LAKE DALLAS — A 1.7-mile strip of concrete tipped the scales for this 1.92-square-mile city in a way its population never could: The city is finally getting its first midtown stoplight.

The traffic generated by residents traveling to school and work each day wasn’t enough for this lakeside hamlet of 7,200 to warrant more than a stop sign at any midtown intersection.

But the prospect of 10 times that many cars exiting Interstate 35E to access the new Lewisville Lake toll bridge became the tipping point.

“I’m so excited,” City Council member Carol Ann Connors said of the new light at Swisher Road and Shady Shores Drive.

The new traffic signal could encourage travelers to move deeper into the Lake Dallas business district and help the city’s economic development. Of course, that could trigger the need for even more stoplights, Connors said.

“Some people may not like that, but they’ve known it’s been coming for a long time,” Connors said.

Signal lights installed at the Swisher Road exit along I-35E — where Corinth, Lake Dallas and Hickory Creek intersect — were the first stoplights inside the city limits. But they are about a quarter mile north of the city’s famous strip of convenience and liquor stores lining the freeway. Many people don’t consider those lights to be part of the city, Connors said — they’re “really TxDOT’s.”

Lake Dallas doesn’t have to pay for the midtown light, either, according to police Chief Nick Ristagno. Agreements between Lake Dallas, Little Elm, the North Texas Transportation Authority, which operates the bridge, and Denton County mean other entities ultimately pick up the tab for the light, since traffic is better controlled on the west side of the bridge than on the east.

Connors said she sees the benefit of the bridge the way most travelers do, since she regularly goes to Van Alstyne to visit her family.

“That bridge will cut almost 30 minutes off the length of that trip,” Connors said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.