Hey, the city’s about to add more traffic cameras, but not the kind that capture evil people running red lights in their fancy imported sports cars. The cameras will monitor cars and control the redness and greenness of the lights, increasing safety and hopefully improving the Awesome Traffic Flow Efficiency Equation (ATFEE). This, by itself, is both boring and uninteresting news.

But, as the Leader-Telegram points out, it marks a new direction in the city’s traffic sensor technology, and I gotta be honest, the old tech sounds really damn cool. Most of the city’s lights are controlled by underground wire coils that produce a magnetic field. When your car/scooter/hovercraft enters the magnetic field, the street knows you are there, and the lights change accordingly. Sure, these new cameras are more effective and less prone to environmental damage, but .... underground magnetic field-producing coils! Very retro-future-ish.

But hey, safety counts for something, I guess. One of the intersections to get the new cameras (this summer) is Washington Avenue and South Farwell Street. The plan is to make the intersection more pedestrian/bicycle friendly because it sucks pretty bad right now. The L-T interviewed Aaron Ellringer from Just Local Foods (located on that corner), and he said, "People can't send their kids to the store to get eggs because of the traffic at this corner."

The city also plans to remove the concrete island on that intersection, ending the “right turn no stop” freedom of cars turning from Washington onto Farwell.