Ever feel like you're waiting at a red light forever?
Well, CTV Vancouver Island has crunched the numbers and found the top 10 intersections with the potentially longest wait times in Victoria and Saanich.
The region's longest wait time is a whopping 144 seconds – that’s two minutes, 24 seconds – at the Johnson Street Bridge intersection. But the City of Victoria says it won’t be like that forever.
Brad Dellebur, Manager of Transportation, Engineering and Public Works at the City of Victoria, says this summer the city hopes to finish up some of the construction in the area. Once that’s done it plans to establish some form of detection in the area.
“That will make the signals more responsive to those low periods for demand and will let the signals cycle a little faster," Dellebur said.
The science behind signal lengths
We’ve also learned there are a number of factors that go into determining how long a driver, pedestrian, or cyclist is waiting to cross a street.
Traffic volumes approaching an intersection are key to timing decisions, as are vehicle speeds, and physical conditions, such as number and type of lanes approaching a specific intersection.
In downtown Victoria the signal network uses several cycle lengths – 60, 70,75, and 80 seconds, depending on the time of day. In the northern part of the city, signals operate on a longer rotation.
There are, however, exceptions.
In Saanich, the cycle lengths are generally between 60 and 140 seconds, depending on the size and configuration of the intersection.
Saanich staff are quick to point out that the majority of its 80 traffic signals are based on demand, meaning its traffic lights are activated by sensors.
Victoria also has sensors, but not in the downtown core.
