City Howl Help Desk: At the George C. Platt Bridge, that's one long left turn

THE PROBLEM: Robert Scott is tired of sitting in traffic for longer than he thinks necessary. Every evening, he said, eastbound cars stretch at least halfway up the George C. Platt Bridge, waiting to make a left turn onto 26th Street, which leads onto I-76 West.

And it's worse in the morning.

The culprit? The majority of vehicles coming off the bridge turn left onto I-76. Scott believes that the left-turn light at the foot of the bridge doesn't stay green long enough to accommodate them.

Scott, of South Philadelphia, first noticed the problem over the summer, about the time that the Tastykake factory opened at the Navy Yard. On a typical evening, he said, he waits through four or five left-turn lights before getting on I-76 - which is generally moving fine.

So Scott doesn't do it anymore. Instead of sitting in traffic, he continues on Penrose Avenue past the intersection to a Sunoco station, makes a quick U-turn, then turns right onto 26th to get on I-76. "If I stayed in that left lane every night, I would lose my mind," he said.

When Scott makes the U-turn, his commute is a manageable 15-18 minutes. When he waits for the left-turn light, it's about 30, he said.

Scott is sure the city wouldn't want his new route - where he has plenty of company, he said - to become a standard traffic pattern. So in mid-January, he contacted the Streets Department to ask if the timing of the light could be changed.

Almost immediately, he got a notice that his e-mail had been received, but nothing changed. So last week, Help Desk decided to follow up to find out what can be done about the light.

This short light has been a problem for a long time: People have complained about it before. Steve Buckley, deputy commissioner of transportation, said the city performed some traffic counts and reconfigured the light's timing back in May 2010.

The timing "is oriented toward spreading the pain and minimizing the delay for everyone," he said, adding that the Streets Department uses software called Synchro to generate light-timing schedules based upon traffic counts.

Right now, the eastbound left-turn light from Penrose onto 26th operates according to a time-of-day plan, with the longest green light (47 seconds) during the morning rush into Center City.

During the afternoon rush, when fewer drivers are heading into the city, the left-turn light lasts for only 26 seconds. The light stays green for 37 seconds during off-peak hours and for only 22 seconds during late evening (from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.), when sporting events often end and more cars are heading out of the city along Penrose.

A 47-second left-turn light is longer than most in the city, said Buckley - and proportional to the number of cars making a left during the morning rush.

Nevertheless, motorists keep complaining about the light.

Buckley points out that there's currently construction on the nearby Girard Point Bridge along I-95. Streets adjusted the timing of the lights in anticipation of that, but it's possible that Scott began noticing longer, more frequent backups on the Platt Bridge over the summer because of diverted traffic from I-95. A greater volume of cars than was anticipated could be

using the bridge.

WILL STREETS DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT? The Streets Department looks into complaints about traffic-light timing. If it gets multiple complaints on the same day, it responds immediately because, for example, after a power outage, the signal system may think it's the wrong time of day, which can create major traffic headaches.

Because the department has received several recent complaints, Streets will be conducting new traffic counts at 26th and Penrose over the next week to ensure that the timing of the left-turn light doesn't need adjustment.

A more promising solution? In the long-term, Scott's traffic woes may become a distant memory.

Streets is pursuing funding from PennDOT to install an adaptive signal-control system at selected intersections throughout the city over the next year. This system conducts traffic counts continually and adjusts the timing of lights accordingly - in real time.

If a nasty accident on I-95 diverts morning traffic onto the Platt Bridge, for example, the left-turn light at 26th and Penrose could become longer temporarily in order to handle the increased volume.

It's enough to make Buckley downright giddy.

In the meantime, we'll follow up with Streets in a couple of weeks to find out what the new traffic counts showed.

Kirstin Lindermayer reports for It's Our Money, a joint project of the Daily News and WHYY.

Have you had traffic issues, or dealt with some other city service lately?

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