Stop Light

Why do I feel so violated by the proposition of a traffic light? Is it a matter of common sense, or is it a feeling of loss of the personal freedom that brought me to Alaska? Maybe both, the present configuration of the Lake Street - Highway intersection did not make any sense either, nor the islands newly planted in the middle of the highway. They serve no useful purpose other than a hazard to the snowplow. Back before the present intersection, Lake Street was a straight shot on out across the causeway to the southeast. One still had a hard time turning up Lake from southwest on the bypass and the bypass ended at the intersection. Lake traffic going out to the Spit had no problem because there was no turn. It worked for locals. The left turn up Lake was easier. The only inconvenience was the tourist leaving town from the Spit who had to yield to Lake Street traffic.

A traffic light makes no sense either when it precedes the traffic study, in fact two traffic studies. The light seems a destructive and enormously expensive solution to traffic complaints. We jump to the traffic light as a solution in Alaska just as the rest of the really over-crowed world is concluding through traffic studies that the traffic light is inefficient and a contributor to the problems. If you think, we have too much traffic now just wait until you have a traffic light. It will be an interesting case study. We all know what we have now. We will soon see what a light does for us. Just think about it, with the light everybody will have to stop half the time. The traffic will back up in both directions. Time your wait now and then do it again when we have the light.

Studies down below have concluded that traffic lights cause traffic jams unless they have the radar sensors and computer coordination to smooth the flow of traffic; that’s another million dollars. Even then, with higher levels of crowding, the lights are being abandoned for traffic circles. Anchorage has had success with traffic circles in a few locations.
While in Fiji recently, in the crowded city of Suva, it was interesting to see traffic circles painted on the road at crowded four way intersections. Trucks would go straight across while cars would yield and go round about. Some traffic circles were mere asphalt humps in the middle of the circle, which trucks could drive over while cars would drive around. It would seem that a big wide roundabout would be appropriate for fast moving highway or boulevard traffic but the smaller accommodation worked for slow city traffic. The bypass ends at Lake so speed does not seem to be an issue. With Fred Mayer coming, the flow of traffic in and out of the parking lot will surely exceed the traffic light intersection in complexity and certainly warrant a thoughtful solution.

More surprising is a most recent finding that intersections with no cross walks and no stop signs of any kind yield fewer accidents, greater flow of traffic and fewer injuries. It turns out that even the third world driver is smarter than a stop sign or a traffic light. I must admit that it is the later finding that appeals to my sense of Alaska independence, safety and frugality.
Why must we, as a small developing town, make all the same growth mistakes that were made down below? I’m reminded of an undergraduate lesson: “Ontogeny tends to recapitulate phylogeny.” You may remember that one too. By that, I mean we tend to follow the same problems with the same solutions only to learn later that there are better ones.

Let’s spend our money cleaning the streets, so the mineral dust does not sicken our children’s lungs and so our community looks crisp and clean to the tourist and to ourselves.