Frustrated drivers, horns honking, and long lines of cars: this has been the reality of early morning traffic in South Windsor during recent weeks. Many drivers have noticed red lights that have strangely long durations, causing backups and anger among residents trying to get to school or work.
A ‘normal’ light duration might be a minute or so, but these lights have been going on for anywhere from one to five minutes, which can be precious time when rushing to get across town.
The South Windsor Police Department explained that their procedure for the timing of the lights follows a traffic impact study and continuous observations.
“The lights in town do have different cycling times for the most part…They do a traffic impact study, and they try to see how much traffic it’s gonna generate for you to have a new business there, or something that’s new in the area,” Sergeant David Gesualdi from the Special Services Division Traffic Unit said. “And if there’s a lot of extra traffic, then they decide to put a light in there, sometimes they don’t decide to put a light in, but depending on how much traffic it’s gonna generate. In addition to that, they try to figure out the timing of the lights.”
Sergeant Gesualdi went on to explain that the timing system requires an average of the best light time based on the ratio of stopping and starting during different times of the day.
“So you kind of have to get the average of the lights in the morning, and then the lights of the rest of the day, when there’s not a lot of traffic there,” Gesualdi said. “So sometimes it’s tough to make everybody happy.”
Many of these lights are at crucial points in the center of town, such as side streets merging onto Ellington Road, and the intersection of Pierce, Strong, and Sullivan Avenue by Desmond’s Pond, only a few blocks away from the high school.
“Basically every day to school I have to go through the Pleasant Valley/Ellington Road light and two times this past week I literally had to wait four minutes at that light…And also the Pierce Road/Sullivan Avenue light can be really bad but it’s been better lately,” South Windsor High School senior Kaitlyn Roy said.
For students at SWHS, the issue comes at the worst time, when students are already groggy and struggling to get to school on time. Combining tired young drivers and anxious workers with this stressful traffic situation isn’t just annoying, but has the potential to be dangerous if drivers are not careful.
“It was actually so bad one day people started running the light and just making traffic happen on their own,” Roy said.
There have been concerns over the safety impact of the early-morning complications. Some drivers have simply run red lights when other cars are not coming, risking personal safety and a violation of the law. Other drivers have had to take turns and develop new routes that avoid the longest lights.
However, the South Windsor Police Department has a clear system in place to handle these issues.
“If there’s a significant number of traffic stops, accidents, things of that nature…We would go and reevaluate the timing of the lighting,” Sergeant Gesualdi said. “So unless there’s really big changes, or there’s a traffic pattern change, we can always go and reevaluate it if we need to.”
Although these light malfunctions may be frustrating in the early hours of the morning, Gesualdi advises drivers to have a plan and remain patient at all times.
“Just be mindful that it is a busy time in the morning, plan ahead, try to not kind of hang around that area, do what you need to do and then get off the road. But patience, you know, everyone’s gonna get through,” Sergeant Gesualdi said.
