Miami commissioner wants a study on solar-powered traffic lights

When Miami gets hit with its next major storm, perhaps traffic lights won’t be out of commission for days and even weeks after the fact, creating havoc (four-way stop mayhem) on our roads while piling on an unpleasant dose of additional stress.

Months after Hurricane Irma wiped out most of Miami-Dade County’s power grid, and MDC Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava is inquiring about a potential solution, pleading for a study looking at the cost of going solar, reports the Miami New Times.

"Once we got back to normal and the lights were still not fully functional, it was mayhem," Levine Cava tells MNT. "Traffic is such major problem here that not having traffic lights only compounds the problem.

"We lost power at more than 1,900 intersections and it took many days to get them all back on line. Solar traffic lights could make us more resilient to storms, saving us money, protecting the motoring public, and ensuring our police can fight crime instead of direct traffic."

She’s not the only Miamian thinking solar.

Over the summer, South Miami became the first Florida city to mandate the implementation of solar panels on new homes and existing ones seeking to increase square footage by 75 percent or more.