Could the Lloyd Suck Less in the Future?

As someone who takes a daily trek along the Lloyd to get to my office, I can attest to having complete disdain for the traffic light system in this town. It’s one of the reasons the Lloyd has developed a bad rap for not being much of an Expressway. The Evansville Board of Public Works hopes to do something to alleviate this by approving a $52,000 engineering study to determine if new stop light technology would make my life easier in the morning and evening.

The study will examine the condition of the signals and how best to communicate with the signals. First Group Engineering, the company who was commissioned to complete the study, will then give the city a recommendation on the type of system to implement, a budget and a construction schedule. While a study isn’t going to solve anything, it is a step in the right direction. Presently, all of the city’s traffic lights are controlled through a centralized computer system using 25-year-old technology. As the system’s hardware fails, it’s becoming harder to find replacement parts. In the near term, the city plans to upgrade the controls in the downtown area in the spring of 2008. The new system will allow for traffic engineers to directly communicate with specific intersections to help shape traffic patterns more effectively.

Sounds like a neat plan, though I’m imagining our traffic lights turning into a scene from Live Free Or Die Hard where Timothy Olyphant takes control of all the lights to lure Bruce Willis into the tunnel. I love movies.

_photo courtesy of brionius