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Drivers say that LA 1 sign showing travel time not working

7 years 6 months 1 week ago Tuesday, September 20 2016 Sep 20, 2016 September 20, 2016 4:25 PM September 20, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ
By: Ashley Fruge

BATON ROUGE – The LA 1 sign that is supposed to give commuters an accurate drive time to get across the river does not seem to be working.

The sign was put there to give drivers a leg up on which commute would take longer to cross the river: the old bridge or the new one.

"It'll tell you 10 minutes, it takes you 40 minutes to get across the bridge. It's not reliable," Earl Gonzales, driver, said.

The $64,000 sign went live in May and drivers say that it is either off or the times are not accurate.

"Most of the time that's what it'll say, 10 minutes," Tim Laborde, driver, said. "I've seen traffic backed up to Brusly over there and its saying 10 minutes, but it looks like a lot longer than that," Laborde said.

The reliability is not the only issue people have with the sign. For some, it is the price tag.

"I think they spent money in the wrong place. Could have been spent somewhere else, they got a lot of bad streets and stuff out here that need to be fixed. Other than a $64,000 sign," driver, Gerald Thompson, said.

"Instead of spending $64,000 to irritate people, spend the $64,000 to correct the problem. And its a lot more money than that, but you could put it toward it instead of putting up a sign that's totally useless," Thompson said.

The state said that the money used for the sign came from a federal grant that only allowed for technology and not construction.

The sign uses cell phone data from drivers and Bluetooth technology to give drive times. The state said that sign is off because it is getting an equipment upgrade and the Bluetooth readers need to be updated. DOTD said that once those issues are taken care of, drive times should clear up.

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