Traffic light is a real pain | Federal Way letters

I live in a neighborhood not far from Dash Point Road and Pacific Highway South. Because of that, I must go through the new traffic light controlled intersection a half block — or a few hundred feet — west of Pacific Highway (where Redondo Way South meets 16th Avenue South).

This new traffic light is a real pain for drivers using Dash Point Road to get to and from Pacific Highway. Often times, one car will be going south from Redondo on Redondo Way and will cause a light change on Dash Point that lasts a ridiculously long time. Why couldn’t a “smart control” of some kind be put on that light so when the one car goes through the intersection, the light changes in less time than two or three minutes?

Also at rush hour times (a.m. and p.m.) cars going north or south on Pacific Highway trying to turn onto Dash Point are backed up sometimes a few minutes without any car activity on Redondo Way or 16th Avenue South. The one or two cars that triggered the light are long gone. People making a left turn going north turning onto Dash Point cannot make the left because cars are sitting at the Redondo light, and there is not enough room to move into the westbound lane.

Can’t something be done to “smarten up” the controllers at Pacific Highway and Dash Point and Redondo Way/16th Avenue South and Dash Point to make the flow of traffic smoother?

S. Petersen, Federal Way