tuesday, november 18, 1980
daily nebraskan
page 9
Traffic lights are frustratingly energy conscious
By Robert Bauer
Traffic lights. Can you think of anything that makes
traffic run so smoothly and so slowly at the same time9
I have considered shutting my car off when waiting for
the traffic light at 48th and Vine Streets. It seems in
terminably long.
I wondered how long the traffic lights in Lincoln really
are so I called the city's traffic engineer, George Selvia.
Selvia seems to possess more information on traffic lights
than a similarly equipped 16K-memory bank.
departures
The first question to Selvia was what intersection
in Lincoln had the longest street light. The answer was
somewhat devastating. According to Selvia, no traffic
light in Lincoln takes more than 2 minutes to complete
its entire cycle from red to red. I felt like calling the
gentleman an outright liar but he really seems to know his
traffic lights.
He cited a study which revealed for every two minutes
you spend at a traffic light, it seems like 10.
To test his theory, 1 immediately drove out to 48th
and Vine streets. As f waited at the intersection I watched
the clock. Sure enough, it took only two minutes.
0 Street a stopper
AJso, I asked why it was impossible for a person to
drive through downtown Lincoln on 0 Street without
stopping. Selvia explained that in the downtown area, the
one-way streets are designed to run nonstop. He said
someone has to stop at every traffic light (in theory), and
it was decided long ago that 0 Street would be the one to
stop. I suppose you could liken that to the NU Board of
Regents asking for a 18 percent increase in state aid.
Something will have to give and the Nebraska Legislators
will decide.
At certain times, traffic lights seem to be much more
appreciated than at others. For instance, when you are
running late, traffic lights generally are not well received.
However, when you are lost, traffic lights seem a God
send. When your Coca-Cola has been flung to the floor or
your Whopper launched towards the windshield, traffic
lights generally are welcomed.
In fact, traffic lights probably have prevented innumer
able accidents that would have occurred had they not
given the driver a moment to free his hands. Trying to put
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on a seat belt and drive at the same time is one that comes
to mind right away.
Lights computerized
Of course, like everything, the traffic light has been
changed for the better in the face of technology. Over the
past few years, Lincoln traffic lights have been bound over
to the command of a computer. At present, about half of
Lincoln's 250 traffic lights are being operated by comput
er. This, according to Selvia, has made things go much
faster for Lincoln motorists.
According to a study completed recently, the comput
erized traffic light system is saving motorists 94,000
gallons of gas each year on O and Vine streets alone.
There are 28 percent fewer stops on Vine Street because
of the computer and the delay time (waiting period at
lights) is cut in half.
Over the entire city, the system saves motorists 1.3
million hours in delay time and produces 1 16 million few
er stops in the course of a year. For chemistry folks, the
study showed that in a year's time, 1 .3 million fewer kilo
grams of carbon monoxide are produced and 107,000
fewer kilograms of hydrocarbons are produced. The
clincher was the gallons of fuel saved by the computerized
system: 1.14 million gallons in the course of a year.
The next time you curse
truly bite your tongue.
a traffic light, you should
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