Traffic is one of the biggest headaches for Oahu residents.

And city officials want to help provide more options.

The boat was developed, the mass transit project is underway, and now the city is going back to the basics.

There are 800 traffic lights on oahu.

And experts believe optimizing them could reduce our wait time by 20 to 30 percent.

And it all begins at the city's traffic management center.

About half of Oahu's signals are controlled at this traffic management center.

It's the brain that makes all these signals work, and work together.

But improving them is not as easy as the click of a button.

"This is one of many programs we use to simulate timing adjustments, we dont just make it and hope it works," says Ty Fukumitsu, Electrical Engineer.

That's why these crews have been contracted to collect more data.

They're calculating the number of cars and pedestrians that travel the streets at any given time as well as how long they are waiting at red lights.

"They're trying to collect the bulk of the data before summer because we want to make sure and collect it while school is in session," states Wayne Yoshioka, City Transportation Services Director.

With the data, engineers can better synchronize and adjust the signals in Oahu's urban core from Middle street all the way to University avenue.

An ambitious task the city hopes to implement as early as this fall.

"Downtown acts like a grid system, you affect one street, you may affect 5 others," says Fukumitsu.

Gridlock that many of us already experience everyday.

And while the signal optimization process is underway, the city hopes to connect the remaining 400 lights to the traffic management center.

A center that is becoming to small to accomodate Oahu's growing traffic needs and demands.

Officials say they will break ground on a new traffic management center on Alapai street near the municipal building in 2010.

That new center will also include members from the Police and Fire Department, Civil Defense, and the State DOT.

It will help cut through the red tape so adjustments can be made right away should there be a traffic incident or emergency.

Initial cost estimates were about $28 million.