Get ready for a faster trip on Des Moines roads
Get ready for a faster trip on Des Moines roads. The City is working to adjust or re-time all 425 traffic lights.
It's been 20 years since the City of Des Moines Traffic Engineers took a look at the city's traffic lights to see if the red, yellow and green lights are on and off at the right times. Now it's time to update them.
“Hopefully you'll see a more consistent flow of traffic," said Des Moines Traffic Engineer John Davis.
Davis and his staff are on a mission. They are studying all 425 traffic lights and their intersections to see if the timing is right. If they're on too long, or not long enough. They can adjust how long red, yellow, and green lights are on. The process started before the COVID-19 pandemic hit — and then it stalled. Now they're back to work. The idea is to make sure intersections are safe so cars won’t sit idling at an intersection longer than necessary.
“The benefit is it helps reduce the number of times people stop or the length of time. And that has a benefit in terms of the environment in reducing vehicle emissions that are essentially the pollutants in the air. So it's cleaner air,” Davis said.
He said most of Des Moines' downtown lights will keep their current timing. He said drivers will notice new timing changes on roads in the rest of the city.
-The city can change the timing of the traffic lights remotely using fiber-optic connections. It hopes to have the study and the traffic light timing finished by next summer