The holiday shopping rush is not just at the cash registers; it's also on the roads to get to the shopping centers. If last weekend's traffic gridlock seemed worse than you could remember, there's a reason why.

Mostly, you can place the blame on aging traffic technology that is struggling to handle the pressure.

Whichever major road you use to get to your store of choice, you're going to have a lot of company, and that is what adaptive traffic signals were designed to handle.

The pros, cons of adaptive traffic technology

"These systems have been installed probably around eight years [ago], approximately," said Stephanie Zolank of PennDOT. "They're getting to that timeframe when the technology needs to be regularly maintained, or it needs to be updated."

PennDOT traffic engineer Stepha

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