SANDPOINT — The Idaho Department of Transportation updated the timing of four traffic lights on U.S. 2 down to S. Boyer Avenue last week as part of an effort to improve traffic flow.

The traffic lights on Larch, Cedar and Pine streets as well as on S. Boyer Avenue needed to be resynched to each other after a light was moved from Church Street over to Pine. ITD Staff Engineer Breanna Logerwell, who monitors the lights, said that previously all four lights were running “free,” only optimized for their own efficiency.  

"If somebody was trying to get from Larch all the way down to Boyer, they would run into the possibility of having to stop at every single signal,” Logerwell said. “This should alleviate that particular [possibility].”  

Logerwell said that the lights were left desynched while the ITD collected data about the use of the streets. She said that once they collected the data that the ITD picks days at random to analyze trends and see if the lights need different timings depending on the time of day. 

From there, the numbers are run through ITD’s traffic model multiple times in a process that can take weeks, according to Logerwell. Once the simulation determines the optimal timing for routes, they are implemented, while the ITD continues to monitor with boots on the ground. 

"All this simulation is in a perfect world, which needs to translate to the real world,” Logerwell said. “We have someone driving the corridor to kind of have boots on the ground and see, ‘Is this working?’” 

Logerwell said that ITD typically updates the lights on smaller corridors like Sandpoint’s every two years, but they are conducting this maintenance off schedule because of the shifting of the light from Church Street. 

While changes were implemented last week, Logerwell said the ITD will be continuously monitoring the lights and ensuring that they are not causing disruptions. She mentioned that she will be heavily monitoring the new timing as the school year begins. 

“It’s a little bit up in the air because we don’t know how much school is going to affect the signal timing and volume, particularly on the side roads,” Logerwell said. "When school begins in a few weeks, we’ll be out driving as well to make sure school traffic isn’t impacting too much.” 

The ITD and Logerwell encourage any residents of Sandpoint to alert them if there are any issues with the signals. 

“I’m not out there 24/7, watching these signals like a hawk, I got a total of 64 signals I got to keep an eye on, so I can’t be everywhere at once,” Logerwell said. “If anyone sees something, please say something.”