Vacaville Traffic Lights
Hi, I’m Ed Smith, a Vacaville auto accident attorney. The city of Vacaville recently released information on their official website detailing the city’s plan to re-time traffic signals.
Their official website, CityofVacaville.com, states that the reason for re-timing the traffic lights is to synchronize the lights in a way that promotes smooth travel and minimal traffic in the city’s major thoroughfares. The website also mentions that changing the timing of the traffic signals is expected to increase the safety of the city’s intersections.
Intersection Statistics
Vacaville’s decision to improve the safety of their intersections comes as good news to local motorists, as the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration reports that 40 percent of all car crashes across the nation occur at intersections. This places accidents that occur at intersections in the position of being the second most common type of car accident in the country, preceded in the NHTSA’s list only by rear-end collisions.
In addition to being very common accidents, collisions at intersections also account for about fifty percent of serious accidents as well as about 20 percent of car accidents involving fatalities.
Why Intersections are Risky
Intersections, typically, present a higher risk to drivers that other areas for numerous reasons. These reasons include the fact that traffic is crossing lanes, vehicles are turning, and traffic often needs to change speed or halt according to the changing of the stoplights.
Reducing Risk
If you are reading this, you may be wondering about other ways that intersections might be made safer for drivers in Vacaville. One such way is for drivers themselves to take responsibility by looking left and right twice in order to confirm that the intersection is clear for crossing before proceeding. Drivers can also develop the habit of slowing before getting close to the stoplight so that they minimize the change of an inattentive driver rear-ending them and, consequentially, pushing them into the intersection.
Besides re-timing lights, intersections can be designed in ways that mitigate the potential damages that are likely to result from left-turns, which are proven to be the most dangerous turns that one can make at an intersection. For instance, many have argued that statistics show that the use of roundabouts in place of traffic lights can reduce the likelihood of accidents at intersections. However, and tragically for citizens, most city governments in the U.S. have not seen fit to build more roundabouts despite the available information.
Resident Reactions
Residents of Vacaville have reported that it seems to them, that traffic in Vacaville is worsening. Many have reported increased commute times and congested intersections in recent months. Leilani Catanzaro, a resident of Vacaville for over thirty years, told reporters that she “…really hope(s) the re-timing of these traffic lights will help with the problem (of serious traffic).”
Vacaville Auto Accident Attorneys
I’m Ed Smith, a Vacaville auto accident attorney. If you have been injured in an auto accident at an intersection either because of the intersection being unsafe or due to the negligence of another motorist, please call my Vacaville number, (707) 564-1900. For free, friendly advice in cities outside of the area, you can call my toll-free telephone number, (800) 404-5400.
I have been helping residents of Vacaville recover what they are owed in cases involving wrongful death and personal injury since 1982.
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