Late Friday press release alert!: Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says motorists need immediate relief, the reason that he's "adding more 'green light' time to LA's most congested intersections," as he'll announce at a Monday morning news conference in downtown.

Just a thought, but if you're adding more green light time aren't you also adding more red light time? I posed that question to press deputy Darryl Ryan, and he responded in an email:

"Only the streets that don't have high vehicle traffic will get more red time. There are some streets (with low vehicle traffic) that have more green time than necessary... in fact there are some situations on these streets in question that I guess you can say, 'the light is green, but nobody's home.'

"Under Operation Bottleneck, we plan to answer the call of the motorists...and give them more green so they can proceed. By doing this the plan is to be efficient with the use of green time and give adequate green time to the streets that need it."

I'm in no state of mind at 8:30 p.m. to even think about it. Press release after the jump. And don't all jump at once.

--Steve Hymon

MAYOR ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA
City of Los Angeles

MEDIA ADVISORY
September 19, 2008

MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA TO ANNOUNCE “OPERATION BOTTLENECK RELIEF”  PHASE II & III RESULTS AND LAUNCH PHASE IV OF THE CITY’S INNOVATIVE TRAFFIC RELIEF PROGRAM

Mayor to reduce traffic delays and cuts commuter wait times through Operation Bottleneck Relief by adjusting traffic signal timing and adding more “green light” time to LA’s most congested intersections

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Seeing the need to offer immediate traffic congestion relief to commuters, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, joined by Los Angeles City Councilmember Wendy Greuel and Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) General Manager Rita Robinson, will hold a news conference to announce the results of the Operation Bottleneck Relief II & III traffic congestion relief programs and will launch Operation Bottleneck Relief Phase IV, Monday, September 22, 2008, at 10:00 AM inside of the ATSAC Center, P-4 City Hall East, 200 North Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Operation Bottleneck Relief IV, the fourth installment of the City’s traffic signal timing adjustment program, will task LADOT engineers with making technical adjustments, signal timing improvements and optimizing “green light” time, in real-time, at 60 of LA’s most clogged and congested intersections during FY 08-09 (fiscal year). The improvements and adjustments will deploy real-time traffic fixes to alleviate congestion and get the traffic lights moving with real-time traffic patterns.

Operation Bottleneck Relief I (FY 05-06), Operation Bottleneck Relief II (FY 06-07) and Operation Bottleneck Relief III (FY 07-08) have made technical adjustments, improved signal timing, and optimized “green light time” at 103 intersections throughout the City of Los Angeles.
The program to date has been successful in reducing traffic delay by almost 900,000 hours each year, or an average of 29%, and has shaved commuters' wait times at red lights by 8 seconds.

During the news conference, Mayor Villaraigosa will demonstrate how the Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control Center (ATSAC) uses its computer-based traffic signal control system to implement the real-time bottleneck relief.

WHO:      
MAYOR ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA
COUNCILMEMBER WENDY GREUEL
RITA ROBINSON, GENERAL MANAGER, LADOT

WHAT:
ANNOUNCING THE RESULTS OF OPERATION BOTTLENECK PHASE II & III AND LAUNCHING OPERATION BOTTLENECK RELIEF PHASE IV

WHEN:
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2008
10:00 AM

WHERE:   
ATSAC CENTER
P-4, CITY HALL EAST
200 NORTH MAIN STREET
LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

Comments

[Robb]

Or perhaps eliminating the yellow light altogether; nobody really pays attention to it anyway.

[perks]

Longer green light cycles means fewer yellow-light cycles, I guess. Surely that's the only thing standing between us and gridlock-free streets...

[Spokker]

You guys elected a mayor who can bend time. The laws of physics are this man's mistress. Well, one of them anyway.