Traffic Lights

[gafftapegreenia]

What's really nice are the crosswalk signals with a countdown. They let you know how much time before the light changes.

Some of the more busy intersections also have lights that will show red in all four directions for a couple seconds before the light changes.

I don't know when yellow became mandatory. I do know, however, that the first 3 color signal was invented in 1920 by William Potts of the Detroit Police Department. It used four-inch railroad lenses. (Bonus if you can name the type of lens that would have been) The original signal is actually still in existance and hangs at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI.

 

[Charc]

What's really nice are the crosswalk signals with a countdown. They let you know how much time before the light changes.
Some of the more busy intersections also have lights that will show red in all four directions for a couple seconds before the light changes.
I don't know when yellow became mandatory. I do know, however, that the first 3 color signal was invented in 1920 by William Potts of the Detroit Police Department. It used four-inch railroad lenses. (Bonus if you can name the type of lens that would have been) The original signal is actually still in existance and hangs at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI.

We have all way red here. And our yellow lights are 1/10th the length in seconds of the speed in MPH. I'm not sure if that holds true for other places as well.

 

[Van]

I liked the Lights in Germany. They cycle; Green- yellow- red on the stop cycle, then, red-yellow-green on the start cycle. I was told this is because of the preponderence of vehicles with manual transmissions. The second yellow is a warning to "Put your car in gear" since you're supposed to be in neutral when sitting at a light.


Oh and BTW I'm really depressed about my answer to the, " what type of lamps do they use in traffic lights" question. I was just trying to be a smartass.

 

[gafftaper]

I love those count down cross walk lights! It tells you if you have enough time to run across the street at the last second.

Is it just my area or are they messing with the cycle pattern for left turn lanes in your cites too? It used to be that the left turns always went before the general traffic. Now they are messing with the schedule depending on the time of day. If the rush hour is south bound then the southbound general and left turn go at the same time while the north bound waits. Then the northbound general traffic goes with the southbound general. Finally they let the north bound Left turn go. Supposedly it helps improve rush hour traffic. It just confuses me.

 

[derekleffew]

Is it just my area or are they messing with the cycle pattern for left turn lanes in your cites too? It used to be that the left turns always went before the general traffic. Now they are messing with the schedule depending on the time of day. If the rush hour is south bound then the southbound general and left turn go at the same time while the north bound waits. Then the northbound general traffic goes with the southbound general. Finally they let the north bound Left turn go. Supposedly it helps improve rush hour traffic. It just confuses me.

Here in SinCity it's been like that for at least 10 years. One intersection I use twice daily changes depending on time of day. Makes no sense to me as it's 5 miles from the strip, and although two four lane roads, plus left turn lanes, traffic is not that bad there. Very seldom do I have to wait more than one signal change. When I first moved to LV, I thought it was great to have a left turn lane at every intersection. Shortly thereafter I realized how long it adds to the cycle time. See next post.

 

[derekleffew]

Red light cameras.

Here red light cameras are illegal, per state legislature, for the purpose of issuing tickets, but the big story the past few days has been North Las Vegas is installing some, for the purpose of "traffic analysis."

While I agree that running red lights is bad, I don't feel computers issuing tickets is the solution. Changing the "yellow means FLOOR IT" mentality will only happen when the perceived cycle time is shortened. The joke in LV is "you might as well pitch a tent" if you hit a red light. My commute to work is exactly 5 miles, and can vary from 12-45 minutes depending on traffic and lights.

I've also heard the, possible, urban myth that states that since robotic cameras are always run by a "for profit" outside company, the duration of yellow is shortened in order to "catch" more offenders and issue more tickets, and generate more profit. That's just wrong.

 

[derekleffew]

I love those count down cross walk lights! It tells you if you have enough time to run across the street at the last second.

+1. They should be required at all busy intersections. As a driver, I'd also like to see gates or some other restraint device to keep pedestrians from crossing illegally--a big problem in most tourist locations I suspect. And one of my biggest pet peeves.

 

[gafftaper]

+1. They should be required at all busy intersections. As a driver, I'd also like to see gates or some other restraint device to keep pedestrians from crossing illegally--a big problem in most tourist locations I suspect. And one of my biggest pet peeves.

