Description
The second set of traffic lights on second street where you can go straight, turn onto 52N, or turn onto 52S is not in sync with the first set of traffic lights. I've been driving down second street (from the Mayo Clinic parking lot by the tennis connection building) on my way home for years and I turn to get onto 52N. Once the first set of lights turn green I could always time it where approximately 3 -4 cars could go through before the second set of lights turn red. Now not even one car can go through before it turns red. So essentially you hit two red lights in a row almost every time. And what's worse is when the first set of lights turn green and the second set is red it takes too long for the first set to turn red so there are cars stuck in between the two lights blocking traffic and almost getting hit. I see this almost every day and am surprised there aren't more accidents. Lots of honking though! It's been this way for a few months now. Can we get these two lights back into sync again please?
4 Comments
Councilman Wojcik (Registered User)
Nicole M (Registered User)
Councilman Wojcik (Registered User)
Closed Nicole M (Registered User)
The City of Rochester is responsible for the timing of the signals at the 2nd St. SW/TH 52 ramp intersections. Last year, we had a signal timing optimization project under which all the signals along the 2nd St. SW corridor from 3rd Ave. SE to West Circle Dr. were re-timed and co-ordinated. This re-timing project did result in the change to the signal timing at the 2nd St. SW/TH 52 ramp intersections with which you are concerned. The change did result in an increase in the delay for the eastbound left turners at the 2nd St. SW/TH 52 NB Ramp intersection, but it also resulted in a significant decrease in delay for westbound thru traffic. Because this is a congested intersection, the only way to give more green time to the eastbound left turn arrow at the 2nd St. SW/TH 52 NB Ramp intersection (as you are suggesting) is to take green time away from the westbound thru traffic. The westbound thru movement is much greater than the eastbound left turn movement, so we do want to favor the westbound thru movement. We feel the timing we have in place for these signals is minimizing the overall delay at the intersections, even though certain movements, like the eastbound left turn, may be experiencing more delay than before.
We do not plan to make any change to the timing at these intersections at this time. Note we do attempt to review and revise the signal timing along a corridor on a 5-year cycle.
George Calebaugh, PE, PTOE
Traffic Engineer
Dept. of Public Works
(507)328-2430