THE PROBLEM: Rancho Drive is a sleepy side street off busy Del Dios Highway leading to a restaurant, a horse facility and a dozen or so short residential streets. Even at midday it gets little, if any, traffic.

So Gordon Larsen wondered why a signal at the T intersection would need to stop traffic on Del Dios as often as twice a minute, with no one waiting or even approaching from Rancho Drive.

The constant stops, acceleration and deceleration on the main road, which connects Escondido and Rancho Santa Fe along the west side of Lake Hodges, must waste “a tremendous amount of gas,” said Larsen, who drives through at least twice daily. Larsen said the signal had been acting strangely for a few weeks before he called Just Fix it on April 26.

A spot check Tuesday confirmed Larsen’s observations. The signal went red again and again without any vehicles on Rancho Drive, rarely keeping traffic moving for more than a minute and sometimes staying green for as little as five seconds. There was no apparent pattern to the signal, which turned red a few times without traffic on either road.

STATUS: It’s fixed. A call to the county Transportation Division on Tuesday got a repair crew sent out Wednesday morning.

Michael Robinson , head of the division, said there was a malfunction with the intersection’s video equipment, designed to detect the approach of vehicles on Rancho Drive. So a default mode kicked in, switching to an automatic red/green cycle so that any vehicles venturing up Rancho Drive would have a protected turn.

WHO’S RESPONSIBLE: Michael Robinson. For county-maintained roads, report traffic light outages and other signal problems at (858) 874-4040 or go online to sdcounty.ca.gov/dpw/roads/lightsout.html, which has a service request form and links to city websites with similar information.

NEED A PROBLEM SOLVED: Is there a problem government hasn’t taken care of despite your complaints? Whether it’s a broken stairway or rusted park equipment anywhere in San Diego County, Just Fix It might be able to help.

Call (800) 820-8714 or send e-mail to justfixit@uniontrib.com to describe your problem.

For tips on taking direct action, our “Guide to Getting Things Done” — a list of government phone numbers to use for complaints on such things as burned-out lights and bumpy streets — is at signonsandiego.com/news/justfixit/gettingitdone/