To those who think Bridge Avenue has traffic problems only twice a day, let’s get this matter straight. You are incorrect.

The worst spot on Bridge Avenue is the intersection of Hawthorne Street. Many are the times when southbound drivers are stopped on the street, looking across the fairgrounds and waiting to crawl forward. Here is when that happens:

♦ Bridge Avenue traffic backs up during the morning commute, when people are going to work and school.

♦ It backs up close to the start of the noon hour, near the end of the noon hour and sometimes in between.

♦ Traffic backs up when Albert Lea High School lets out.

♦ It backs up at the end of the work day.

♦ It backs up whenever there is a sports event starting at Albert Lea High School and backs up even worse when the event is over — especially football games.

And at all of these times it backs up even worse when a driver wants to turn left onto Hawthorne Street.

Real solutions to this problem will be determined much later — city and county officials are only looking for bright ideas right now.

But one step that could be taken much sooner is this: Change the timing of the stoplight so the green light for Bridge Avenue is longer than it is now, even when Hawthorne drivers approach the intersection. Make it so Hawthorne’s turns to go happen less frequently.

In other words, don’t let one or two Hawthorne autos back up a fleet of Bridge autos.

This simple step will alleviate some of the backups.

Bridge is an arterial, and Hawthorne is residential. In suburban cities, when residential streets meet arterial streets, the residential street motorists wait a long, long time for the green light. That’s how it should be when Hawthorne Street drivers approach at Bridge Avenue.