(KMDL-FM) Ask anyone who lives or works in Lafayette what their least favorite thing about Lafayette is, and nine times out of ten, the answer you’ll get back is “traffic”. For a city of its size, Lafayette seems to have the motoring public of a much larger metropolis.
Part of the reason for the daily influx of vehicles on the roadway lies in the city’s nickname. We aren’t called the “Hub City” for nothing. That means the city is energized daily by incoming commuters who work or attend classes in Lafayette during the day and then return home to cities outside of Lafayette, where they actually reside.
That is why you usually experience the heaviest volume of traffic on the city’s “main roads”. For the uninitiated, some of those roads would be Ambassador Caffery Parkway, the Evangeline Thruway, U.S. Highway 90, Willow Street, Congress Street, Johnston Street, Kaliste Saloom, Verot School Road, and Camelia Boulevard.
Those roads carry the largest volume of traffic throughout the confines of the city limits, and almost all of those roads use traffic signals to maintain traffic flow and efficiency. But you may have noticed that sometimes the lights stay green for a long time at some intersections, and they don’t stay green as long at others.
Why Do Some Traffic Lights Stay Green Longer Than Others?
This is all part of traffic engineering, and yes, those traffic lights are set up on a timer, sort of. Many of the traffic lights on Lafayette’s major thoroughfares are also controlled by sensors placed in the roadbed. These sensors tell the traffic system if vehicles are waiting at an intersection or if it is more efficient to keep traffic flowing in other directions.
Engineers who work and study Lafayette’s traffic also designate a certain amount of time for certain traffic movements. This allows them to create a general time frame that allows for the movement of a certain number of vehicles through a given intersection in a given amount of time.
Some intersections in Lafayette, actually quite a few of them, have sensors placed in the roadbed to sense vehicles at an intersection in “off-peak hours”. That’s why if you pull up to a major intersection at 1 in the morning, the light will usually turn in your favor in a matter of moments, assuming you’ve run your wheels over the sensor.
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If you find yourself stuck at a light in the middle of the night, you might try moving back and forth in your lane, and maybe then you’ll trip the sensor. I wouldn’t suggest you run the light, even in the middle of the night, you never know who is watching and from where. Yes, we do have a lot of cameras in Lafayette.
How Do I Report a Traffic Light That Doesn’t Seem to Be Timed Properly?
If you feel that a traffic signal is timed incorrectly, you can report it. Lafayette Consolidated Government has an entire department that reviews those reports and requests and will often make adjustments based on the number of calls and complaints received…