SAN MARCOS — Anyone who drives knows the frustration of getting a green light just to have the next one turn red. San Marcos city staff submitted a $549,000 plan to City Council on Aug. 12 to renovate the traffic control system along the complete route of San Marcos Boulevard, the city’s main artery, to make that happen less often.

The city’s main drag has had a static traffic control system for years. While it has improved drive times and reduced traffic light waits, the system has to be programmed manually in a very labor-intensive fashion.

“This project ... would take it to the next level and make it a dynamic, highly automated system,” City Manager Paul Malone said.

The new system, purchased from McCain Inc., will utilize more than 2,000 individual sensors mounted in the pavement and on video cameras along San Marcos Boulevard as well as the intersecting side streets to monitor and control traffic through coordinated stoplights.

The current system almost always gives priority to traffic moving down San Marcos Boulevard to the detriment of the commuters on other streets. The new system will be more holistic, taking into account traffic conditions over a much broader area to better facilitate its flow.

Stoplights will recover from the passage of emergency vehicles more quickly, too. Right now, it takes as many as three cycles of the traffic signal before traffic really recovers from a fire engine or ambulance pre-empting the light.

Under the new program, City Engineer Mike Edwards said he expected to see a minimum of a 10 percent improvement in travel time along the main corridor and more improvement along side streets. He said this figure was based on similar systems incorporated in Los Angeles and some European and Australian communities.

“What we hope you notice is not much,” Edwards said. “We think most folks are not even going to be conscious that they’re traveling faster. I think if you’re paying attention you’re going to see significant improvements”

Vice Mayor Hal Martin seemed dubious of the new system, particularly after Edwards described the traffic systems in other cities, which haven’t been particularly successful.

“How do we know that this one’s going to work?” Martin asked. The vice mayor, in particular, wanted to know if San Marcos would see the delays and disruptions resulting from street sensor installation. This has been an issue in the past. “Everyone obviously is for better traffic ... I just question the destruction over the years and how far it’s going to get us.”

Edwards assured Martin that because the system would primarily utilize existing sensors, there would not be much new construction. At the same time, Edwards was unwilling to promise 100 percent effectiveness right out of the gate.

“There will be short-term delays, and like any technology there’s going to be some bugs to be worked out, so it may get slightly worse before it gets better,” Edwards said.

When council member Rebecca Jones asked if it might be possible to apply the new system to other streets, Edwards said that San Marcos’ share of Proposition 1B, a statewide $20 million transportation improvement bond passed in 2006, only allowed for improvements on the San Marcos Boulevard corridor.

Despite these concerns, the proposal was met with general approval and the council passed it unanimously.

“We should keep track of that percentage increase or improvement and then calculate the pollutants that we’ve saved putting in the air and then send it to the attorney general so he knows we’re doing our part,” Preston said half-jokingly.

The new traffic system should be in place by the beginning of 2009, according to Edwards.