Signal timing improvements coming on Highway 527

Published 1:30 am Saturday, February 11, 2017

Ken George, of Everett, writes in about a frustrating drive on Highway 527, among other spots, that has to do with signal timing. “I see way too many main streets of travel congested only due to having one light turn green only to have the traffic not flow at all due to the next cross street already red. Bothell-Everett Highway and 180th from Lynnwood to Mill Creek are prime examples,” he wrote.

Tom Pearce, of the Washington State Department of Transportation, responded to the concern and said improvements are in the works.

“We understand the frustration with commuting along SR 527. It’s a very heavily traveled corridor during peak periods,” Pearce wrote. “The timing strategy for signals along SR 527 at the intersections of 196th, 186th, 180th and 164th streets heavily favors moving traffic on SR 527. The general accepted practice of coordinating or synchronizing signals is that the distance between those signals should be less than half a mile. All the signals along this corridor are at or more than a half-mile.

“However, WSDOT, Snohomish County and Bothell are partnering to implement something called adaptive signal control along SR 527 from the ramps at 405 all the way to 164th Street. … Adaptive signal control is a form of syncing the signals through a central computer system. We expect to start using this system later this year.”

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