Los Angeles has long been a symbol of America’s traffic congestion with its polluted stretches of multi-lane freeways turning into car parks during rush hour, aggravating its users.
However, if city planners are correct, this is about to change — with LA turning from eternal gridlock into a best practice model for traffic control.
This month, all of the city’s 4,400 sets of traffic lights have been synchronized in an attempt to alleviate the daily grind for commuters.
The hope of city officials is that with the signals synchronized, a person can theoretically drive down any street at the posted speed limit and be able to make every green light – from one end of the 469 square mile city to the other.
The project has been 30 years in the making, and although the time savings may not be immediately evident to drivers, engineers have calculated a 12 percent reduction in travel time is already being experienced on some of LA’s major corridors.
While other major cities have sections of their road network geared in such a way, Los Angeles is the world’s first major city to synchronize their entire network.