And so we may have a different timing plan that runs on Saturday versus one that comes on Sunday.” “Or some that have unique traffic patterns on the weekend. “For some locations, we have even more than that because we have some locations that have like a heavy lunch period, for example,” said Jacobson. The City of San Antonio lights usually have timing programs for morning rush hour, evening rush hour, and the times in between. Three factors determine when traffic lights go from green to yellow to red: “So it kind of ties it all together as one system.” Lights, Camera, Action “We pay the City of San Antonio to maintain those traffic signals for us in Leon Valley just because San Antonio has signals north of there and they have signals south of there,” Picha said. However, there are exceptions where streets in those smaller municipalities are connected to San Antonio streets. In cities within Bexar County that have fewer than 50,000 people, TXDOT owns and maintains those lights. Outside of those, TXDOT owns roughly 200 traffic signals on local frontage roads, but the state agency pays the City of San Antonio to maintain about 130 of those lights. In our region, that applies to San Antonio and New Braunfels. The Texas Administrative Code says that local governments own and maintain the traffic signals in cities that have more than 50,000 people. “The other is who’s responsible for that signal,” he added. Well, they are,” said Dale Picha, TXDOT Director of Transportation Operations, San Antonio District. One is that you know, these signals are not timed correctly. “I think that there’s two common misconceptions. Three groups are in charge of controlling, timing, and maintaining local traffic signals: the city, the county, and the Texas Department of Transportation, or TXDOT. “We get a lot of calls for folks that are saying that they’re waiting too long for a traffic light to turn green or something like that the time that the light is green isn’t long enough,” said Marc Jacobsen,” said Marc Jacobson, Transportation Systems Management and Operations Program Manager for the City of San Antonio Public Works Department. It’s much the same within the City of San Antonio. “Mostly that people are at the light too long or it didn’t let enough cars go through.” “Yes, yes we do,” said Tony Vasquez, Bexar County Public Works Division Chief. Those are gripes local public works departments hear often. And perhaps the biggest complaint? “They’re not timed well.” Or worse yet, “they’re not timed at all.” Their red light camera contract is set to expire in 15 years.No matter where you’re from or where you’re going, every driver deals with traffic lights. “Keep a look out for those of us that can’t look out for you,” Diecker said.īalcones Heights may also keep their red light cameras for a significant period. “They protect us from those reds on right, they keep drivers out of the crosswalks.”ĭiecker said even though learning the cameras weren’t leaving his area was a huge relief, he’d still like drivers to be more mindful of pedestrians like him. “We don’t stop to think about the impact of red light cameras on pedestrians,” Diecker said. He testified against this bill in the Texas legislature to tell law makers that red light cameras affect pedestrians as much as drivers. He was terrified when he thought the red light cameras would come down. Henry Diecker is a blind Leon Valley resident that walks the sidewalks of Bandera Road daily with the help of his guide dog Tony. “Only about 6 percent of our citations are given to Leon Valley residents.” “The residents of Leon Valley like this program, they favor this program - but they’re not the violators,” she said. That’s because cameras are lined along busy highways that pass through the city, like Texas Highway 16 or Bandera Road. Kuenstler said most citations issued because of red light cameras are given to people passing through Leon Valley. “The Leon Valley City Council is going to implement ordinances that their citizens want and that favor the community of Leon Valley.” “Ninety-four percent of residents favored the red light camera program,” Kuentsler said. Leon Valley City Manager Kelly Kuenstler said residents in the town don’t want to see the cameras taken down. That means Leon Valley could keep their cameras for the next 19 years. The contract began in 2018 and was extended an extra 10 years earlier this year. Leon Valley first passed an ordinance for red light cameras in May 2017. A section of the new law allows for towns to keep their cameras through the ends of their existing contracts with vendors. Greg Abbott signed a measure into law Saturday baning the cameras statewide. Law allows cities to keep them through existing contracts.Leon Valley will keep red light cameras.LEON VALLEY, Texas - Leon Valley officials said the town will keep its red light cameras, despite a new state law banning them.
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