Columbus plans traffic light upgrades to keep the flow moving

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – We’ve all been there before.

It’s just you at a red stop light waiting for almost a minute or even more for the light to change.

Columbus is upgrading its traffic lights to get on your way faster.

Columbus Public Information Officer Joe Dillon said up until a year ago, the city ran wires underneath the streets to allow someone to manually change the light when a vehicle approached.

He said after a hard freeze and rain, the wires would surface, ruining the roads.

Dillon said city maintenance won’t have that problem anymore and drivers won’t have as long as wait time at the light.

“There’s nothing more irritating, and it’s happened to all of us, than sitting at a red light and there’s no side traffic. And you’re sitting there waiting, waiting on the traffic light to change. Well, that’s the way the traffic lights used to run. They were just on a fixed timer. It may be 40 seconds in one direction, 25 seconds in the other. And it would change even if there was no traffic. Well, this eliminates that. This stops the old-fashioned timers from doing that,” said Dillon.

Dillion said 85% of the stop lights in the city’s limits have been upgraded and 100% should be within reach in a year’s time.

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