I Like Traffic Lights

I think the traffic lights in Rexburg are getting gimpier.

For the longest time, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the light at Second East and Highway 33. I travel through this intersection daily, typically at about 4:50 am and near 7 pm. In the evening, there’s no trouble. Most mornings, no trouble either. But heaven forbid it be slightly foggy, or that a tiny bit of snow be falling, and the camera sensor that detects traffic waiting on Highway 33 does not function at all. There have been times in the AM when I’ve sat at that intersection for three minutes or longer waiting for a green light, with no opposing traffic, and the light will not turn. So I run the red light, making sure traffic is nonexistent, of course.

Then there’s the light at Main Street and First West. I think it used to have cameras, but it’s on a timed loop right now. And it takes forever to go through the loop – a minute or more. That doesn’t sound like a long time, but just try sitting there in the wee hours of the morning when you’re the only person on the road, waiting at a red light at that intersection for the light to turn and with no one else there.

Now this morning, the same thing happened to the light on Second East and the Rex.

Do we need lens cleaner for the cameras? New cameras? Someone who knows how to program a light? I’d like to know. Because whatever disease Rexburg’s traffic lights has, it’s spreading.