Resident Questions Traffic Lights' Programming

A Hellertown resident told Borough Council Dec. 3 that he has issues with two Main Street traffic lights.

Jan Doddy said the lights that frustrate him are at High Street and Walnut Street.

Even at 5:20am--which is when he's normally stopped at it--the light at High and Main remains red for up to 70 seconds when a car approaches it from High, Doddy told council.

And he questioned why the light at Walnut and Main no longer flashes during the overnight hours.

"These two at the ends of the borough seem to take forever (to change), and it’s a waste of time and gas," Doddy said.

In response to the criticism, borough manager Cathy Kichline said she had contacted Signal Services, which discovered a "failed vehicle loop" at High Street that will be repaired.

However, the loop detector that causes the light to change will remain set at 65 seconds, regardless of time of day.

In order to make that amount of time shorter for early morning motorists like Doddy, "we would have to request a timing change through PennDOT, since the whole Main Street corridor is synchronized," Kichline explained.

It was during the June 2011 synchronization that the light at Walnut Street was reprogrammed to remain steady 24 hours a day, she added.

Council vice president John Bate told Doddy he sympathized with him, and added his own frustration with the "No Turn on Red" requirement for motorists turning from Cherry Lane onto Route 412 north.

Since that requirement was posted, westbound traffic on Cherry frequently backs up as far as the St. Luke's Physical Therapy clinic unless motorists decide to ignore it, Bate said.

He added that the light's timing appears to be the same, regardless of the time of day.

Bate subsequently made a motion to ask the state to investigate the timing of the traffic lights along Hellertown's portion of the Route 412 corridor.

Council president Phil Weber said the borough will ask if the lights at High and Walnut streets can be programmed to flash from midnight to 6am, when there is relatively little traffic on Main Street.

Councilman Mike McKenna said he was skeptical that PennDOT will consider making changes to the current traffic light synchronization schedule while the Route 412 reconstruction project is ongoing in Hellertown and Bethlehem.

However, Bate's motion was approved unanimously.

During the discussion about the traffic lights, councilman Joseph Pampanin also commented that at the traffic lights at the ends of the Interstate 78 ramps "it seems like you can sit there for five minutes."

That lengthy duration is leading some motorists to run those lights, Bate said.