FT. LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - Drivers in Broward will now find it smooth sailing along most of the county's major east-west roads.

For the past several months county workers have been synchronizing the traffic lights on a number of roads, including Sunrise Boulevard, Oakland Park Boulevard and Atlantic Boulevard, so that drivers doing the speed limit will not hit a stop light, according to the Sun Sentinel. They also synchronized the lights on north-south University Drive and U.S. 1.

Dubbed operation "Green Light Strike Force" by Broward's traffic engineering division, county engineers hope to have the rest of the major north-south roads synched by the end of the year.

County traffic engineering division assistant director Scott Brunner said while the synching of the lights has made a major improvement on most of the roads, there are still some problem areas. For example on Oakland Park Boulevard, between State Road 7 and Inverrary Boulevard, the set timing for the traffic signals is sometimes disrupted by fire-rescue vehicles going to Florida Medical Center.
Also, timing can be disrupted by school speed zones, accidents, construction and buses which can preempt the signal.

Driving too slow, or too fast, means more red lights. The engineering department said more work needs to be done on Hollywood Boulevard east of I-95, Pines Boulevard west of Flamingo Road and Hallandale Beach Boulevard because of heavy congestion during certain parts of the day and on the weekends.

Source: The Sun-Sentinel