It’s all in the timing

EVERETT — As songbird Petula Clark promised — everything’s waiting for you downtown.

And waiting.

In fact, Petula Clark could sing her 1964 hit a couple of times over in the time it takes to navigate some of downtown Everett’s stop-and-go streets.

But frustrated drivers may soon be able to forget all their troubles, forget all their cares, as city engineers zero in on the timing of downtown Everett’s out-of-tune traffic signals.

"The city recognizes that there are some changes that need to be made to the downtown signal timing," city engineer Dave Davis said.

The city normally does a large-scale retiming of traffic lights every five to 10 years, and engineers say it’s that time again. After a few traffic changes emerged last year the downtown traffic lights are out of sync.

"Things have changed significantly downtown," Davis said.

For one, the Everett Events Center opened, bringing crowds and extra cars. Also, several streets have been closed for various construction projects, such as the new Snohomish County campus. And streets such as Hewitt and Wetmore have changed from one-way to two-way.

Such changes mean the lights don’t match the traffic patterns — like a movie where the dialogue doesn’t match the actors’ lips.

"You can be going through town and have to wait at almost every stoplight for a few minutes," said Rob Emery of Everett, who has raised the issue of ill-timed lights at several public forums.

Emery, who works as an inspector at the Snohomish County Jail, drives through downtown every day.

"The lights let a group of about 10 cars wait, and then you just move up a block like a herd of cattle moving through a pasture," he said.

Engineers say even when the traffic signals are retimed drivers shouldn’t expect green lights all the way. Downtown traffic lights must keep drivers and pedestrians happy.

"Some people want a green light no matter what — but we have to model after the bigger picture," city traffic engineer Wayne Wentz said.

If the stoplight cycle is too fast, it cuts walkers off, perhaps stranding them in the rain or holding heavy shopping bags. Contrarily, pedestrians may like a nice long stoplight that allows them to cross the road without hoofing it. But drivers aren’t crazy about being stranded at slow-changing lights.

"It seems to me (red lights) generate a lot of frustration in people who have to travel through our city," Emery said. "I hate to see frustration released in Everett just by people going through the process of driving through town. We want people to feel good when they come through our town."

There may be greener pastures, or rather lights, ahead.

City engineers just began work on the complicated, time-intensive job of reprogramming traffic signals — a job that will last at least until summer’s end. The coordination of the grid of almost 50 downtown lights is done as one big project — like composing a symphony. If each intersection was an instrument, city engineers are charged with making all of them play as harmoniously as possible.

Once the administration decides what the traffic priorities should be, city engineers technologically balance pedestrians, cars and buses so "everyone wins a little bit," senior engineer Jim Ozanne said. "But everybody also loses a little bit. You can’t win all the time."

To begin the process, the city hired a Bellevue traffic management firm, Trafficsmithy, for $17,685 to assess the traffic patterns downtown by counting cars and videotaping intersections.

Ozanne and other city engineers will spend months analyzing the numbers, and use them to come up with stoplight intervals that make sense for moving cars and pedestrians.

From his Cedar Avenue office, Ozanne will spend spring and summer crunching the numbers and running traffic simulations on his computer. He will take into account how many cars are on the road at different times, what the cars are doing and how many lanes they have to do it in.

He also will make sure signals are in working order and don’t suffer from "clock drift" — the digital clock at each intersection can drift anywhere from three to 20 seconds.

That may not seem like much until you consider the traffic plan depends on signals being in sync. If one light is five seconds slow, and the next is 15 seconds fast, the lights won’t match up. It can mean a lot of frustrated drivers.

The new timing — a sequence of time measurements for green, yellow, red and pedestrian signals — will be entered into the computer at each traffic light. Ozanne also will enter the information into the central command in his office, which keeps track of all the city’s lights.

Engineers will share the findings with the public and seek input from drivers.

Once the timing is right, Ozanne will take a spin downtown to see if traffic sings along with the newly timed stoplights.

But unlike many drivers, he doesn’t mind red lights. He isn’t ever in a rush.

"I feel the world is in too much of a hurry," he said. "And you can’t make it green for everybody, or they’d all run into each other."

Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.

JENNIFER BUCHANAN / The Herald