[pete c]

Not sure where this thread belongs, so I guess this is as good a place as any.

Why aren't they at every intersection yet?

I am not talking about the M.A.D. (magnetic annomaly detectors) imbedded in pavement at intersections. Those have been around forever. Trouble is, they require you to stop and they have no way of keeping a light green long enough for approaching traffic.

I googled it and there is some work being done with things like light networks that are tied together and lights that communicate with cell phones, but both of these are complex. I would like to see a simpledevice that used cameras mounted on lights that looked down the various approaches and using image recognition software would turn a light green as traffic approached. It could also hold a light green if traffic was near.

The benefits besides fuel savings would be safety as you would no longer accelerate to try to beat a yellow, if the light saw you coming and held green a few seconds more. You could also program them to recognize when someone was approaching at a speed well above the limit and turn red. Once speeders realized what was happening, it would affect their behavior around intersections.

It seems to me that this is a no brainer. It would save huge amounts of fuel, peoples time, brake pads and lives. Government mandates all sorts of silly **** that results in miniscule savings of fuel/emissions. Why doesn't it push this technology.

It would also eliminate the expensive process of tearing up pavement and running all sorts of cabling to do the job, very poorly.