99% Invisible Service Request #2: Why Is This Red Light So Damn Long?
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Mar 24, 2026 
Salida Reynolds, LA Metro’s Chief Innovation Officer and former traffic signal chief, dives into why red lights can feel endless in Los Angeles. She explores the Olympic origins of ATSAC, how a control room manages thousands of signals, why timing is part engineering and part psychology, and why some cursed intersections still resist every fix.
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Getting Stuck Inside The Fairfax Asterisk
- Delaney Hall rides with Vivian Lay and Cody Franklin through rush-hour LA to experience the dreaded Fairfax asterisk firsthand.
- They clear one light, get trapped between the next two inside the triangle, and Cody threatens to burn the intersection down.
The 1984 Olympics Created Modern LA Traffic Control
- ATSAC began as an Olympic experiment in 1984 and proved traffic could improve when engineers coordinated signals remotely in real time.
- Ed Rowe's team linked 118 lights near the Coliseum and cut delays roughly 30 to 35 percent, reducing idling and emissions too.
ATSAC Turns Traffic Into A Real-Time Timing Problem
- ATSAC works because it treats traffic as a citywide timing problem, using sensors, cameras, and algorithms to shift green time where backups form.
- Engineers oversee nearly 5,000 signals from downtown, while humans step in for sinkholes, protests, crashes, or overloaded conditions.