Sharon Camarda is in the travel business, but just traveling to her office along St. Lucie West Boulevard can be a chore.
“Because this traffic light here doesn’t coordinate with the one on California," she said Wednesday, pointing to the busy stretch of road.
So the city of Port St. Lucie is trying something new. It's installing an upgrade to the Traffic Management System along this four-lane road. Crews are working between I-95 and Bayshore Boulevard and putting in new equipment, including upgraded cameras at several intersections.
While the system is being installed, drivers might see some delays over the next two weeks but when the project is done, motorists should expect smoother sailing getting across town.
The new program uses what’s called “adaptive signal control”. So if a spring training crowd is leaving First Data Field, or there are school dismissals, the technology can read the traffic demand and adjust the signals accordingly.
“It’s not 100-percent accurate to say you’ll see less red lights along main corridor but you’ll see less delays along the corridor in general, and that’s the goal," said city Transportation Engineer Heath Stocton.
“To regulate the lights I think is an absolutely good idea. There's a lot of traffic on St. Lucie West Blvd., and every year it gets worse and worse and worse," said Port St. Lucie resident Rosalie Blando.
Many drivers say what the road really needs is a third lane each way, but the money isn’t there for that now, so the new monitoring system could be the next best thing.