At some point in Mayor Leepy Brown's reign of error "synchronized lights" came to mean turning all the light green at the exact same instant (not staggered), requiring a driver to launch out of the "starting block" at 40-45MPH to be able to catch at least 2 or 3 lights green.
Mayor Bob-White pledged during his campaign that he would see that the lights were synchronized (again, he neglected to mention). It was practically the first thing he did when he took office. Since it was accomplished in a couple of weeks (think they looked up the paperwork on how the lights used to run?) one has to wonder why Mayor Brown didn't go ahead and implement this change last year when one or more of the candidates were talking about it.
That said, the lights aren't yet all synched downtown AND something that does not get mentioned much:
At some intersections, the approaching rail line will set the lights to "green" (red for the crossroads) and I don't think they've factored this into the synchronization yet. I guess it would be asking to much to have the Metrorail actually have to wait at a traffic light (then again Metro Bus drivers run red lights all the time and bully drivers with their buses).
The local broadcast Fox news did a series of reports on the rail and even showed video of an intersection where cars are permitted to turn left and are REQUIRED to be ON THE RAIL (the rail co-exists with a turn lane). Those turns are moderated by a protected turn light. The video showed the Metrorail blasting the horn forcing the car in front (which was legally there) to make an illegal turn into oncoming traffic.
Outside of downtown, the lights can be really bad (I am talking so far out of downtown that you are "out of the (610) loop" (a couple of miles out of downtown at least < /sarcasm >). The lights elsewhere in Houston can often to be found 180degrees out of phase (leave a light that goes Red-to-Green and the next intersection will be Green-going-to-Red). This is observed on Westheimer and Richmond in non-rush hour traffic.