Traffic Lights Will Change for Better Under MTA Plan

In an effort to improve commuting time and reduce accidents on key stretches of surface streets, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to synchronize traffic signals at 109 intersections in the San Fernando Valley.

The $8-million project will also involve placing closed-circuit television cameras at many intersections to monitor traffic conditions.

The idea is to speed up the flow of traffic down certain main arteries, including Devonshire Street, Roscoe Boulevard and the Sepulveda Boulevard corridor, said Renee Berlin, the agency’s planning director for the Valley and north Los Angeles County.

The synchronized lights will allow vehicles traveling at or near the speed limit to continue for considerable distances before stopping for a red light. Planners believe this will reduce accidents because fewer cars will speed up suddenly at intersections to beat red lights.

And if there are collisions, Berlin said, workers monitoring the closed-circuit cameras will be able to assess their gravity and immediately send out the right type of emergency crews.

“A lot of cities are doing it,” Berlin said. “It’s better for traffic and it’s also better for pollution, because you don’t have all the stopping and starting.”

The cost of the Valley project will be split between the MTA and the city of Los Angeles. MTA will foot about $4.5 million of the bill, Berlin said, and the city will pay the rest.

Intersections will not be blocked while the lights are synchronized because the work can be done while traffic is moving, she said.

Work on the project is set to begin in January, but it will not be completed for two years. One reason the work is expected to take so long is that traffic engineers must figure out how to coordinate traffic on a maze of streets. To be successful, the lights must speed traffic along main arteries without impeding it on cross streets.

The area earmarked for the traffic improvements is bounded by the Golden State Freeway to the north, Sepulveda Boulevard to the east, Victory Boulevard to the south and Woodley Avenue and Balboa Boulevard to the west.