During this week’s City Council Public Works and Utilities Committee meeting, discussion turned to what happened to the traffic signals on Main Street as it seemed their synchronization had recently been changed and for the worse. While city staff and the committee members discussed the issue and considered their options, Public Works Supervisor Bo Westford left to make a phone call and then returned with interesting news.
City of Bellingham’s Traffic Division is responsible for maintaining and making adjustments to the Main Street signals as instructed by Ferndale city staff. Westford called their office and found out the setting had been changed to a preset setting about two weeks ago. This resulted in giving priority to side street traffic which then slowed traffic on Main Street. Neither Bellingham nor Ferndale staff could say how the change occurred.
Bellingham staff told Westford they would be out later in the day, Wednesday, February 10th, to reset the signals to where they were before the change.