70th & O, just short of a mile from East High School recently had it’s traffic signals switched from the traditional horizontal setting in Lincoln to vertical, which is more common across the country. The change is happening across intersections all over the city, and the work is scheduled to be completed by the year 2019. These aren’t the only improvements to intersections coming to the capital city however.

In addition to the 90° shift, other things to look out for are more traffic cameras, brighter LED lamps and you guessed it, roundabouts.

All of these efforts aren’t to anger drivers or cost taxpayers money, but look to improve the safety of intersections and the time it takes citizens to get from Point A to Point B.

New for the city of Lincoln that we first received in 2015 at 70th & Holdrege is the flashing yellow arrow. The purpose of the flasher is to warn drivers to yield instead of continuing to proceed. Distracted drivers who see the green light that was previously there may presume to pull forward and make a turn, which can be dangerous if there is oncoming traffic. When the light is yellow, drivers are more likely to slow down.

Why roundabouts? When the city unveiled the 14th and Superior roundabout a few years ago, it was the home of numerous crashes. Most minor, but nonetheless an accident. The city’s claim of safety seemed false and short-lived. After reducing the roundabout to three lanes from two, crashes have gone down. The cost of a traffic light costs the city around $300,000 so it makes sense why the Department of Works would prefer to build a roundabout, as the latter requires minimum further costs after the initial build. Traffic lights can temporarily fail, or burn out and stop working all together.

Some of these changes seem tedious and unnecessary, but in the long run the city will be smarter and safer.