traffic lights

A friend's blog had comments a few weeks ago about stop light timing and its effect on average traffic speeds in the downtown area. I was thinking about this post during some recent travels downtown, as some of the streets I travel on a regular basis are within the grid of the timed lights. However, while many of the one-way streets are synchronized, some of the intersecting two-way streets are not so well-organized. Perhaps a better way to put it would be that they are, indeed, synchronized, but in such a way that guarantees one has to stop for each light.

I'm referring more to streets in the eastern section of the grid--Campbell, Wenzel and Shelby come to mind--on which I travel fairly often, but on which I must stop for almost every light and wait a LONG time for a green. It's also hard to do the "as soon as safe" departure from a traffic light, as motorists almost willfully misunderstand the maneuver and rail at that cyclist who just blew the light. Or, as has happened, I start out to follow another motorist through the intersection, only to have that motorist stop suddenly to offer me safe passage!