Smart traffic light controls.
 

Why are we still using the same technology we've used for over a half century?

That technology consists of magnetic detectors buried in the pavement. Such devices, when they do work, still require a vehicle to come to a complete stop and wait at a minimum, a few seconds before proceeding.

This wastes a tremendous amount of fuel.

I would think that we would now take advantage of video camera systems which could look much further down the road for approaching traffic and switch the light early enough that said traffic wouldn't even have to slow.

Also, such a system could have a certain level of intelligence which would allow it to extend or shorten lights if it sees other traffic behind it. It could also delay changing lights for a short time to keep approaching traffic in the already green direction, to clear, before changing. Doing so would help eliminate the potentially dangerous practice of "beating the light".

Of course, smarter traffic lights would cut into the ticket writing racket and we can't have that now, can we? Notice that when it comes to writing tickets, video technology has been implemented fully.

Just thought of another possible benefit. If the system detected traffic approaching at speeds considerably higher than the posted limit, it could throw out a punative red light just to teach mr hot rod a lesson.

If this was implemented and made know to the driving public, it would serve to police speeds around intersections, which is one the places they need policing most.

" it could throw out a punative red light "

Ha, never thought of that myself. You are a devious intellect indeed...(cue maniacal laughter) Muah ha ha haaaa..Muahhhh ha ha haha haaaa

The problem is, people would just end up wasting even more gas. :-/

As for the lights, I understand your pain. One of the lights on my commute is a side street that seems to get 50/50 time distribution with the main thoroughfare that I am driving on. The problem is, that side street has about 1/4 the traffic. Nothing is more annoying than hitting two consecutive red lights (because traffic is backed up) only to see half a dozen cars (at most) going by either direction on the cross street.

are you refering to the punative red feature? if so, i disagree. once drivers understood that they'd be penalized for approaching intersections at high speeds, they'd likely modify their driving.

Maybe. And that's if they know (many people I've spoken with don't realize that there are sensors buried under the pavement). Also, to many "stoplight heroes," the most fun they have is in accelerating off the line. It's like throwing a kid in the air: Once you catch them, they keep yelling, "Again! Again! Again!"

There are lights in my area (SF Bay Area) that are influenced by magnetic loop detectors placed well back of the intersection. Those seem to be calibrated to trigger with cars going over them at a pretty high rate of speed (I think they'll work at 50 MPH but I haven't tried) because this is on an off-ramp. I find if there is no traffic waiting on the cross-street, if I glide over the detector at 20-25 MPH I will hit the light green.

-soD

We've got a few of those punative red lights over here.
They usually punish those trailing the speeder, and traffic going the other way, but not the speeder himself because of the excess speed.

Same here. Most of the lights on my commute have one loop back away from the intersection and several loops up at the intersection. Generally, they're set up so that the light goes from green to red when a vehicle hasn't passed the advanced loop within a certain amount of time (assuming there's a vehicle at the perpendicular intersection). Typically, the time is about the time it takes someone going slightly lower than "normal" speed to get through the intersection. Some, however, are more or less sensative, i.e., they'll go red with a smaller or larger gap in traffic.

They're one particualr light on my commute that's super sensative--it goes red at the smallest gap in the traffic. I can't tell you how many times I've cursed it out for catching me, but I've learned to do fairly well now by never trusting it (assuming it's going to turn red on me).

So your saying it punishes you for using safe following distances? :D