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Car Forum / Driving, Maintenance, Tuning / Driving / March 2007Traffic lights
Something I've been wondering. Would it not be better to have the 'yellow' stage of the cycle at the start rather than the end? For example, the light goes straight from green to red, and the driver brakes if he can do so safely, otherwise continues on. Cross traffic will immediately see a yellow light, which tells them to either wait for the green (by which time the original traffic will have finished), or they can proceed with caution if they can see that the intersection is clear. This would also cut down on the 'dead time' in every cycle where no traffic is using the intersection from the period of about half way through the yellow light, to a couple of seconds after the new green when sloths get their a.ses into gear. <brevity snip> > Would it not be better to have > the 'yellow' stage of the cycle at the start rather than the end? No. If you can't figure out why, you probably shouldn't be driving. ----- - gpsman > Something I've been wondering. Would it not be better to have > the 'yellow' stage of the cycle at the start rather than the end? [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > way through the yellow light, to a couple of seconds after the > new green when sloths get their a.ses into gear. In the UK there is a brief additional yellow just before green to help the sloths get their a.ses in gear. Dave > Something I've been wondering. Would it not be better to have > the 'yellow' stage of the cycle at the start rather than the end? [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > way through the yellow light, to a couple of seconds after the > new green when sloths get their a.ses into gear. LOL - are you trying to turn intersections into death zones? Giving people a yellow before go would be like the staging lights at a drag strip. And allowing people to decide whether it is OK to keep on going through a red light or not....I can picture it now, hot shot one approaching the light that just turned red a few seconds ago decided he can't brake safely and continues through the red light. Hot shot two sees the yellow and nails the accelerator....... Oh yeah this will work.... Funny thing is, when I was young the traffic lights in my home town were sort of like this. The yellow was shown on all four sides of the light at the same time. The lights on a particular side went from red to yellow to green to yellow to red...... The controller was real simple. We didn't have many wrecks as a result, but it was a small town and drivers were less impatient back then (late 50's/early 60's). Ed Hi! > LOL - are you trying to turn intersections into death zones? Giving > people a yellow before go would be like the staging lights at a drag > strip. Seems to work fine here in Germany, where lights cycle from green to yellow to red to red-and-yellow to green. Note however that there's a brief moment where all lights are red, i.e. the one street's yellow and the other street's red-and-yellow are not shown at the same time. That would indeed be a recipe for disaster. Yours, Erik.  Signature"If OE is to be used for posting articles to Usenet, OE has to adapt to Usenet, not vice versa. If this is not possible, my feature wish for OE 6 would be that its users may not post via news servers other than msnews.microsoft.com." -- Matthias Wiehl in m.p.e.i.i.o.w. > Hi! > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > Yours, > Erik. What's the reasoning behind that; is that so people with stickshifts can get their car in gear, or is there another reason given? nate (is the yellow displayed exactly 0.4 seconds before the green?) Signaturereplace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel Hi! > > Seems to work fine here in Germany, where lights cycle from green > > to yellow to red to red-and-yellow to green. > > What's the reasoning behind that; is that so people with stickshifts can > get their car in gear, or is there another reason given? I'm not aware of any reason being given, that's just the way it is. But of course it does make even more sense with lots of stickshifts on the road. I do think it'd make sense in the United States of Automatic as well, though. ;-) > (is the yellow displayed exactly 0.4 seconds before the green?) I don't think there's a fixed rule for that, but half a second sounds about right to me. Yours, Erik. Signature"Ever wonder about those people who spend $2.00 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards: NAIVE" -- Found in Bodo Eggert's signature > Hi! > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > I don't think there's a fixed rule for that, but half a second > sounds about right to me. I suppose I was being a little bit obscure there; a "pro tree" at most American drag racing events is set up so that all the amber lights come on exactly 0.4 seconds before the green. A "sportsman tree" as used in the less hard core classes is a little more user friendly, it "counts down" the amber lights until green. Obviously the former is easier to implement with a standard traffic signal format :) nate Signaturereplace "roosters" with "cox" to reply. http://members.cox.net/njnagel >> Hi! >> [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > What's the reasoning behind that; is that so people with stickshifts can > get their car in gear, or is there another reason given? You know how in the USA there are so many drivers who don't realize the light has changed and then the idiotic thing where the car behind doesn't start moving until the one in front has moved away? My experience in Germany was that the light goes red to yellow and then on green everyone pretty much starts moving at the same time. The intersection throughput is greatly increased. Changing the lights in the USA wouldn't work by itself. Too much idiotcy to overcome as well. <brevity snip> > My experience in Germany was that the light goes red to yellow and then > on green everyone pretty much starts moving at the same time. The > intersection throughput is greatly increased. Duh. Everybody can't start moving pretty much at the same time, you numbskull, if only due to reaction times and/or differing level of caution, and or differing rates of acceleration, and/or drivers planning to turn R at the light. Following distance needs to be attained as velocity increases, which begins from everybody at a dead stop. Your powers of observation are as dismal as any I've ever encountered. Even railroad cars don't all begin moving at pretty much the same time. > Changing the lights in the USA wouldn't work by itself. Too much idiotcy > to overcome as well. Yeah, tell us all about it... ----- - gpsman Ladies and Gentlemen (and I use those words loosely), Old Wolf said in rec.autos.driving: > Something I've been wondering. Would it not be better to have > the 'yellow' stage of the cycle at the start rather than the end? [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > way through the yellow light, to a couple of seconds after the > new green when sloths get their a.ses into gear. I don't think that would be a good idea; atleast around here where I live. As Someone else suggested, there are idiots who would treat such as the staging lights for drag racing and the idea may do more harm than good due to that. Signature"Look down on me, you will see a fool. Look up at me, you will see your lord. Look straight at me, you will see yourself." - Charles Manson |
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