Does it seem as though it takes longer to drive through St. Petersburg these days? One viewer thinks so and wrote into the Traffic Inbox to find out why.

Mark Eggert has lived in St. Petersburg for nearly 20 years and has always had an appreciation for how the city manages its traffic signals.



"I always loved that the lights were timed, especially going up Fourth Street or First Avenue North or South where you could essentially drive the speed limit and make all the lights," he said. "You could see them turning green right ahead of you."



Eggert has lived in other cities that don't time their lights well. Recently he was hosting out-of-town friends and was excited to show them how the city times its lights.

"We headed down from the west side of town to downtown and I was bragging about how good it was, and...not so much," he said. ""We got caught by several lights."

Have you noticed as well? There has been a change in the timing of St. Petersburg's traffic signals. The change isn't only in place on Fourth Street or First Avenues North and South.



According to Mike Frederick, the city's Neighborhood Transportation Manager, the issue can best be described as city-wide growing pains.



"They're upgrading from old...coordinating software to new coordinating software," he said.



For drivers, that means some lights are running their own cycle, while others are on the old system. Even more on are on the new system.



"None of the three components are coordinated, so throughout the city you're going to see delays and timings that you didn't see before," Frederick said.



Frederick said all of the city's traffic signals should be transitioned to the new coordinating software sometime in July.