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Traffic Q&A: Want to know the longest traffic signal in Tacoma?

Question: “What’s the longest traffic signal in Tacoma? My guess it’s the one at Sixth and Sprague and Division. I turned off my car and ate my lunch there while waiting this week.”

ROB CARSON; Staff writer
Published: June 11, 2012 at 9:59 a.m. PDT — Updated: June 11, 2012 at 10:39 a.m. PDT
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Question: "What’s the longest traffic signal in Tacoma? My guess it’s the one at Sixth and Sprague and Division. I turned off my car and ate my lunch there while waiting this week." – Chris, Tacoma

Answer: That’s a good guess. Because traffic from five directions intersects there, wait times are longer than usual.

But it’s not Tacoma’s longest.

According to Joe Nollan, senior signal/lighting electrician with the city’s engineering division, that honor goes to the intersection at South 38th and South Steele streets. (Think the old Borders store and Lincoln Plaza, just off Interstate 5.)

If you’re unlucky enough to just miss the left-turn signal on eastbound 38th, you’ll wait 3 minutes and 45 seconds for the green arrow to reappear.

At Sixth and Division, where you had lunch, if you’re westbound and miss the left-turn green, you’ll wait 3 minutes and 25 seconds.

Third-longest wait in the city, Nollan says, is at 72nd Street and Pacific Avenue. If you miss the northbound left-turn green there, you’ll wait 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

All of those are worst-case waits, Nollan says. Automatic traffic controllers speed things up when traffic is lighter.

rob.carson@thenewstribune.com
253-597-8693

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