DOCTOR PHILLIPS, Fla. — Fraser Howe wrote into Traffic Inbox recently because when he leaves Sunday services at Presbyterian Church of the Lakes in Dr. Phillips, he said he can sit at the traffic light for 30, sometimes 45 minutes.

“You’ll come up here to the traffic signal and wait,” he said.

When church lets out, Howe said cars get stacked up on Lincoln Avenue, with drivers hoping to turn left onto westbound Conroy Windermere Road, but they’ve got to wait for the short green light.

“As a traffic engineer, I’ve actually timed the cycle length here,” said Howe. “It’s about two-and-a-half minutes from green to green. The side street here gets about 12 seconds out of that.”

With his background in traffic engineering, Howe said he thinks it should be a quick fix for Lincoln Avenue drivers.

“I believe the county traffic engineers could re-time the signal just for Sunday morning when there is not as much traffic on Conroy Windermere Road, and give us enough green time to allow more folks to get out,” he said.

Spectrum News told Orange County officials about the problem and Howe's proposed solution, and the traffic engineering department agreed to adjust the signal timing for Sunday's at midday.

“The northbound/southbound green is now up to 55 seconds, eastbound/westbound left turn is up to 15 seconds, and eastbound/westbound through is up to 50 seconds,” Orange County chief traffic engineer Hazem El-Assar said in an email.

Howe hopes the change in signal time helps with the backups.

“We know the Lord works in mysterious ways and hope that he will inspire the traffic engineers to give us a break, at least on Sunday morning,” Howe said.

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