08-08-2025
1,100 traffic lights in Baltimore City are being retimed. Here's what to know
1,100 Baltimore City traffic signals are being retimed, according to the Baltimore City Department of Transportation (DOT).
The signals being retimed span across all regions of the city.
According to the city, the project, which started in April 2023, will be fully completed in 2026.
Traffic signal retiming is the process of synchronizing traffic lights so that cars, people, bikes, and other vehicles move as safely as possible.
The synchronization impacts how long each light remains at stop, slow down, or go before changing.
The city says the retiming needs to be done to improve pedestrian safety, improve connectivity, reduce speeding, and reduce traffic delays.
Traffic congestion has negatively impacted Baltimore drivers, according to INRIX, a company that analyzes traffic data.
The INRIX 2024 Global Traffic Scorecard says that Baltimore City ranked 13th among the most congested U.S. urban areas in 2024.
In 2024, the average driver in Baltimore lost 48 hours to traffic congestion, an increase from 44 hours in 2023.
The cost of this lost time amounted to $859 per driver, totaling $1 billion for the city, due to congestion.
INRIX calculated the money lost per driver by multiplying the number of hours lost in congestion by a standard "value of time" figure, according to the report.
During the morning peak travel hours, the average downtown driving speed was 14 miles per hour.
The INRIX U.S. Signals Scorecard, most recently updated in 2022, says that cumulatively, an average traffic signal accounts for nearly 82 hours of delay per day.
That report uses connected vehicle GPS data to analyze vehicle movement through traffic signals.
