Socialist Bob Kaufman hates city traffic lights that won?t cooperate.
That?s why Baltimore?s most radical candidate for mayor, who has promised drug flea markets to curb crime, has set his sights on another destructive ill that plagues the city: unsynchronized traffic lights.
The beguiling, befuddling and maddeningly uncooperative lights that trap frustrated drivers may have to start working together if Kaufman is elected.
“All the traffic lights on major streets in the city have to be calibrated,” Kaufman said. “It will decrease the fumes that pollute the air, and probably save accidents, and save motorists from wasting time waiting at red lights.”
Kaufman said his carefully crafted plan stems from his experience driving the streets of Baltimore.
“There are certain relatively minor things that could save health and money that you don?t have to have a socialist government to accomplish,” he said.
That?s why he added the issue of synchronized lights to his 32-point mayoral platform, along with a plan to replace traffic bumps with grooves in the pavement.
“Grooves are cheaper, they don?t scare the driver and there will be less damage to the cars,” he said. “I had to get new shocks and struts because of all the speed bumps in the city.”
City Department of Transportation spokeswoman Rosita Sabroffo-Reninick said her agency already has synchronized some important downtown thoroughfares, including lights on Martin Luther King Boulevard, and Hardford and Belair roads from North Avenue to the city line.
“Approximately 200 intersections are now synchronized,” she said.
Sabroffo-Reninick said the heavily trafficked downtown byways, St. Paul and Calvert streets, may be next in line.
“Most likely they will be doing a study to synchronize those lights,” she said.
AAA Mid-Atlantic spokeswoman Ragina Averella said her organization supports synchronized lights.
“It?s a fairly inexpensive measure that can improve traffic flow and congestion without the cost of building any extra capacity,” she said.
Kaufman said his proposal proves that socialists can actually be pragmatic.
“Anything that makes sense is probably a socialist solution anyway,” he said.
