If you’ve been skipped over for a green light at a City of Tulsa traffic signal, the top traffic official wants you to know they’re working on the problem.
Traffic Operations Manager Kurt Kraft said while he's dealing with a backlog approaching 300 locations, he knows what the issue probably is.
"Many of our video detection systems are really just past their functional life. You know, you could figure probably about seven years for a video detection camera. We’ve been putting them in for nearly 20," Kraft said.
Kraft said part of the problem has been he’s had too few technicians.
"Federal Highway [Administration] recommends that you have one signal technician for every 30 to 40 traffic signals. In the past, our staffing — we had one technician for every 75 traffic signals, so really kept them hopping," Kraft said.
Vision funding for streets has kicked in, and Kraft has been able to hire several of the 15 technicians that will pay for. Tthe department has developed an in-house training program to help speed up the process.
"It’ll probably take us a year to a year and a half to get everything, to address all of those. You know, it took us about 15 years to get to this point, so," Kraft said.
Residents are still encouraged to report signal problems through the city’s 311 smartphone application.
