TRAFFIC CONGESTION

The City of Palmdale has spent millions of dollars on new signals, and for a sophisticated traffic management and signal coordination system, including battery back-ups and remote signal controls. Those cameras mounted on the light poles aren't Big Brother watching you. They feed video back to the Palmdale Traffic Management Center at City Hall, where a computer system senses vehicle mass and monitors traffic volumes, adjusting signal timing in real time mode to efficiently manage traffic and sychronize signals. It not only looks at your intersection, but surrounding intersections and roadways, so if it seems like your red light is a little long, it may be a result of a domino effect from another intersection experiencing an especially heavy load. It is interconnected with Lancaster's Traffic Center to coordinate signal timing across city boundaries.

If you get an opportunity, visit the Traffic Management Center, located in the Development Services Building at the Palmdale Civic Center. The engineers love to show off their equipment, and it is pretty impressive. Remember the movie The Italian Job, and the shots of the traffic control room? Just as cool, only smaller. It is a highlight of the tour I give local Boy Scouts as part of their Citizenship In The Community Merit Badge.

But, have you noticed, as have I, that traffic has gotten worse near Rancho Vista/Ave P and 10th Street West? There are a number of reasons: some of it is attributable to the successful nature of the businesses in the area, a reason retail developers refer to the intersection as Main and Main! Some is from the new Quartz Hill Albertsons trucks, as county neighbors fought to keep trucks off Ave N and route them up Rancho Vista Blvd instead. And some congestion is cummulative and innevetible.

But what about around the freeway ramps? Notice how traffic seems to be especially backed up, and light timing does not contribute to moving traffic as efficeintly around those ramps? Know why?

Cal-Trans bureaucrats unplugged the fiber optic cable connected to the Palmdale Traffic Management Center that have been successfully controlling the lights at those ramps for years! During one of these Scout tours I noticed red dots at these locations on the computer screen's map, indicated they were "OFF LINE". Know why?

So Cal-Trans can justify additional budget positions for maintenance of antiquted signal controls. As the Governor demands increased accouontability, Cal-Trans will claim X number of hours of maintenance per signal, justifying X number of personnel. Outrageous!

In addition, Cal-Trans has kicked the City of Palmdale public works crews out of the business of routine and emergency servicing of signals along Palmdale Blvd, part of State Route 138, for the same beauracratic budgetary reasons. In addition to the daily traffic snarls, it has resulted in slower response times by CalTrans to service calls for signal problems, and creating new traffic jams at broken signal

The ironic thing is, we have been successfully maintaining these controllers for years, at not cost to the state, and offered to continue to do so, So far, Cal-Trans has rebuffed our offer. In fact, they have unplugged the controllers at all the ramps in Palmdale and Lancaster. That may account for the sudden increase in congestion at Ave K, as observed by some Lancaster officials at a recent meeting when I brought this to their attention.

Last check with Public Works -they are still disconnected.

Last time I drove (slowly) through 10th and RV Blvd - still congested.

As our staff continues to work on resolving this issue with Cal-Trans, I have repeatedly brought this to the attention of State Senator George Runner and Assemblywoman Sharon Runner. I also told the former Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts, who was then MTA board member representing this area, in attempt to shake a few trees and get this resolved. So far, Cal-Trans has remained intransigent, but additional public pressure to our state legislators may help.

I' ve asked that this be placed on our upcoming City Council agenda, as well as the joint meeting with Lancaster for a joint resolution, to try to get some action on it. If you agree that something needs to be done to correct this situation, e-mail me back here and at "shofbauer@cityof palmdale.org" as well as the other council members (link on the city web site) and our state representatives.

Check back here for further updates.