I've found that if you take off from a downtown light when it turns green and drive 88 mph, you can make four lights before you have to stop.
That is, if you don't transport back to 1956 first.
Expect this inefficient system to remain in place until Houston tears out the boondoggle rail...
Q: The traffic signals downtown are still a joke. They all turn green (or red) at once! On Austin Street, for example, all the lights from south to north in downtown turn green at once. The objective (I suppose) is to go as fast as you can to make as many lights as you can. When are they going to fix this?— David Kester, Houston
A: The traffic signals downtown are synchronized, meaning the lights on north-south and east-west streets change at the same time. This is by design, said Wes Johnson, spokesman for the Department of Public Works and Engineering.
In other parts of the city, public works has been sequencing the traffic signals. Sequenced signals turn green as traffic rolls along the major street, meaning a motorist traveling the set speed (usually the limit or 5 mph under) won't usually have to stop.
The city has agreed with the Metropolitan Transit Authority that the Main Street light rail line is the most important aspect of downtown signal timing. Trains receive priority at intersections and the system is designed so that they should not have to stop between stations. This makes sequencing downtown lights impractical, Johnson said.
He said the massive street repairs downtown since 1998 have disrupted normal traffic patterns, making it difficult to sequence the signals even if MetroRail were not a factor.