Mark's Notebook

Retiming traffic lights helps eight South Bay commutes

San Jose Mercury News

By Gary Richards, Mercury News Staff Columnist

Santa Clara County road engineers recently completed the first major retiming of traffic signals on local expressways and adjacent streets in 11 years, 139 lights from Capitol Expressway in East San Jose to Oregon Expressway in Palo Alto.

Since Roadshow was born 14 years ago, badly timed traffic lights have been the No. 1 complaint. In a county survey three years ago, more than seven of 10 people said that improving traffic light synchronization was the most pressing need on the eight expressways.

A nasty spot will remain at Montague Expressway and First Street -- that signal is not tied into the new synchronization plan because timing has to be linked to VTA's nearby light-rail stop. Another crunch point is on San Tomas at Highway 17, where needs on state, county and city roads can conflict.

As a separate project, San Jose retimed 409 signals on city streets during the past two years and engineers were hoping for up to a 20 percent reduction in travel time and the number of red lights drivers regularly hit. They got much more than they expected -- as much as a 45 percent decline, according to a city follow-up report.

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