I had to do a little driving this weekend for soccer, so I decided to experiment and see how high I could push the gas mileage in my 2009 Hyundai Sonata. I'm no hypermiler but I did manage to average 37.5 mpg over 272 miles in a vehicle rated at 22 city / 32 highway. My trips took me from 48th and Highway 2 to Blair and back; to Abbott Sports Complex and back; and to Omaha and back. My peak average was 38.3 mpg.
On the way back from Omaha late last night I reviewed my results while also dealing with the bizarrely inefficient late-night traffic light mess that is 84th Street. Talk about a fuel efficiency disaster. Not that 84th Street is alone; there are many traffic lights around the city that seem to continue with their usual routine, oblivious to the differences in traffic patterns at night. It's extraordinarily frustrating. I will neither confirm nor deny that at least one driver on the road last night treated a couple red lights as stop signs, proceeding after confirming there wasn't so much as a headlight anywhere in view.
Why doesn't Lincoln "turn off" many of its traffic lights after a certain hour? There are oodles of opportunities for four-way flashing reds and flashing yellow/red combinations throughout the city. Another possibility is to decriminalize proceeding through a red light under certain conditions (e.g. time of day) after the driver has come to a complete stop and fully yielded to all other traffic.
Would you go for either of those proposals? Would Lincolnites? Would the City?
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As someone who lives in the same neighborhood as Mr. Wilson I can completely understand the frustration that is known as 84th St, esp at night.
The lights add insult to injury, especially as a regular concert goer that deals with 84th late at night at lease once a week. The one I always hit is Van Dorn and there is never any cross traffic. ever.
I agree that a flashing yellow for 84th and flashing red for Van Dorn would be a good solution. Same with Havelock, Adams, A, and Leighton. Holdredge and O seem to be the only two streets that I ever really see cross traffic on late at night.
And early in the evening there are times when I spend more time traveling to the interstate than I do on the interstate getting to Omaha. I miss the old “highway 84”.
But, I try to not get to worried about it since that long awaited/promised beltway has been just around the corner my whole life. So I’m sure it will happen one of these days, right?
Would you go for either of those proposals? Would Lincolnites? Would the City?
Provided that there wasn’t an increase in traffic accidents, I’d be for either of your proposals.
I was thinking about this a while back ... if we could somehow make the traffic light issue an environmental one, then I think we could find support for flashing yellows and reds after 9pm.
North 84th is an atrocity. I took it to get to I-80 for the first time in a while last Saturday. What I used to regard as highway travel is now like O Street during rush hour. Almost every single intersection has a light, and those that don’t have the bases for the light poles installed already. I’m all for development, but that doesn’t mean you need to put a traffic light at every intersection that sees more than 50 cars a day. It also seems like the response to a fatal accident is to put a traffic light up at the intersection, something that has affected north 84th a couple times in the last few years.
I take Old Cheney to 148th to O to Hwy 63 to I-80 if I’m going from south Lincoln to Omaha. I think it takes about as much time as going up 84th; but even it’s a couple minutes more, at least you’re always moving and the scenery is better. From home, or mid-town, I take Cotner to 70th to Cornhusker to I-80. That is definitely faster than any route that involves 84th.
I would definitely support both reviewing the traffic light decision process and instituting flashing lights after a certain time of day at certain intersections. That would work until, of course, someone is killed at an intersection with flashing lights. The LJS and CL-K would blame city officials and, well, you can predict the rest.
To be completely honest, I pretty much pretend that it is legal to stop-and-go at a nighttime red light. I just just REALLY hope they don’t go the other way and start putting up traffic camera like I heard not too long ago.
Another horrible light is Old Cheney and 14th. It was that light that started me red-light-running habit when I got tired of waiting count them 1-2-3-4 minutes at 3 in the morning after work.
So in short..yes!
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