Butler's new Main Street traffic configuration is in place and motorists have been trying to adjust to it.

However, not everyone is happy with the new setup, which has one lane traveling in each direction and a turn lane in between. Indeed, if the comments heard in one Main Street shop are an accurate indicator, it might be safe to say that most people aren't happy with it.

Motorists don't relish the prospect of being held captive to a long line of slow-moving vehicles without any prospect of getting around the traffic ahead. That is complicated by the prospect of having to stop at traffic signals several times during the trek up or down Main Street, and having to stop while someone tries to maneuver into a parking space.

When new traffic signals were installed on Main Street, the timing of the lights - coupled with two travel lanes in either direction - facilitated a more steady flow of traffic through the city than had existed previously. The change to one lane in each direction has negated much of the benefit that the new lights and their timing had provided.

Meanwhile, motorists are having difficulty getting across Main Street because of the timing of the signals governing the side streets. The "greens" and "cautions" are too short to allow more than a couple of vehicles to get either on or across Main Street. The left-turn arrow for traffic entering Main Street from West Penn Street is active for just five seconds before oncoming vehicles are allowed to move - a span of time to allow just one or two vehicles to turn left, no matter how many vehicles might be "stacked up" at the light.

It is not uncommon for a motorist who is seven or eight cars back from certain intersections to have to endure three traffic signal cycles in order to get on or cross Main Street.

The current "improved" system is fraught with delay and frustration, encouraging some motorists to use other routes and avoid the downtown, which is good for a lower traffic volume but not good for the merchants and other businesses that rely on traffic, in hopes of enticing some of it to stop. And, it is troubling that people with the expertise to produce something better can't do so on the first attempt.

If city leaders have a hand in promoting this traffic boondoggle by way of their recommendations, the state Department of Transportation ought to resist any more of them - if only to avoid an unfair reflection on its ability and performance.

Hopefully PennDOT can implement changes to make the city more traffic-movement hospitable and less a basis for anger and impatience. James Struzzi, a PennDOT spokesman, said two traffic engineers were to be in the city Monday to monitor the Main Street traffic situation. He said the system was capable of being tweaked for greater efficiency.

According to Struzzi, going into Monday, PennDOT had received no complaints about the new traffic setup as it was operating. But the system has evoked an array of viewpoints outside of PennDOT's earshot, and many haven't been complimentary.

Struzzi said a cut or broken pavement sensor at Main and Brady streets was causing a signal-loop problem in that area of Main Street. Perhaps that is one element of an overall solution, but it certainly won't be a cure-all.

If Main Street traffic can't be made to flow efficiently before the new Main Street Viaduct is built, it will be interesting to see how the city will fare when it has a four-lane viaduct feeding into a two-lane Main Street, with traffic stop-and-going its way to the North Main Street Hill.

Will anyone really relish coming to Butler any more?

Main Street needs a significant amount of tweaking. It might need more than that.

- J.R.K.