and mention it to them. The phone gets put down and nothing is EVER going to happen unless MANY calls are received on the same topic.

In addition, no one else in town knows someone has filed a complaint. The City and Alderperson are not held accountable for the complaint because the are busy and one call does not mean it's a problem.

On the web (such as this site) we can all see what problems exist, we can discuss them, post what we spot and the city can easily see what is troubling residents. Some will be nonsense, many will indeed require review.

While I am sure the Cities don't want to post response here I have seen several things reported fixed so clearly it's being read by those who can take action.

Unless Derby, Ansonia and Seymour (among others) want to create public comment areas on their web sites that can be read by others and become a forum for community conversation, this site will continue to be that venue. The solution is easy:

1. Monitor this site as a city/town to see what is troubling residents and discuss top issues at meetings for action.

2. Create another online vehicle for residents to use.

Most people work full time jobs. In fact, both in a household do. To take time off from work at a break to call an Anderperson is something most can't find time to do so problems remain unreported.

Back to the topic of this thread, the signal does not need replacing. It clearly is just not re-programmed for one way traffic on Tremont and should be re-set to only turn red for those who wish to exit the bank or pedestrians who wish to cross.

The question now is how soon can it be reprogrammed?

Michael Raymond I agree that clickfix is a good way to monitor complaints from the masses, however, we still have a government that is elected by the town's people and they are represented by alder-persons, like it or not. It is up to them, by voting, to establish this venue as part of the city structure. The cities public works department may have 50 projects that are a lot more important than a traffic light that may inconvience a few. A city would have to allocate a job to persons to monitor this site and also prioritise the work and do a study to see if fixing a problem is feasible and funding is available. What you want is a system of faceless and nameless social media to determine what has to be done in a town.

I will add that the light cycling as it does serves a traffic calming purpose as well. Perhaps best to leave as is.

It needs work, no matter what. It shouldn't be removed, since it is a crosswalk. But it annoys me waiting at the light for no cross-traffic - especially since a half-block away at Target, it takes up to 60 seconds to enter the main road THERE. No consistency at all. Not sure who did these lights, but they didn't do a very good job...

Bob Guy,

Please, it would take ONE person at City hall perhaps a half hour at the end of each workday to look at incoming e-mails (assuming they are setup to be notified of new posts) and forward to the proper departments.

The residents have CLEARLY decided this site needs to be part of the reporting structure for problems. I know conversations go off course and there is some sniping, but that happens on every forum. Just focus on the reported problem and when people see things being resolved... the peanut gallery will die down.

BeenThereDoneThat,

You made an excellent point. Whoever designed and setup the lights that start and Healey Ford and go to Bank of America needs to sit down and give it a second thought. You are stopped at Healey Ford for exiting traffic, then stopped again a block later where Valley Lighting is, then stopped again for Target with the newest addition to the signals (which I realize was needed) then let's stop you again for Big Y (why the intersection could not be redesigned to Target and Big Y existed at the same spot escapes me) and then you have the Bank of America light stopping you whenever it darn well feels like it for no known reason.

At least one light needs to be removed near Healey Ford (of course, a road may need to be closed since we have two with signals that lead to the same place) and the BofA light needs to only turn red when someone wants to exit the bank or cross as a pedestrian.

Those tweaks would save a great deal of time. To be stopped 5 times in 1/2 mile is nuts!

Glad it's not just me... now if only those in charge would agree :-)
The Valley Lighting light is a waste. I don't mind the light at Healey Ford. The Target light should be the same length as the bank light (which needs to be longer).

Ryan Healey, What if we scrap click fix altogether and set up an e mail on the Ansonia web site? Like maybe, Ansonia Fix It? Why bother to pay a web site a fee, seeing that the VCOG cannot come up with the funds. All problems reported will still have to go to each city department and be prioritized by each department and also must receive funding, no matter where they come from, internet, aldermen, police, ect. Do you really think that just because a problem is reported via the internet, it would by-pass the usual way of doing things in city hall? It won't!

All the lights on RT 115 are not interconnected and some are state-owned and some are city-owned. There is no perfect way to coordinate the timings but if the city were to request the state come out to review, I'm sure they would make adjustments to theirs and make suggestions for the city lights.

My understanding is that the city is responsible for the lights in question (Tremont, Target), but I got squat from the city the one time I asked them. The (former) mayor shuffled his feet, one of the contacts that the state gave me (i think he worked in the police dept) left a message gruffly saying nothing was wrong, and the other contact never even bothered getting back to me. The state has graciously agreed to assist the town in reviewing the lights but they say that they have been having some difficulty getting copies of the traffic control signal plans, so there you go. Stay tuned - I'll have some free time coming up and will work on this more. In the meantime, keep on top of the city, aldermen, etc.

I had a question about a certain traffic situation in Derby, on a state road, a few years ago. I got a response from a state traffic engineer, who told me that the town traffic comission or the police have to make a request before the state even considers doing anything.

Thanks Bob!

I trust via these posts Ansonia is working on a request to the state traffic engineer to review all five signals that are of concern in this post, the Bank of America on being the most troubling.

I wouldn't trust it... I haven't seen any action from the city. Last I heard, the state asked for the paperwork, and the city was having trouble finding it...

closed