Need tips on timing signal lights.

[MARTINSR]

Mine are triggered by cross traffic . They are MUCH harder to work with, but I am getting so I can time them a little by seeing if there is someone sitting there ready to cross, or how long the light has been green. I have noticed that if the light has been green for me quite a while and I can see a car sitting there ready to cross it will still remain green for a while longer. But if it has been green for quite some time and a car pull up and stops the light changes RIGHT NOW.

It's interesting, sitting out there with a stop watch and just watching cross traffic and what not would teach me a lot I am sure.

Brian

[luvit]

i don't stop at red lights. -- just lay on the horn as you blast through them.
same for any intersection / yielding / or turn.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by MARTINSR

I have a 4 mile to work commute down a city street with a 45 mph speed limit and about 20 lights.

That is NOT a "city street". You are fortunate to be driving on a main suburban road with a speed limit that is relatively high.

City streets have a stop sign on every other block, if not at every block. City streets have a maximum speed limit of 30 MPH (if not lower). City streets have slow-poke drivers that have nowhere in particular to go except shopping, going for a car ride to get out of the apartment, mommies who drive while screaming at their kids in the back seat, and senior citizens who are either arguing with each other, or driving while comatose. City driving requires tremendous patience. If you've ever lived in or near a large city with the challenges of real city driving, you'd understand what I mean.

Every once in a while I will hit a majority of the lights, I have actually hit every single one of them a time or two. But never seem to pull it off the next day, it is more about luck than my skills aparently.

What tips do you guys have on pulling pulling off hitting your signals while green?

There are only two things that determine whether the light stays green in your direction: timed traffic lights (that occur in suburbia on main roads) that are timed in one direction ; i.e. if you live near a sizable 'city' and traffic flow is mostly going in or out according to 'rush hour' or the time of day. The other factor is cross-road traffic that triggers the light so they can enter.

You can observe the first situation and try to avoid a particular road when the lights are timed against you (favoring the flow of traffic in the opposite direction). But you can do virtually nothing about cross triggered traffic except to speed up to make the light - or, see that it will change and slow down because you can't proceed - or, STOP if necessary.

Realistically, there is only so much you can do...

[OfficeLinebacker]

Originally Posted by hummingbird

This will work if the logic is not time-variant. If the lights turn faster at one time and slower in another, this won't work. Also if the lights are triggered with cross-traffic, this won't work.

I think most intersections in major metropolitan areas and suburbs (mine anyway, DC area) are on a schedule. Every once in a while there will be a holidy like President's day and the lights will be on the totally wrong schedule for conditions--8 am or 5:30 pm on a holiday and the side streets have to wait five minutes to turn cos the light is scheduled for rush hour.