IF you're a motorist, chances are you have probably, at one time or another, encountered the notoriously spitfire-like traffic light at the junction of Par-la-Ville Road and Front Street in Hamilton, opposite the Bank of Bermuda.

Whether you're on a bike or in a car, rush hour, mid-morning or early afternoon, it really doesn't matter. For this imposing traffic device doesn't discriminate, often evoking spontaneous outbursts of road rage from the most tolerant of motorists.

For starters, it only takes the process of going from red to green and back to red, get this, a mere ten seconds.

Think that's bad enough? Better think again, for those motorists unlucky not to have made it through the green light must then patiently sit in or on their vehicle for one minute and 21 seconds, exactly.

Now this may not sound all that bad ? however, just add the hustle and bustle and chaos of rush hour traffic, not too mention hundreds of red faces, shouting motorists and horn-honking vehicles into the equation and what you get is one congested, road-rage-ravaged, bumper-to-bumper disturbing heap of metal and rubber.

So why all the chaos? Better yet, why hasn't any attempt to alter the light's timing devices to allow for a more traffic to flow through at a safer more leisurely pace been undertaken?

For at present, all you have is motorists embarking on a potentially hazardous sub-ten-second dash to beat the lights, which on average, allow for only a maximum of four vehicles to successfully pass onto the more user-friendly traffic lights on Front Street.

"Sometimes it depends on the number of pedestrians and I think since (Hurricane) Fabian they've (traffic lights) gone out of whack," said new Corporation of Hamilton Secretary Kelly Miller.

"They've gone a little out of whack and I believe there's another one at Cedar Avenue where you don't have sufficient time to make it through."

City of Hamilton engineer David Graham, meanwhile, suggests the notorious traffic devices are perhaps in dire need of a "slight adjustment".

At present, all of the city's traffic lights were vehicle-actuated, he said.

"In other words, they're not done with fixed times as such. If the traffic isn't moving over the detectors it cuts off whatever phase it's on. It will think nothing is happening and automatically cut off. And quite often that's what happens at Par-la-Ville Road because of congested traffic on Front Street," Mr. Graham explained.

"They (traffic lights) might be slightly out of adjustment and we can check them out. But to the best of my knowledge most of the lights are back up and running the same as they were before Fabian.

"Maybe it is a bit unusual. There is a minimum time we can set it for and perhaps that may need some adjustment. During rush hour Front Street is often blocked and so people can't get out.

"But we can make the minimum time a bit longer so that it doesn't cut off so quickly and maybe that's what needs adjusting."