Taking advantage of a teachable moment

The other day, a woman who commutes to San Rafael to teach a fourth-grade class phoned in to voice her frustration about Third St./Lindaro St. traffic signal going into flash and about the CalTrans off-ramp project. I phoned her back to help provide some explanations about her frustrations. She then put me on speaker phone for her fourth graders to listen in and I heard them all shout “Hello!”.  I proceeded to explain the process about how the traffic lights function and that there are many wires that go from the traffic signal controller cabinet to connect to each signal head to make them turn green, yellow, and red. That means there are wires that run underground and up the poles. I also let them all know that the traffic signal technician would be out on Friday to double check and fix the connections for all those numerous wires. I then had the opportunity to talk about the CalTrans off-ramp project. I let them know that construction will run through the fall and that it is a very important project to rebuild the bridge deck so it can handle another 50 years of traffic. The teacher was grateful for the call back and explanation and I received a huge “Thank you!” from all her students.