What’s Behind the Timing of Houston Traffic Lights?

Nearly every time we’ve done a pet peeves segment on Houston Matters we’ve received an email from a listener complaining about the synchronization of traffic lights around Houston — but particularly through downtown.

It seemed appropriate then that we’d find out just how those decisions are made and what are some of the things taken into consideration when calculating the timing of traffic lights.

Houston Matters Producer Edel Howlin sat down with Jeff Weatherford, the City of Houston’s deputy director of the Traffic Operations Division. Edel began by asking how often does the city look at the traffic lights patterns.

MORE: 
Downtown Signals Out of Sync, But City Working to Correct (Houston Chronicle, March 18, 2014)
Traffic Light Timing Keeps Congestion in Sync (Houston Chronicle, May 27, 2013)
Downtown Traffic Signal Sequence Aims to Pull Out All the Stops (Houston Chronicle, Nov. 24, 2007)