RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT; HOW MUCH TIME ARE YOU WILLING TO WASTE?

By D. E. Lovett

Camden County is in serious need of the services of a competent traffic engineer, and the political will to enforce the findings of a traffic engineering study. The most obvious starting place is the massive proliferation of traffic lights. Think we have enough already? Think again: there are definite plans for at least nine more in the near future. It is now impossible to get out of St. Marys without passing through five, soon to be six, traffic lights. And unlike true love, a traffic light is forever- witness the lonely monument in Woodbine which bears blinking testimony to the days, a generation ago, when there was actually traffic on US 17.

It would be hard to judge the most pernicious lights, given that the great majority of them poorly serve a limited usefulness for only an hour or two a day, and constitute an active impediment to the smooth flow of traffic the remaining 22-23 hours. But serious claim must go to the light at Gross Road and Colerain (it is not a Parkway, and doesn’t pass within gunshot of Laurel Island.) In the modern day of intelligent traffic control devices, this controller shows all the intelligence of the politicians who ordered its installation: it turns color, 24/7, at 45 second intervals without regard to whether or not there is any traffic to justify it. And if you haven’t figured it out, don’t try to get out of town that way when the High School is letting out: one left turning vehicle can back up traffic for more than a mile!

In the fraud and waste department, for which government is duly famous, consider the absurd pedestrian signals at Colerain and Kings Bay and St. Marys Roads. At least we have not replaced the burned out lights which simply waste electricity! And is there any rationale for the light southbound on Colerain at St. Marys Road to stay green for 45 seconds, regardless of the lack of traffic? In a similar vein, why does the light at the Franklin Gate to the Sub Base hold up traffic on Spur 40 for almost two minutes, including 45 seconds for the green arrows, absent any traffic?

While the lights on Osborne at Dilworth and Julia might have made some sense when the paper mill was changing shifts, and the Bag Plant was thriving, before the Unions drove it away, today they simply impede traffic on GA 40, without regard to demand from cross traffic. They, like their cousin on Colerain and Gross, simply turn red for no apparent reason, other than the passage of time. The lights at St. Marys Road and GA 40 never made sense from the beginning, and the left turn arrows on GA 40 (westbound) at Kings Bay Road are a serious waste, since there is no road to the left!

The waste of time and gasoline to our citizens is truly appalling, and it’s going to get worse. Camden County is in serious need of the services of a competent traffic engineer, and the political will to enforce the findings of a traffic engineering study.