Dude the Vegas strip cross walk rules are the biggest joke I've ever seen. It seems like there are always 10 people standing in the middle of the street on the median waiting for a break in traffic to run.

 

[gafftaper]

Red light cameras.
Here red light cameras are illegal, per state legislature, for the purpose of issuing tickets, but the big story the past few days has been North Las Vegas is installing some, for the purpose of "traffic analysis."
While I agree that running red lights is bad, I don't feel computers issuing tickets is the solution. Changing the "yellow means FLOOR IT" mentality will only happen when the perceived cycle time is shortened. The joke in LV is "you might as well pitch a tent" if you hit a red light. My commute to work is exactly 5 miles, and can vary from 12-45 minutes depending on traffic and lights.
I've also heard the, possible, urban myth that states that since robotic cameras are always run by a "for profit" outside company, the duration of yellow is shortened in order to "catch" more offenders and issue more tickets, and generate more profit. That's just wrong.

So here in Seattle we put in four of the automated Red light ticket cameras. This is the story from the paper... "Red-light cameras installed at four Seattle intersections last year have resulted in nearly 14,000 traffic citations and brought in just over $900,000 in revenue." In the suburban city where my college is at they recently put in a couple cameras as well. I swear every time I'm sitting at this one light I see the camera's flash fire off. They are making a killing with those cameras. The real question is does it change people's behavior? If it does then they aren't such a bad idea. But if it only changes people's behavior at that one signal it's just a cash generator.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

one thing some of the traffic lights in st. louis do that I love, at around 11pm on the less heavily used intersections they start flashing orange for the main road and red for the small intersecting road, its a great system which cuts down on those sitting at a red light when there is no other car on the road moments.

 

[propmonkey]

the change some our intersections at night to flashing red. i almost got hit one night. i went through one interesection of all flashing red(i stopped of course) and i assumed the next one was the same but as i quickly found out the other way had only flashing yellow.

why do people not understand that yellow means yield and not go straight through without stopping. if its a yellow and another car is at the intersection, stop and let them go.

 

[David Ashton]

The colours of traffic lights are irrelevant to clour blind people, they just stop when the top light is on and go when the bottom light is on.

 

[Van]

Which is fine 'till you're driving through downtown Tulsa Oklahoma, and they have the lights mounted sideways! Can you believe that? They lay them flat, parallel with the crossbar of the signal post.

 

[fosstech]

Same sideways traffic lights in Cincinnati. I guess it could help with clearance problems.

When I took a trip to Russia five years ago I noticed the traffic light sequence is a little different. When a green light is about to change to yellow, it starts flashing five seconds or so before it changes. Similarly, a red light about to change to green would illuminate the yellow light as well as the red when the opposite set of lights turned yellow.

I could see how the flashing green would be handy for trucks and buses and whatnot, but we would probably still have the same problem of people flooring it once they see that flashing green.

 

[gafftaper]

They've got those flashing green lights up in Vancouver, Canada. They seem to only do it for lights that are intersections of a major street and a quieter side street. The idea being the light is always green with the arterial unless someone's waiting on the side street... in which case there is a flashing green before it turns yellow.

p.s. Van are the horizontal street lights the source of your anger against Oklahoma?

 

[Van]

................................................................
p.s. Van are the horizontal street lights the source of your anger against Oklahoma?

Only a minor, minor, minor part.

 

[Pie4Weebl]

well with color blind folk there are that large number who are not all the way color blind and I assume the colors they chose are the best for partially color blind folk.

 

[gafftaper]

My Dad who is color blind was "head tinter" at a paint manufacturing company at one point in his career. It wasn't a big deal because it was all about accurately following a recipe and had nothing to do with visually checking. But it's been a favorite joke in the family for years.

 

[Logos]

I met an LD once who had a real problem in the blue purple range. It is a rare form of colour blindness. He just based decisions in those areas on intensity and frequency specs. I liked his designs.

 

[avkid]

The best non-professional photographer I know is colorblind.
He also does all sorts of digital media creation.
Just thought it was interesting.