Traffic Signals to Be Synchronized

The state transportation department has approved a proposed revamping of Ventura’s traffic-light system that will synchronize all 96 city traffic signals by 1997, a city official said.

Seventy signals are expected to be on the system by the end of this year, said Nazir Lalani, city transportation engineer.

Bids to reprogram the other 26 signals will be requested in mid-1992, he said.

When the work is done, signals will be set to coincide not only with the speed limit, but to respond to traffic flows, Lalani said.

As an example of how that will work, Lalani said: “This year, July 4th was on a Thursday. Since we have a mishmash of equipment out there, the computer says, ‘Hey, it’s a normal Thursday.’ But once we have the traffic responsive system on line, it will say, ‘Oh, today is an odd day.’ The computer . . . will respond to the changing situation.”

Traffic jams at the notorious Victoria Avenue off-ramp of the Ventura Freeway will not be affected by the new synchronization system, Lalani said.

“We’ve got it timed as best we can,” he said. About $12 million is needed to fix the interchange, which engineers have identified as the most snarled in the county.