I-12 ramp light system explained for residents

• By BOB ANDERSON
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Nov 5, 2009 - Page: 3B

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WALKER — Traffic lights controlling vehicle flow on Interstate 12 entrance ramps would improve safety and travel time, Deputy Secretary Sherri H. LeBas of the state Department of Transportation and Development told Livingston Parish residents Wednesday night.

The lights, which would be set to let another car move forward every 4.5 seconds, can be controlled in real time by DOTD’s Traffic Management Center, which is able to change the timing or turn the lights off as needed, LeBas said in an interview after the meeting.

The westbound traffic ramp at Walker would have one light to control the single lane. Ramps such as the westbound traffic entrance to I-12 at Denham Springs would have a pair of lights alternately letting traffic move forward on each of two lanes, she said.

The lights should be activated next spring, said Shelby Coke, an engineer with ABMB Engineers Inc., which is serving as a consultant to the state.

“I’m all for it,” Walker Mayor Bobby Font said. “If the people respect it, it will work.”

If motorists don’t wait for the green light, they can get a ticket, he added.

Font said he is confident that DOTD’s controls would keep traffic from backing up from the westbound traffic ramp onto Walker South Road, which feeds the ramp.

The mayor said that DOTD officials told him that if the town is not satisfied, it can ask to have the ramp lights turned off.

Cities in other states that have tried ramp metering have liked it because it reduces congestion on the interstates and provides for safer merging of traffic, Laurence Lambert of ABMB told the crowd.

The lights would be placed far enough along the ramps to allow for the “storage” of waiting cars, while still giving motorists time to accelerate after the light to the needed speed to merge safely onto I-12, he said.

If traffic gets backed up too far, “the lights will go dark,” so they won’t cause congestion on the road that feeds the ramp, Lambert said.

The system is expected to get vehicles onto the interstate as fast as they are turning onto the ramps, he said.

Under normal operation, one car would move forward with each green light, Lambert said.