Some Downtown Traffic Lights Out All Day, Due to Old And Deteriorating Equipment
Many streets of downtown San José, like Avenida Segunda (Second Avenue), have two sets of traffic lights - the old that are being phased out by the news one. Yesterday, neither of the two systems were working, provoking chaos in the centre of town.

Apparently, a system that controls the old traffic lights failed for a good part of the west half of Avenida Segunda, and the new traffic light system is yet to be operational.

Five major intersections were affected by the failure, which began early morning and were still not working close to midnight last night.

No traffic accidents were reported as drivers were armed with patience and caution crossing the affected intersections.

According to Mario Chavarría, subdirector de Ingeniería de Tránsito del Ministerio de Obras Pública, there was a failure in one of the relay systems that controls the traffic lights. The cause of the failure was not fully known, if it was a result of a power failure or just that the equipment is old and worn out.

The system is decades old and according to Chavarría, the "intelligent" traffic light system in the downtown core will be completely working by October. On some Avenidas and Calles, the new traffic lights are already working, however they are not yet controlled by the central command centre.

The installation of the new system is by Semáforos Mexicanos (Semex), which is currently in the processing of installing the new traffic lights and removing the old ones.

Once the work is complete, a command control centre will take over the function of the traffic lights,  which will be responsible for regulating traffic flow in the downtown core.