ITD adjusts U.S. 95 traffic lights

COEUR d’ALENE — The Idaho Transportation Department recently made changes aimed at improving traffic flow on U.S. 95 in Coeur d’Alene, and that made Bill Brizee happy.

“I’m here with some good news,” he said to the Coeur d’Alene City Council. “ITD has actually synchronized 95.”

The Hayden man give it a test run and said he got “varying results.”

He drove from Coeur d’Alene to Hayden Avenue during the day and hit three red lights. Another time he tried his luck with six traffic lights and had to stop at three of them.

“That’s still better than what it was,” Brizee said.

While appreciative, Brizee asked the council to act on his resolution that calls for the city to take over synchronization of traffic lights on Government Way and U.S. 95 from the ITD.

“We need control over the local lights,” he said.

Heather McDaniel, ITD spokeswoman Coeur d’Alene, was pleased that someone recognized and appreciates the recent updates with the U.S. 95 signal corridors.

She said over the past year and a half ITD has worked hard to upgrade the equipment and programming plan for the U.S. 95 corridor lights through Coeur d’Alene.

The timing plan is “more complex than simple synchronization,” McDaniel wrote in an email to The Press. She said a team of engineers built and fine-tuned a sophisticated timing plan program that is based on peak commute times, seasonal traffic impacts and what those traffic patterns look like at various times throughout the day.  

“Synchronization between all of the signals is in place so that the system can recognize what is happening at one end of the corridor, and modify timing and throughputs at the other to maximize service,” McDaniel wrote.

In addition to these recent upgrades, a planned timing update is set to happen soon that will adjust the system to the “summer” timing plan that accounts for the seasonal influx of people and vehicles ITD sees across the region.

“We are continually working to optimize the performance of this system and in doing so we work closely with the engineering team who produces periodic performance reports that we are able to consider for minor adjustments as well,” McDaniel wrote.

Brizee said there are “still weird things” that go on with the traffic lights, such as a left-turn light changing to green even though there are no drivers waiting to turn.

“I think our local people in transportation here could solve that problem very easily rather than having to go to Boise,” Brizee said.