Traffic Lights

[BDH]

I get stopped at the same d*mn traffic light every morning on my way into work. What completely pisses me off is that there is NEVER any cross traffic, so I just have to stop and sit there for nothing.

[Tman33_99]

I know what you mean Brian,

Every morning, I turn left at the light from my side street on the main drag. Go like hell for 3 blocks to make the end of next light, then I can cruise for 1-1/2 miles at normal speed. If I don't go like hell, I have to stop for that light, and 5 of the next lights. They seemed to be timed perfectly so you have to stop for all of them.

[AGYoung]

Next time you go through there, see if there is a donut shop near by. The cops just might have set it up so they could nab anyone running the @*&^$ lights.

[shred]

Sometime when y'all are really bored, grab your shooting stopwatch (you do have a shooting stopwatch for timing swingers, don't you??) and time how much time you spend sitting at traffic lights.

At least 50% of my commute time is spent sitting still.

[uscbigdawg]

Roger that. I hate stop lights.

No stopwatch.

Rich

[Shooter Grrl]

Stoplight? What's that We drive 42 miles to work encountering only one stop SIGN, no lights whatsoever! (A far cry different than our 2 mile commute in the bay area through 5 lights!)))

[dv8]

I feel your pain folks, I have the same pleasure every morning. On my way to work there is a longer way with a couple stoplights and heavy traffic, and a shorter way with light traffic and LOTS of stoplights... I think I'm ready for a telecommute kinda job!

[GENE S]

In some states, there is a right turn on red law. If there is no trafic,

you must stop first, then make the turn.. I'm for the go streight through

law, that if ther is no traf ic, and you have stopped, go for it.......

[BDH]

Stoplight?  What's that   We drive 42 miles to work encountering only one stop SIGN, no lights whatsoever!  (A far cry different than our 2 mile commute in the bay area through 5 lights!)))

Now, if you could only get INDOOR PLUMBING!!

Just pickin' on ya Kath and still pissed you are not going to make the Buckeye Splash (errr.... ahhh... I meant to say BLAST)

[Interceptor]

try calling the roads department in your city or county area. They can adjust things like that if they are unreasonable. They will, however, never know it's a problem unless you tell them.

[BDH]

try calling the roads department in your city or county area.  They can adjust things like that if they are unreasonable.  They will, however, never know it's a problem unless you tell them.

Been there... done that... they're still laughing...

I hear ya though.....

[mcoliver]

I know this is the hate forum, but since we're talking about traffic lights, I might as well post my question here.

Anybody been to Dubai? Their lighting sequence is red, yellow, green, red.

I always thought yellow comes after green to prepare drivers for the stop (back here, some think it's a sign to floor the *thumb rest [generic]*). But when it comes after red to prepare drivers to go, are you supposed to rev your car?

Oh, and my 6km daily commute takes close to an hour due to traffic. A total of 5 traffic lights along the way that nobody seems to know how to follow.

[SJ]

Ahh, the sweet smell of job assurance (I reserve the hate for red-light runners and queue-jumpers), although as a traffic engineer in the private sector I am more often fighting against the same city guys to get something through the beauracracy. Anyways, ideally all the signals should be coordinated so you can cruise right through driving at the speed limit. However, many things can interfere with this, most usually the need to maintain coordination on a crossing street that is considered more important. Getting bandwidth on a single street is easy, but on a grid of streets is very difficult. If this is in a rural or older area, the signals may not be connected in a network, so they will be running on their own internal clocks, which can drift or be mis-set from the beginning. Depending on the civil authority, there may or may not actually be a timing plan that looks at all the signals together, the guys setting them in the field may just be doing it by eye and rules of thumb. Or, people may have complained about vehicles speedings so the signals could be adjusted so that you hit red at each one (very rare).

If the public works/transportation department won't help (and don't get put off by the first guy that answers the phone - send a polite letter to the head of the department, letters are MUCH harder to ignore especially if CC'd to higher authority), talk to your city councilman/county commissioner/whatever that represents you. If they won't help, at least you know who to campaign against next election season.

I have one signal that consistently stops me on my commute. I'll stop, but if there's nobody in sight, I'll pass through. If there was a cop hiding in a ghillie suit to catch me, I'd explain that I'm trying to reduce air pollution generated by stopped vehicles Just be aware that by disregarding the traffic rule you will be in a very bad liability situation if a crash occurs.

mcoliver: those lights in Dubai sound interesting. The yellow could be a warning for drivers to start their cars, if the lights are long and people tend to shut off their cars. I believe I recall a flashing red phase (or the red and yellow together?) just before the green in some European country (Switzerland?), where it was common to shut off the vehicle when in a long queue.

Edit: can never figure out if an enter gives a paragraph gap or not. It's not.

[Nik Habicht]

Germany does the red and yellow together to warn drivers that green is coming. And at some traffic lights over there, there is a sign requiring you to kill the engine, cause the light is long, and they want to reduce emissions....

[BDH]

SJ, cool, thx for the explanation and the tips. I think the issue is that this light is probably timed okay for normal traffic during the day, but there is never any cross traffic on this road at the time I come into work. I would guess that the 'keepers of the lights' have the ability to change the timing at different times of the day, but as you said, probably depends on the type of light, networked, etc.

I'll write a letter....