What will a city project to synchronize traffic lights do for your morning commute and for your wallet? We drove to Tulsa's traffic control facility in the West Yard and caught up with Traffic Operations Planning Manager Kurt Kraft to find out.

He told us an electronic network will sync traffic lights, first in the city's busiest intersections, to keep cars from having to brake so often.

"So if you're on a corridor that's synchronized, you'll hit more green lights this way. For instance-71st St., Memorial to Garnett-the object is to get you through as many of those as possible," he said.

Kraft said Phase One of the project is already in the works and motorists can look for the changes soon. He said signals will have to be re-synced periodically as the landscape of the city changes. So, motorists can look forward to on-going improvements.

"Our goal is that this is just the beginning, not the end, so that we can keep this rolling forever and can keep our signals timed better."

Kraft said he believes the project's ultimate benefits will include not only a savings on time, but on car wear and tear and gas usage.

"It reduces congestion, delay, saves you gasoline because your car uses more gas taking off from a dead stop."

Kraft says air pollution will likely be reduced. The city has experienced several ozone alert days throughout the summer.

But, why has the project not been initiated sooner since cities like Los Angeles and Austin, Texas began similar projects in 1995 and 1998, respectively.

"We've been working on it for several years. We've really had a small staff working on it. We recently hired two engineers-not to work on just this project, but on-going," he said.

And the bottom line-how much will this project cost taxpayers versus how much it will save? Kraft says there is no way to gauge that immediately because the project will be continuous.

"We had $1.7 million in Third Penny sales tax from 2006, so we've been using that throughout the city. That actually does a few things. It buys equipment. We've been installing it ourselves. By and large we've been doing it for about $6,000 per intersection so far."

Phase One includes stop lights at 71st St., U.S. 75 to Garnett, Memorial at 31st St. to 111th, Yale at 15th to 71st and Riverside from 71st to the Creek Turnpike.