Ask the Bottleneck Blog: Broken signal

Times Staff Writer Jean Guccione covers transportation in L.A. Jean will try to answer a few of the many questions about commuting and traffic we hear at the Bottleneck Blog.

Q: What does the city do when it has a malfunctioning traffic signal?

A: One little traffic light malfunctions during the morning commute. How bad can it mess up traffic? Well, that depends on where it is and how long it’s out of service. Take Monday, for example, the blinking red lights at La Brea and West Adams boulevards backed up vehicles for several blocks, frustrating motorists. The lights began flashing at 7:35 a.m. due to a "component problem." Traffic engineers responded. By 8:25 a.m., the signal was back up. "It’s as good as new," said John Fisher, assistant general manager of the city of Los Angeles’ Department of Transportation. But that didn’t help commuters waiting for their turn to cross the crowded intersection. When red lights are blinking, "it’s like putting up a stop sign on a busy street," Fisher said. "Everyone is stopping." By contrast, when the lights are working properly, only half the vehicles traveling through an intersection must stop. In this case, the problem should have been spotted sooner. A Saturday night power outage damaged the signal’s timer. When it was reset, the problem was not diagnosed. It worked fine all day Sunday, never letting on that another signal failure was inevitable. The problem revealed itself -- you guessed it -- during Monday’s rush hour.

Comments

[Eddie Vedder]

Perhaps you could mention how to best report a non-functioning light (911 seems like a bad idea)