Linglestown Road's Traffic Lights Are About to Start Watching Traffic. Here's What Changes on Route 39

Twelve traffic signals on Linglestown Road, from Fargreen Road to Patton Road and Woodview Drive, are being connected into one system that sets its own timing from the cars actually waiting. For anyone who drives Route 39 west of the village, the more surprising detail is who runs those lights. Seven of the twelve are in Susquehanna Township. Five are in Lower Paxton. The upgrade is a joint project between the two townships, paid for with a $1,206,406 Traffic Signal Technologies Grant from PennDOT.

That split explains the whole project. Linglestown Road crosses a municipal boundary and drivers never notice it. The point of this upgrade is to let the signals ignore that line too, so they work together as one corridor.

The twelve lights, sorted by township

The townships' draft intermunicipal agreement, dated August 31, 2026, lists the intersections in an exhibit attached to a Lower Paxton agenda item. It's still a draft, so treat the list as the planned scope, not a signed contract.

Lower Paxton residents may be surprised by how many of these are on the Susquehanna side. The Progress Avenue and Oakhurst Boulevard signals both sit in the Susquehanna column. A 2023 corridor study of Route 39 prepared by HRG describes that stretch as the Giant shopping center and commercial frontage running from Progress Avenue toward Oakhurst, in an area the study treats as spanning both townships.

The village square and its flag-pole roundabout aren't on the list. The project covers the signalized corridor between Fargreen and Patton/Woodview.

Why the township line matters on a road that ignores it

Two townships each keeping their own signals in good working order doesn't add up to a coordinated corridor. A light at Oakhurst Boulevard and a light at Crums Mill Road can each be timed sensibly and still send a platoon of cars into a red one intersection later.

The townships named that problem in their joint announcement. As PennLive reported, they said the project "is intended to improve traffic flow and signal coordination along one of the area's busiest roadways providing corridor-wide operational improvements for both municipalities."

That's why the draft agreement exists. Besides the intersection list, it includes a preliminary framework for splitting costs between the two townships. A single grant, a single system and a cost-sharing document are what let twelve lights owned by two governments behave like one road.

What "adaptive" changes at each intersection

According to PennLive's account of the township announcement, traditional signals generally run on predetermined timing plans plus vehicle detection. Adaptive signals detect demand and use that data to adjust timing as conditions change.

On Route 39, the project has three parts, per the same report:

• Surtrac Adaptive Traffic Signal System, the software that makes the timing decisions
• Video-detection cameras from Miovision, which count what's actually at each intersection
• A connection to PennDOT's Traffic Signal Unified Command and Control System, which ties the corridor into the state's signal network

The townships list the goals as smoother flow across intersections and the corridor, less congestion at peak hours, better road safety, faster response for emergency services, and better coordination between traffic management systems and public transit.

In practice, a clock-based plan treats a quiet Tuesday and a busy Saturday afternoon near Blue Mountain Commons the same way if they fall in the same time slot. An adaptive system is designed to respond to the cars that are actually there.

What the cameras record and what they don't

A new camera on every pole along a busy road raises a fair question. The townships answered it directly. As PennLive reported:

• The cameras won't read license plates.
• The data won't be used to issue traffic violations.
• The Miovision system produces anonymous, aggregate counts of vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians.
• The system must be configured so that individuals aren't identified in the traffic data.

Counting bicycles and pedestrians matters on a corridor like this. The system is built to register more than cars, though the sources don't say how that changes signal timing at any particular crossing.

The calendar between now and New Year's

Lower Paxton's project notice, posted September 16, 2026, gives the schedule:

1. September 2026: new equipment installation underway.
2. By mid-October 2026: system testing expected to begin.
3. Through late 2026: testing, calibration and adjustment.
4. By the end of 2026: fully operational.

As of October 12, the mid-October testing window is now. No public update since PennLive's September 21 story confirms that testing has started, so these dates are the townships' schedule, not a report of progress. The township's project notice page is the place to watch for changes.

During installation and testing, drivers may see temporary lane restrictions, traffic-control personnel or short delays near individual intersections. That matters for the next couple of months. A system still being calibrated can feel uneven before it settles, and the official finish line is the end of the year, not the day the cameras go up.

What a better corridor looked like in Pittsburgh

Surtrac grew out of work at Carnegie Mellon University, and the best-known measured results come from a nine-intersection pilot in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood. The Carnegie Mellon paper on that pilot reported these overall changes against the old signal timing:

Context matters with those numbers. The "before" runs took place in March 2012 and the "after" runs in June 2012, across 12 routes and four periods of the day. Traffic volumes during the "after" runs were about 5% higher. That was a different street grid, a different decade and fewer intersections than Route 39. The figures show what the technology has done somewhere else. They don't predict what Linglestown Road will look like in January.

The townships' own announcement sets expectations more modestly, as quoted by PennLive:

"Drivers should also understand that adaptive signals do not eliminate every red light or guarantee uninterrupted travel. Instead, the system is designed to make more informed signal-timing decisions based on actual traffic demand and improve how the corridor operates as a whole."

A driver turning from Colonial Road may still wait at a red. What changes is that the decision behind that red now takes into account what's happening at Crums Mill, Progress Avenue and Fargreen, across both townships, and not just a timer at one intersection.

A daily drive is one of the things that shapes how a home fits your life, and changes like this one are part of how Ellen tracks the Linglestown market block by block. If you're weighing a move along the Route 39 corridor, or wondering how commute access fits into what your home is worth, Ellen Stover offers a free consultation and home valuation grounded in the roads and routes you actually use.