Thursday, January 24, 2008

I Have To Know

How about this snow...again? I was late for work for the first time in my life, and it wasn't even by a few minutes: It was ten. It might not seem like a lot to some of you, but for someone who absolutely hates being late for work, it was a big deal to me. Traffic was moving slow, the roads were slippery, and just when I thought I was taking a shortcut at 28th and Peach, everyone and their brother was trying to do the same. I would have been better off staying on Peach. I guess it was a bad judgment this morning.
At least I didn't have to feel too badly about being late since a lot of my coworkers were too. I was the first in my department (aside from my boss) to arrive. I guess I need to allow myself more than a half hour next time even though it normally takes me 15 minutes to get to work. I hate Erie.

Anyway, let's get to the task at hand: All around town there are intersections with lights that don't seemingly need them to begin with, but they're there. Only on occasion do you actually have to sit at said intersection for a few seconds while the other traffic has the green (i.e. prime spots of Water Street by GE, south of Main; and the new light on West Grandview and Schaper [I believe]). I've always wondered why the only time it seems to be red for the busier roads is when there's someone waiting for their light to turn green. I argue that there must be some type of sensor system set up at some lights to detect a car when it pulls up so the light can be changed. My husband says absolutely not.

Therefore, I'm looking for someone knowledgeable in this area who would know the true answer to this question. It comes up in conversation every so often, and neither one of us can determine who is correct. Not to get all Dear-Abby/Ask-Laskas on you guys, but I think both of us would like to know for peace of mind. So who is the crazier one? Ok, don't answer that last question.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

the lights are on a timer. ech intersection is timed according to the ammount of traffic that flows each direction. lol. dont feel too bad darlin when we got the snow i was half an hour late for work. my boss was really cool about it though. more worried that i was alright then late.

ron said...

there is a sensor system. sometimes when you come up to an intersection, you'll see in the road where they put the sensor in. it's a hexagon shape.

obviously you will not be able to see them now with all the snow.

there are quite a few other places they have these. the intersection of nagle and station road, for one.