Dear City Council member,

Just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the brief outage of the traffic lights around Lexington, following the ice storm of the past weekend. As you know, these intersections operated as 4-way stops while the lights were dark, and, in almost every case, this vastly improved traffic flow. In particular, at the intersection of Reynolds and Shillito, which is on my way to work most mornings, yesterday morning I waited about 12 seconds, as compared to my usual 3 minutes. Most mornings, I sit at that intersection anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes, while 3 or 4 cars drive through the intersection in the other direction. I then have about 25 seconds to get through the light before it change again, so if there are more than 3 of us, someone has to wait another light. But, while the lights were out, it was like old times, back before the unneeded and unwanted traffic light was added to the intersection.

Unfortunately, this morning the light was back in operation, and, once again, I sat for 4 minutes while 3 cars went past on Reynolds. The light on Clays Mill, however, was still out, so I managed to get right throught that intersection without the usual 2 minute wait. Yesterday, it took me 6 minutes to get my daughter to school, whereas, when the lights are working, I almost never make it in less than 12.

I noticed a number of other intersections, also, where traffic flow was a lot faster than usual, because the lights were out. I had always assumed that lights were intended to facilitate traffic flow, not hinder it. Clearly I was mistaken.

So, if you can arrange for the lights to be out more frequently, this would save me a great deal of time and frustration. If you could bring this up at the next city council meeting, this would be a great service to our community.

Thanks for your time.