Can You Get All Green Lights on Ryan Street at This Speed?

I have no idea where I heard this rumor, but I can remember it as far back as when I was getting my license. I heard from a friend of a friend that it was possible to hit all green lights heading both north and south on Ryan Street if you maintained a certain speed. I can remember in my teenage years trying it in the evenings, but traffic would always mess it up. I would get through a few, but it never failed that I would get stopped in traffic. It seems like there is some validation to this rumor. Doing a touch of research, traffic engineers call it the Green Wave. The wave can either be preset or use sensors along the roadways to maintain a better flow of traffic and reduce emissions.

I have experimented with this theory for years, but today was the day I wanted to actually give it a shot. Seeing as though there was no school, and hardly any traffic this morning, I thought this morning might be the day. The rumors I had heard over the years was that if you started at Ryan and College, you could hit every green light if you maintained a speed of 37 to 38 mph. For legal reasons, I am not encouraging you to speed. I am not saying whether I was speeding or not on Ryan Street, but the speed limit is 35mph until you cross over 12th Street and it drops to 30mph.

I actually started this test at McNeese and Ryan Street. I turned on red as soon as I saw the lights turn green facing Ryan. I got up to the test speed as I crossed in front of McDonald's headed North. The light at Sale and Ryan was still red as I got closer. I decided to back down just a touch to see. Sure enough, the light turned green! A smile crept over my face.

As I got down to College Street, the light was red. Nope, not gonna make it. Just as I went to tap the brakes to take cruise control off, it went green and so did the one at Prien Lake Road. Dear reader, I felt like I was in a spy movie and the nerdy guy with the fancy computer screens was controlling the lights for me. I hit every single green light until I got to 12th street! At 12th, I ended up having to wait for just a second or two for it to go green after stopping. Maybe I could have adjusted my speed, but we were doing this for science.

The 12th Street light went green, and I did 30mph around the corner headed towards 7th. The light there suddenly went green. I ended up finally getting hung up at a red light as I was turning left onto Broad Street to head to the radio station. This isn't the first time I have tried this experiment, but it's the first time I really tried to do it with some scientific purpose.

I don't suggest you speeding in any area around Lake Charles, it can be very dangerous. Also, it's against the law. However, if you are in a bind, it seems to be a legitimate theory.