One of the real pains about morning radio is getting up at 3:15 in the morning. I'd rather stay in bed, thank you. But one of the benefits of heading to work that early has been taken away from me and I'm not quite sure why.

When you're blurry eyed and tired and heading to work when I do, I love the fact that the traffic lights are blinking yellow. It's one less thing I have to think about. I can set my cruise, take my time and stroll into work. But for some reason, Cedar Rapids has done away with the flashing yellow lights along first avenue. They used to switch over from flashing yellow to their normal mode at 6 a.m. But now they're fully operational when I head to work, and its a pain in my backside!

This morning I got stopped at FOUR traffic lights in Cedar Rapids before I even hit the downtown area! Now I'm more than willing to do this if the red lights are triggered by oncoming traffic. But I was the ONLY ONE ON THE ROAD! I sat at the red light with no other vehicle in sight. Yes, I understand that the lights are on a timing system. But why so early? You aren't controlling the flow of traffic at 3:30 in the morning. You're only slowing the one vehicle on first avenue down. And that would be me.

So this is my unofficial petition to the city of Cedar Rapids to put the lights on First Avenue back to flashing yellow during the early morning hours. Save the sanity of early morning travelers like me. Mayor Hart....are you listening?

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