Nearly two years after turning on the “Intelligence Transportation System” stop lights on 228th Ave. from one end of the City to the other, Sammamish is finally fixing it.

The ITS is intended to coordinate lights on 228th to give green lights and expedite traffic.

The problem: side streets and left turn arrows faced long delays, even when there was little or no through traffic on 228th.

Issaquah and Bellevue, just to name two nearby cities, have flashing yellow lights to permit left turns when there is little traffic. Sammamish officials said duplicating this in Sammamish was costly and sight distance issues existed.

“After advocating for them repeatedly (with help from citizens asking for them), [this] apparently has done the trick,” Deputy Mayor Christie Malchow told Sammamish Comment.  “The 228^th corridor is slated to get the first the week of 9/11 at 228^th & SE 4^th.  There will be four others on the corridor (Inglewood Hill, SE 16^th, SE 20^th, and SE 24^th).  I think we’ll find that wait times at those lights diminishes in part.  And certainly the frustration of sitting through cycles of lights waiting to turn left will decrease by a lot.”