DOT: 54W rush hour improves 50%

Motorists on Ga. Highway 54 between Willowbend Road and MacDuff Parkway may have noticed improved traffic flow on the corridor recently.

That’s because the computerized timing for the signals has been adjusted, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation. DOT is reporting that rush hour travel times have improved 50 percent as a result.

The signals were readjusted to give more “green light” time to cars on Hwy. 54 during the rush hour periods, thereby decreasing green light time for side streets entering the highway, DOT officials said in a letter to City Engineer David Borkowski.

“During the hours when traffic is very heavy, (4:45 p.m. to 6 p.m.) the mainline is saturated,” wrote DOT traffic operations manager Michael Presley. “At that time the signals are set to move as much traffic as possible along the mainline and the side streets get minimal service. This is our standard procedure when a corridor reaches capacity in order to address the most critical need of the area and this will cause some uncomfortable delay on the side streets.”

Conversely, during the middle of the day the signals are set to “accommodate side street traffic on a routine basis and allow traffic on state route 54 to move in progression from one end of the corridor to the other.

When traffic is light, the signals will operate “on demand,” DOT officials said.