What’s the longest traffic light in SLO? This spot made motorists wait in 1980s

The holidays are a busy time to travel, especially by car.

If drivers and their passengers are the heroes, who are the villains? Traffic lights.

We hate waiting for them, but depend on them to safely regulate the flow of traffic, especially at dangerous intersections.

However, some traffic lights were downright obstructive.

In the mid-1980s, Highway 101 still came to a complete stop in Santa Barbara with the last traffic lights between Los Angeles and San Francisco on that road.

The project, first proposed in 1954, stalled on design arguments between the state and city.

It was 1991 before the two parties agreed and the lights were removed.

Luckily, they were pulled out before cell phones were invented. The four-minute-plus wait would have tempted people to become lost in their phones while waiting.

The following story was written before pedestrian crossings, bulb outs, bike lanes, pocket parks and traffic circles were added to our everyday driving vocabulary. And we have even more traffic lights.

Dan Stephens transformed the mundane task of crossing town into a essay on traffic lights on May 13, 1985:

Here’s something to read while waiting for the stoplight to change

Some days, stoplights just seem to be against you.

When you’re in a hurry, they turn red. When you could use some extra time at a red light to study a road map or retrieve a smoldering cigarette, they turn green.

Who’s behind the conspiracy? What are the longest signals in the county, the state? And what’s the secret to beating the stoplight — the nemesis to the modern motorist?

“The way I look at it is traffic signals are a necessary evil,” said Richard Ferrall, the man who sets the timing for some of the longest stoplights in the state in Santa Barbara.

“They (stoplights) have to be there. If you’ve ever been to a signal where PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric Co.) has cut the power you’ll see why,” Ferrall said. “People don’t know what to do. They whiz through on a prayer.”

The four stoplights in Santa Barbara where Highway 101 traverses downtown are each set at 250 seconds, or 4 minutes 10 seconds.

The wait is so long that signs instruct motorists to turn off their engines.

Ignitions have yet to be shut off in San Luis Obispo County, but it may be getting close — especially at the stoplight at Foothill Boulevard and Santa Rosa Street.

“That one is the only one set for a maximum wait of four minutes,” said Bill Fieldhouse, assistant highway electrical engineer for Caltrans’ 56 signals in this county.

“It is the longest one in the county. The signals we use are all traffic actuated. The time of delay depends on the traffic flow.”

Traffic flow, eh?

That was the signal to hop in the car and go with the flow.

One recent afternoon, the flow was perfect to track the most notorious traffic lights in San Luis Obispo.

One of the most intimidating string of lights is on Santa Rosa Street — part of which is heavily traveled Highway 1.

On this two-mile stretch, 11 lights stand ready to try the patience of the mellowist motorist.

The gantlet runs from Pismo Street downtown to Highland Drive near CalPoly. This run intimidates the driver. The lights are on hills.

You can see almost all of them at once.

Each signal is a challenge in itself. But catch two or three in a row and the road is yours.

Even more special is the feeling of making all 11 signals, an almost impossible task between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

It’s a feeling of real accomplishment to the driver who is bullied daily by the traffic signal.

That day — armed with a stop watch — I traveled the Santa Rosa frustration trap in four minutes, seven seconds. The elapsed time included slowing for two pokey pedestrians who felt lucky and crossed on green.

It was a bit slower coming into town when I reversed my course.

The checkered flag came four minutes, 20 seconds after I started.

Perhaps the most infamous light in the county is at Santa Rosa Street and Foothill Boulevard. If lights had rankings like whitewater rapids, this one would be rated the most severe.

On the way out of town, it caught me for only eight seconds. Coming in, I cruised through on green.

Never fails. The day I want to stop to time the red, it’s green.

If you really want to kill some time, take a left off Highway 1 or Santa Rosa onto Foothill Boulevard.

Turning left costs me two minutes, 10 seconds each way, long enough to belt out the song, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is/Does Anybody Really Care?”

Apparently not.

Another nerve frayer is downtown San Luis Obispo on Higuera Street with eight lights.

Can downtown be broached within three minutes?

With stopwatch activated on Santa Rosa/Higuera Street, I entered the three-laned bottleneck known as downtown.

One minute, 50 seconds later, I was heading toward 101 on South Higuera with downtown in my rear view.

More than just possible.

The person responsible for the electronic traffic regulation in San Luis Obispo is Barbata Lynch who checks 43 lights.

“Generally in downtown the lights are fixed,” Lynch said.

They are set for 24 miles an hour. That means a steady foot applying enough pressure to travel at 24 miles an hour should see all green on Higuera Street heading south and all green on Marsh Street heading north out of downtown.

But such good fortune doesn’t happen in daylight when the traffic downtown slows to 5 miles an hour.

Try 3 a.m. if it’s that important.

Just east of Higuera Street is Broad Street. It’s another artery to the city.

That day, starting at Higuera and Broad streets, I drove for four minutes, 25 seconds until I passed under the new stoplight outside San Luis Obispo at Tank Farm Road.

Heading into town, it took me six minutes, 30 seconds.

If the average motorist finds the highways and byways frustrating and cuss worthy, take heart in Lynch’s job.

“Personally, I try to seek out traffic lights and traffic problems. I go out of my way to find a mess,” she said.