Why don't they use some of the excess funds from the "litter fee?" There is more money collected than they can spend on legitimate "beautification" projects. For that matter, why not characterize synchronized traffic lights as economic development and have the MDC fund it with the tax money piling up in their account? Better mobility will bring more employers to Midland!

Funny, but I would never have thought about "traffic light synchronization" as being one of my top 10 voting issues. Until now. ;-)

FM, I'm not sure it's as much an issue of "we don't have the money" as "we don't want to spend the money." But I do agree that seemingly simple things like traffic flow can affect an outsider's perception of a city as a place to live and/or do business.

Gwynne, it's an annoyance but it's also a safety issue. Consider this: for three consecutive light-controlled intersections, you've pulled up just in time to hit the red. On the fourth, you see that it's going to happen again, and you've had it, so you hit the gas and run the light. I've seen this happen more times than you can believe. It's not justifiable behavior, but, unfortunately, it's human nature.

I've mentioned this before, but if the lights can be synched so that you hit every red one, how hard could it be to, well, you know?

But if you hit every green one, how long will it be before the lights serve no purpose at all and you've got the autobahn running through town? Just sayin.

Good point, but properly sync'd lights would get you seamlessly from point a to point b only if you were at or under the speed limit. Still, somebody's got to hit a red light, sooner or later; it just shouldn't be every one all the time on the main arteries.

Of course, anyone who's ever studied queueing theory knows that this is a vastly more complicated issue than we're making it out to be, and that doesn't even start to address the behavioral issues I touched on above.

"Queueing theory?" Is that Frederick Taylor? Or did he do the time and motion studies?

One just never knows where your post discussions are going to lead. ;-)

The very act of typing "queueing theory" also exhausted my knowledge of the subject. I have vague and disturbing recollections from my statistics course in grad school. But I don't think Taylor is a queueing guy, although time/motion studies are probably undergirded by some of the same math. There again, I've just told you more than I know. ;-)

Thought you weren't going to be posting much this week LOL

I know, Rachel...I'm pitiful. ;-)

Wish they would also consider putting in audible pedestrian signals when/if they do this project.

The councelmans comment is funny.

"It's like watching a kid grow up, if you're around him all the time you don't notice him grow bigger."

Trust me I noticed when my brother shot past my 5'7 to his 6'0.

Wish they would also consider putting in audible pedestrian signals when/if they do this project.

Excellent point, Reagan. And along similar lines, although not as critical, I wish they'd increase the sensitivity of the sensors at minor intersections so that the lights would change for bicyclists like they do for cars. It's a safety issue in that some cyclists will eventually run the red light if a car doesn't show up to trip the switch for them.