8 out of 10 lights timed for traffic. Really?

WASHINGTON -- Call it healthy skepticism. The vice-chair of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board doesn't believe a new report that says eight out of every 10 traffic signals in the region are "optimized," meaning they've been retimed to reduce delays.

"As I drive around the region, I simply don't believe that we've got 80 percent of our traffic signals functioning at the best way they possibly can. I just don't find that credible," says David Snyder.

A report presented to the planning board Wednesday says planners optimized 56 percent of the region's lights using computer analysis methods from 2006 to 2008. Officials checked and adjusted another 24 percent using other methods.

Even though a signal is optimized, that doesn't always translate into a faster trip for drivers. For instance, high traffic volumes and turns may create delays. Drivers headed in the opposite direction of most of the traffic also may experience delays at optimized signals.

Snyder says more needs to be done to improve traffic flow.

"A lot of the discussion right now is on building a new bridge or a new transit system, but it is fixing the little things like this that can have a huge impact. These signals can lead to unnecessary congestion, unnecessary stress on drivers, unnecessary environmental damage due to vehicles idling. We are not to the point where I am satisfied."

Snyder says many of the more than 5,400 traffic signals in the region are ill-timed, but he points out one particular intersection as the worst offender.

"River Road and Wilson Lane in Bethesda. It can be midnight and there's no one around, and you sit there (at a red light). Sometimes it can be for two minutes."

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