Well, now what do we do?

I got a phone call from a listener this morning. The first thing he said was "you were right, it works!!" He then described how he turns left from West Avenue to Market Street every day and never gets the left-turn-arrow. But yesterday he stopped fifteen feet back (in the second car position) and lo and behold, he got the turn-signal. And, he now totally agrees with me... "Magnetometers are ridiculous!!"
But then he ended our conversation with a question, "well, now what do we do?" My answer was "tell the mayor. If enough of us talk about it, maybe we can finally get it fixed!"
Come to think of it, didn't one of our city engineer's promise us about five years ago that timers were going to be installed over the next few years?

I think they know about it and aren't doing anything...

Magnetometers - Part 3

Okay, let's re-cap. The problem with magnetometers used for traffic lights is that they give a green light to the traffic that stops on them. Which means that in order to get a green light you and all the cars traveling with you will have to stop and wait at each light for the magnetometer to give you the light.
And it gets worse... because the majority of the lights with left turn lanes will give the green light to the left turn lanes first, compounding your wait time. But have you ever noticed that sometimes you don't get the left-turn arrow at a lot of lights? That's because somewhere along the line a traffic engineer decided it was a good idea to put the magnetometer under the second car position in many of the left turn lanes. Brilliant. So if you're a single car, no light for you. Two cars... you get the arrow. Or (and here's the best part) just stop where the second car would be and you'll get the turn arrow. No kidding! Now not all the lights do this... but try it sometime at the light at Green Bay and West Avenue. Works like a charm.
Not all the lights around the area work as I've described... but the majority do. And of course there are variables... like if the light works the way it's supposed to work. The light at George Street and Clinton Street is awful, for example, and often keeps traffic waiting un-necessarily for two or three minutes before it changes. Definitely needs repair!!
Okay, now drive around and check it out for yourself. Knowing how the magnetometers work I bet you'll come to the same conclusions I did... that they're really dumb, they waste gas and time, and they should all be replaced with timers set to the traffic flow.
Incidentally, I've explained this to three of our mayors over the years... so far, they haven't seen a need to act. But I sincerely believe if the timers were installed and set correctly, we'd never hear any further talk about the North-South corridor that none of us want!!

Cheers, and happy driving!

Magnetometers - Part 2

So we know that a large percentage of the stoplights in the LaCrosse area have magnetometers to determine when the lights change, but how can magnetometers cause traffic jams?
Okay, imagine you're traveling North on West Avenue at 5:10 pm with normal rush hour traffic. You get to the Cass Street intersection and the light is red. So you and all the cars in your group stop. The magnetometer reads the first car in each lane and begins a countdown, and in a few seconds the light turns green. In the meantime, nobody in front of you is North/South at the Main Street intersection and the magnetometers have responded to the traffic going East/West on Main. So when your group gets moving, you arrive at the Main Street intersection and guess what... red light.
Soooo... you again wait until the magnetometer reads the first car in each lane. And a few seconds later you get another green light. Yippee, we make it through the State Street light, but by the time we arrive at LaCrosse Street... red light.
If you understand what I'm saying, you see my point - that the magnetometers are designed to stop traffic at each intersection. And of course by the time you arrive at LaCrosse Street there are 25 or 30 cars in your "bunch" and it just gets worse at every light.
And this is going on all over the city...

Monday I'll talk about the detail that makes it all even worse... the magnetometers in the left-turn lanes.

BTW, if anyone from City Hall is reading this and thinks it's wrong - send me an e-mail and I'll post your comments. What I know about magnetometers I learned from a retired LaCrosse police officer... and he hated them too!

What is a magnetometer?

Do you know? You should... because if you drive in the LaCrosse area you come in contact with them constantly. By definition it's a magnetic sensor used to detect magnetic fields... or, a magnetic sensor used to detect ferrous objects. Okay, how does that affect you? Because magnetometers are the little device used to control a large majority of the stoplights in God's Country!
And guess what? In my opinion, those little magnetometers are the worst invention ever for controlling traffic... and actually CAUSE traffic jams!!

Interested in knowing more? I'll explain myself tomorrow... stay tuned!

Words of Wisdom!

Someone sent me these today. Boy do I agree with all of them! I bet there's more good ones out there... e-mail me yours.

Words of wisdom....

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger..

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection... again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Unusual New Year's Resolution #1

This is a real easy one to remember. Guys, never ever make a girl mad if her father is in construction. Especially if he owns a backhoe!!!

Happy Birthday!

Here's a great idea when you want to do something special and out of the ordinary for a co-worker... get two 200' rolls of aluminum foil and wrap everything in their office! Just like the girls at LaCrosse Radio Group did for John Stevenson of CC106.3 on his birthday! Nice! Like John said... "curses, foiled again!"