The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Monday, January 10, 2011
Metro Section, page B4
Take to Task: What's not working
Department of Transporation
Advisory sign is too bright
With winter fully set in, Cuyler Books is concerned about the lack of lighting on one busy highway.
Brooks drives the Stone Mountain Expressway every day and said the road is equipped with large, rectangular overhead signs with amber lights for traffic advisories. He wrote the first sign at the eastern end of the west-bound lanes is much brighter than the others - to the extent that a driver's view of the road is obscured.
"I don't know why this would be or who control it. ... I would have thought the system wattage was fixed. Perhaps it varies with a sky-brightness sensor that has failed. Anyway, someone should fix the thing before it causes an accident," said Brooks.
DOT Atlanta Regional Media Coordinator Mark McKinnon said he would look into the issue.
"The brightness of those signs is controlled by a photocell in the sign. From the description, it does sound like perhaps the photocell went bad. We will investigate that problem but in the meantime, we can manually lower the brightness," said McKinnon.