Spokesman-Review Letter to the Editor
Reprogram Traffic Signals

This week there was an Internet blog item about intersection accidents caused by yellow light decisions. The article seemed to paint the decision whether to stomp on the throttle or jam on the brakes when faced with a yellow light as some kind of insurmountable problem. I don’t think so.
I may be wrong but there is no doubt in my mind that virtually all modern traffic lights are processor controlled and operate under a specific program. That being said, I think that there is a simple solution. Reprogram the lights such that the green light blinks for three seconds at half-second intervals before turning yellow and the same for the yellow light before turning red.
This will give oncoming drivers time to make a rational decision as how to proceed when approaching a traffic light. There is no doubt in my mind that drivers would adapt to this quickly and many accidents, deaths and injuries would be avoided.

It would be nice if Spokane could lead the nation in addressing this problem. However, please don’t count on the traffic ticket revenuers to support this. I’d like to see some feedback on this concept.

Frank Tokarz

Spokane Valley

What bothers me about this letter is that the yellow is supposed to be the warning that the light is about to turn red, meaning stop. Do you really need to add a blinking warning light to the existing warning. If people just stopped on yellow instead of trying to make it through it wouldn’t be a problem.

 
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