Beware This Meridian Traffic Light That Never Turns Green
Everyone just wants to get to work on time without getting stuck in ridiculous traffic. If you have to work wildly early in the morning or way late at night, the silver lining is that you generally get to avoid the annoying traffic. Unfortunately the streets being so empty can leave traffic lights confused about when they need to turn green. And that's exactly what happens every morning on my way to work.
For the last week two weeks I have been timing how long it takes for the the newly installed traffic light on Black Cat and Ustick to turn green for me to turn left onto Ustick from Black Cat toward Ten Mile. If I get to that light between 5am and 5:15am, I can expect to be sitting there hoping for the light to change for no shorter than 5 minutes. The whole time I flash my brights hoping to trigger a sensor. I could understand if the streets were busy at that time, but at most 2 cars happen across that small intersection while I'm waiting.
In early summer that intersection was a four way stop, which was awesome late and night and early in the morning. A quick stop and go. But obviously a nightmare during rush hour, which was the point of installing it in the first place. In the grand scheme I suppose it's better to alleviate that traffic vs worrying about a few cars in the early morning or late at night. But if you're running late, avoid this light when the streets are empty.