Video cameras now being installed to peer down at intersections in Sylvania aren't meant to catch drivers trying to jump through a red light, but to regulate the light and hopefully ease the area's increasingly sluggish rush-hour traffic.
They are part of a project costing about $850,000 that includes traffic lights and sensors placed in the pavement to detect heavy traffic flow and alter the traffic-signal phase when necessary.
The system should improve traffic flow on Monroe Street, Alexis Road and Erie Street, said Jeffrey Ballmer, the city's service director.
The sensors, Mr. Ballmer said, will communicate with the computer that controls the traffic signals so that lights will stay green longer to clear traffic when it becomes congested. Sensors on side streets will activate a change in the signal.
The 17 video cameras transmit a scene of the traffic situation to the Sylvania police dispatcher who can alter the signal to move traffic.
Mr. Ballmer said the signals are synchronized to the 35-mph limit along the route, except for the 25 mph on Monroe Street near the Burnham Building.
“You're still going to have people who speed to get to the next traffic light or somebody busy reading the paper or lighting a cigarette,'' who is slow responding when a green light comes on.
He said little is to be done about individual drivers who disrupt the general flow of traffic, but noted that the new system should keep congestion to a minimum when motorists drive responsibly.
The system is being installed along Monroe from the vicinity of the Starlite Plaza to the street's merger with Erie and then along Erie to west of Highland Meadows Country Club. The system is being installed along Alexis from Elliott Drive to Monroe.
Mr. Ballmer said most of the lights that are being replaced have been in operation since the 1970s. The new signals should save money on maintenance and on reconfiguration costs after they've been turned in high winds.
The project should be finished by the end of this month. Some work is being paid for by a $335,000 grant from the Ohio Public Works Commission.
First Published August 21, 2002, 6:04 p.m.
