Michael Smerconish | ENERGY-WASTING RED-LIGHT HELL

September 6, 2007

ON A RECENT morning, I nearly blew a gasket during my commute.

Drive time for me is 3:45 a.m., and on this day, I needed to drive the length of Roosevelt Boulevard from the Bucks County line all the way to City Line. I was driving an F-150, and clutching a cup of Dunkin' Donuts' finest. Big Daddy was talking about the Phils, and I was right on time.

Until I hit the lights.

From the top of the Northeast to Oxford Circle, I hit every red light - despite using every conceivable strategy to see green.

Nothing mattered. Not when I sped up (without going over the posted 40 mph limit), slowed down well below the posted rate or stayed even with the speed limit. I hit Woodward Street. Red light. Rhawn Street? Red light. Cottman and Tyson? Red and red. Same for Harbison and Rising Sun.

I tried everything. Flooring it when a light turned green - no help. Dawdling, same. Nothing helped. There was no traffic that early. And what should have been a 20- to 25-minute trip turned into a nearly 45-minute moonlit odyssey.

It got me thinking about the lack of "synchronicity" of roads like Roosevelt Boulevard, Broad Street and countless others. Am I dreaming, or was there a day not too long ago when lights in the city and environs were synchronized? Find the rhythm, and you could groove through a string of greens and reach your destination that much faster. And those were the days before we tried to limit fuel consumption for fear of enhancing our carbon footprint.

I tracked down Charlie Denny, who's in charge of traffic engineering for the city. He told me that right now the Boulevard is "synched in pieces." Once you enter Philadelphia at Southampton Road, it actually is synchronized - just divided into three different sections, he says.

In other words, the intersections in each section are synchronized. But each section allegedly has its own distinct cycle. But my own experience seems to belie that. I tried every conceivable means of establishing a rhythm on every stretch of the Boulevard and could find none.

Denny told me the city is working on putting all three sections on the same 120-second cycle. But on the Boulevard, there is the added concern for giving pedestrians enough time to cross the 12 lanes safely, which is worthy.

"But it is difficult because with traffic signals, when you set the speed, it kind of depends on what cycle length you are and how far the signal lies apart and how you band them together," he told me.

That's fair. But aside from my personal convenience and the safety of the city's pedestrians, why hasn't Laurie David, or Al Gore led the charge for synchronizing lights in the name of protecting the environment?

While synchronization has long been considered a solution for congestion on roads throughout the country, the U.S. Department of Energy reports, "Traffic lights that are not synchronized result in excessive engine idle time at red lights. This results in reduced fuel efficiency, increased automotive emissions, and reduced worker productivity because of longer commuting times."

As a result, Austin, Texas, for example, has made traffic-light synchronization part of its local effort to reduce CO2 emissions by unclogging local roads. The bonus: The city reports that between 2005 and 2006, its traffic-signal synchronization program reduced travel time by almost 10 percent.

I've already confessed that I was attempting to navigate across the city in a pickup truck.

Just the type of vehicle John Edwards had in mind recently when he told a group of machinists and aerospace workers that Americans should be willing to give up their less fuel-efficient vehicles to fight global warming, referring primarily to SUVs.

He also said he believed Americans are "actually willing to sacrifice" in the name of environmental consciousness.

Maybe so, but I think New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson spoke more realistically in a recent interview posted on Salon.com: "What I'm asking for is not sacrifice, like Americans' wearing sweaters and turning the heat down. What I'm asking for is being more energy-efficient with appliances, with vehicles, with mass transit."

I'm not ready to abandon my F-150 just yet, but I'd welcome more fuel-efficient drives with fewer red lights. And on roads like Roosevelt Boulevard, you'd be saving pedestrian lives, cutting morning commutes and salvaging the environment - all in one shot.

So let's synchronize the lights. On the Boulevard and elsewhere. Maybe that's one green strategy everybody can agree on. *

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5:30-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.