Norman Police Educate Drivers About Difficult Intersection

It's called one the most accident prone intersections in Norman.

Tuesday afternoon, it was the center of attention for Norman police's traffic division, educating drivers on how to navigate through the intersection of Robinson and Crossroads Blvd/Rambling Oaks Drive.

Norman police and city engineers admit this intersection has problems. The traffic nightmare stems from the 150-feet between the two lights.

“It is one of the busiest, but most of all it's one of our highest traffic accident locations,” said Lt. Jeff Robertson, Norman police traffic supervisor.

The issue, police say, is the distance between the Interstate Drive light and Crossroads-Rambling Oaks Drive light on Robinson.

There's only 150 feet between the two and too many drivers try to squeeze in.

“It's just becomes a domino effect of cars backing up in the intersection,” Robertson said.

Drivers blame poorly synced traffic lights as the cause of the intersection's problems, but Norman's transportation engineers said the lights are synced to three different patterns that vary depending on the time of the day.

“You have about 100 seconds of cycle time to manage throughout all these intersections and you have to break that 100 seconds up to give each area or each light cycle,” Robertson said.

Though the light cycles do get out of sync if an emergency responder goes through or when someone pushes the button for the crosswalk. No citations were handed out on Tuesday, but officers gave drivers a polite reminder to stay behind the line while waiting at the intersection.

There is relief in sight. There is a plan in the works to re-engineer the intersection to help with the congestion.