Tyler Traffic Could Get Better Once Traffic Signals Get In Sync

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The Tyler City Council approved a measure that could help traffic flow a little better through a couple major arteries within the city.

Just take one trip - one trip - down Tyler's S. Broadway Avenue from Loop 323 and go south all the way to Toll 49. Or take one trip - one trip - down Tyler's Troup Hwy. from Fleishel Avenue and go south all the way to Shiloh Road and you'll probably never want to travel those roads again. It's not just the amount of cars that are on the road, but the number of traffic lights and it seems like they are never in sync.

You can go for a stretch of S. Broadway from Rice Road to Donnybrook Avenue and hit three lights green, but once you're past that and on to Grande and then Robert E. Lee and further, it seems like you'll catch them all red. Or if you're at Cumberland Road trying to make a left turn from either direction on to S. Broadway, you're sitting at that light for at least a minute.

Today, at the Tyler City Council meeting they approved a measure that will hopefully bring some improvement to the traffic signals along these busy corridors in the city. The city will enter into an engineering contract to retime 18 signalized intersections. These intersections are a part of the larger Intelligent Transportation Master Plan study.

These intersections are going to be studied with hopes of an improvement plan in place by August of 2020. Tyler City Traffic Engineer Cameron Williams says,

Traffic patterns change over time, and regular, proactive, cost-effective measures like retiming traffic signals will improve safety at intersections, improve flow along corridors, and mitigate driver delays."

The city released a press statement that says,

The plan recommended re-timing approximately 15 intersections per year for the first six years of the implementation plan and 30 intersections per year for the next four years of the implementation plan. The increase from 15 intersections to 18 intersections was done to capture nearby intersections along the identified corridors and provides good endpoints for the signal retiming project.

The city is spending $108,000 on the Intelligent Transportation System Master Plan Year 1 Traffic Signal Retiming Improvement contract and will study these 18 intersections:

• Broadway Avenue and Grande Boulevard
• Broadway Avenue and Robert E. Lee Drive
• Broadway Avenue and South Town Drive
• Broadway Avenue and Heritage Drive
• Broadway Avenue and Cumberland Road
• Broadway Avenue and Centennial Parkway
• Broadway Avenue and Market Square Boulevard
• Grande Boulevard and Sutherland Drive
• 5th Street and Baxter Avenue
• Loop 323 and Donnybrook Avenue
• Loop 323 and Copeland Road
• Troup Highway and Fleishel Avenue
• Troup Highway and Dulse Street
• Troup Highway and Golden Road
• Troup Highway and Loop 323
• Troup Highway and Lindbergh Drive
• Loop 323 and Paluxy Drive
• Loop 322 and University Boulevard

I, for one, have come to accept that Tyler traffic is what it is. There's no room to expand these roads. No room to build any kind of ramp system. It's just Tyler traffic. Hopefully when the plan is put in to place this fall, it will alleviate some residents' frustration, at least for a while.