WASHINGTON - Backed up at a traffic light? Frustrated when you hit a red light only a block after driving through a green? Odds are, those traffic signals may need some work.

A new survey being released says the nation's traffic signal operations are largely inefficient, leading to frustration and unnecessary delays for motorists, wasted fuel and more air pollution as vehicles constantly stop and go.

The survey, prepared by a coalition that included the Federal Highway Administration and various transportation groups, was based on surveys last fall of 378 traffic agencies in 49 states. It found:

68 percent said they have either no documented management plan for their traffic signal operation, or their plan is to simply respond to problem intersections as they happen.

71 percent don't have staff to monitor traffic before and after normal working hours.

57 percent said they don't conduct routine reviews of traffic signals within three years.

The report measured how traffic agencies manage their systems, review traffic signal timing, maintain an inventory of traffic data and provide adequate staffing. It contends there are not adequate resources for monitoring and coordinating traffic signals, and estimates that improving the system could cost roughly $965 million a year.

Many communities have not completed a systemwide retiming of their traffic lights in a decade, said Phil Tarnoff, director of the Center for Advanced Transportation Technology at the University of Maryland.

Bellevue, Wash., was the first community to have a centralized traffic computer for timing signals, and the system has been upgraded three times as the Seattle-area community has grown.

Mark Poch, the city's traffic engineering manager, said the system - which connects to individual traffic cameras - allows them to adjust signals for traffic flows, emergencies and special events.

In Springfield, Mo., the city has used federal grants the past four years to begin to connect the traffic system throughout southwest Missouri.