It is welcome news that the N.C. Department of Transportation is channeling $4.9 million towards a computerized traffic signal system in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that is intended to reduce vehicle congestion and travel time while improving air quality.

News of the contract approval was released Thursday by Gov. Beverly Perdue. Work is expected to begin by Oct. 26. Completion is targeted for August 2012.

Money to perform the work is coming from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Whether one agrees with the basis for the federal stimulus package and which projects in it are more about pork barrel spending and less about economy-jolting jobs creation, there is no argument about the need to streamline traffic flow through the twin towns.

The constant stopping and starting is more than an annoyance. The herky-jerky movement makes for wasteful fuel consumption, and the release of exhaust emissions increases the longer cars are stopped.

Computerized traffic control equipment and traffic-monitoring cameras in the project are expected to better coordinate traffic signals and improve traffic flow.

News of the traffic enhancement project comes on the heels of our news story by reporter Erin Wiltgen that quoted experts with the Southern Environmental Law Center's Chapel Hill office warning that Chapel Hill is likely to fall out of compliance with federal Environmental Protection Agency ozone pollution standards if, as is speculated, those rules are tightened.

Reducing the amount of driving by creating light rail train and more bus options is one goal to help meet tougher ozone standards. That likely will require denser population clusters to make it financially practical. But that infill objective continues to be a political battlefield that obstructs the likelihood of light rail anytime soon.