Signal’s reluctance mystifies engineer

Q: I have a question about a traffic light. I work at Providence Hospital’s Pacific campus in Everett and frequently am leaving work at midnight or later.

I head eastbound on Pacific Avenue, and get stuck at the light at Rucker Avenue for probably three minutes, even though it is late at night, and there are no other cars around.

Is there a particular reason that this light doesn’t have a sensor to know when cars are there? It’s not the greatest spot to be stuck at late at night. Thanks for any help.

Tanya Dake, Monroe

A: Bill Saur, senior engineer with the city of Everett, said they investigated the signal operation at Pacific and Rucker avenues and the signal timing and equipment appeared to be working properly.

"At that time in the late evening and early morning, the signal is operating based on the traffic detectors in the roadway and should respond to vehicle demand quite promptly and, certainly, in considerably less than three minutes," Saur said. "The detectors for eastbound traffic on Pacific Avenue were checked and were detecting traffic appropriately."

It would be necessary for eastbound vehicles to stop close to the stop line to be detected, he said. No faults were found in other aspects of the controller or signal operation, so it is difficult to say why this problem is being encountered.

"It would probably be useful for the driver who is experiencing the problem to contact our traffic division directly so we can learn if anything unique may be happening which is not obvious from the general conditions described," Saur said. "Such operation questions should be directed to 425-257-7263."

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