Inuvik boasts the only traffic lights in Canada's Arctic Circle
Maria Canton
Northern News Services
Inuvik (Apr 30/01) - In the year 1986 the Town of Inuvik said, "let there be light," and traffic lights blossomed at Mackenzie Road and Distributor Street.
The only set of lights in Canada above the Arctic Circle keep Inuvik commuters moving smoothly during the morning, noon and evening rush hours.
Not too mention that pedestrians also have their own set of signals that cautions them to stop or gives them the authority to cross the street -- all within the minute it takes for the lights to change from red to yellow to green and back again.
The Northwest Territories Power Corporation had the honours of stringing up the three sets of lights 15 years ago, replacing the stop signs at the busy downtown intersection.
"There is a lot of traffic at that intersection with the post office and the school surrounding it," said Jerry Veltman, the town's senior administrative officer.
"I think for safety reasons the lights are good, especially for the kids coming and going from school."
The popular Mackenzie Hotel, which houses two restaurants, a lounge and a bar, is on the third side of the junction.
Veltman said as far as maintenance goes, the lights all but run themselves.
"We have someone who sets up the times and other than that we just pay the power bill," he said.
Outside of regular business hours a flashing yellow light signals traffic to slow down before passing through the intersection.
And in accordance with traffic light protocol, a vehicle is expected to stop when the light has changed to yellow, but every so often a daring driver chooses to accelerate rather than slow down.
Enter the Inuvik RCMP. A fine for running either a red light or a yellow light has a price tag of $86, not exactly pocket change.
According to Cpl. Jeff Hurry, no more than three tickets are handed out each year for incidents directly related to the traffic lights. Tack onto that five warnings a year and you have a fairly compliant population.
Out-of-towners will sometimes run the lights, Hurry said.
Their excuse is that they didn't expect traffic lights so far north.
