You Asked: What's Up With The Traffic On Oak And Fell?

You Asked: What's Up With The Traffic On Oak And Fell?Photo: Flickr / Steve Rhodes
Andrew Dudley
Published on May 21, 2014
If you think something's been a little off with the traffic on Oak and Fell Streets over the past few days, you're not crazy.

An anonymous reader wrote in a few days ago with the following tip:  

"Not sure what's up with the timed lights on Fell and Oak- they've been off since this morning and causing major traffic backups. Have you noticed this too or heard anything?"
So we took a little stroll down said streets, and quickly noticed the same thing.  Lights that had previously been synchronized to ensure smooth vehicular flow were changing without regard to each other, resulting in serious backups followed by long gaps in traffic.

We checked in with SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose, who told us that the asynchronization was not intentional, and has since been fixed: 

"The lights were just malfunctioning at the end of last week. System coordination was off so it would throw the sequencing of lights off. The signal shop made repairs [Monday]."
So, there you have it: order has been restored.  Carry on, crosstown drivers, carry on.