Traffic lights should be repaired

Dear Editor, I read a letter that appeared in The New Times dated February 7, titled: Traffic lights should be repaired; I felt I should share the same concern with the author. From the engineering perspective, traffic lights are supposed to solve congestion problems. However, this can only be achieved if there is coordination between traffic lights of different approaches. As a transportation engineer, I took ample time to observe traffic flow at Remera-Giporoso junction. I was astonished by the number of traffic conflicts that took place in a span of one minute at the mentioned junction. Major conflicts observed included vehicles from Kabeza road, those from Kimironko road and the pedestrians crossing the Kanombe -Kacyiru highway. Two observations were made: 1. The two mentioned approaches should be given different regimes to avoid conflicts; 2. Drivers should give way to pedestrians if the pedestrian signal is on. Traffic police and all the concerned parties should intervene to solve the problem at this notorious junction. EMMANUEL KATABARWA ASABA, TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS ENGINEERING CORNELL UNIVERSITY, NY

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Traffic lights should be repaired