Stop Lights with a Progress bar!

[Clev]

Originally Posted by Christ

This is reasonable, sir.

Nobody (reasonably) expects every driver to be perfect all the time. I can tell you that if a cop sees you speeding up through a yellow light, whether you're actually speeding or not, at least around here, they'll stop you, and can ticket you for a form of wreckless driving. It matters not whether you're actually speeding or not, you're still breaking a law. Of course, whether the cop DOES pull you over or not depends wholly on his perception of the situation. If he sees someone tailgating you, there's a good chance he won't pull you over. If the person behind you caught the light as it turned red, guess who's screwed now?

I still don't find that these scenarios happen often enough to even be seriously addressed as a whole, though.

Cameras expect every driver to be perfect all the time, and on a 50 MPH road with a 3 second yellow at the bottom of a 12 mile continuous downhill mountain road with a 5,000 foot elevation drop, they demand too much.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Clev

Cameras expect every driver to be perfect all the time, and on a 50 MPH road with a 3 second yellow at the bottom of a 12 mile continuous downhill mountain road with a 5,000 foot elevation drop, they demand too much.

In your opinion... You keep forgetting that part. Where are the other 1,000's of drivers that operate on the same roads as you complaining about this one light that you seem to always hit at exactly the right moment that you need to decide whether to hit the gas or brake because the 3 seconds of yellow light occurs at exactly the threshold of your cumulative reaction and braking times at the prescribed speed every time you go through it?

[Clev]

Originally Posted by Christ

You haven't set me straight on anything, pal. You've voiced your opinion on how things work in your area. Keep in mind, I'm 3200 miles from you, and things just may be slightly different out here.

If you don't feel that your voice matters to the lawmakers of your community, that's your problem.

There are three camera companies that service this country, and they all work the same way. Again, by claiming that there's a one second leeway, you are doing people a disservice.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Clev

There are three camera companies that service this country, and they all work the same way. Again, by claiming that there's a one second leeway, you are doing people a disservice.

By way of watching the strobes on the "birds" in several of the localities that I drive, my observations differ from your so called fact. We'll leave it at that.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by HowStuffWorks "Running the Red Light"

For simplicity's sake, we'll only consider traffic moving in one direction through this intersection. When the light is green or yellow for incoming traffic, the computer ignores the triggers and does not activate the cameras. The system doesn't "turn on" until it receives a signal that the light is red. If you're already in the middle of the intersection when the light turns red, the system will not activate the cameras (this is not a traffic violation in most areas). Some systems wait a fraction of a second after the light turns red, to give drivers a "grace period."

In most systems, the computer will not activate the cameras if a car is just sitting over the induction loops. To trigger the cameras, you have to move over the loops at a particular speed. In most systems, there are two loop triggers for each lane of traffic. When the triggers are both activated in quick succession, the computer knows a car has moved into the intersection at high speed. If there is more of a delay, the computer knows the car is moving more slowly. If the car activates only the first trigger, the computer knows it is stopped at the edge of the intersection.

When a car activates both triggers after the light is red, the computer automatically takes a picture. This first shot shows the car just as it is entering the intersection. The computer then hesitates briefly and takes another shot. This catches the car in the middle of the intersection. The computer calculates the length of the delay based on the measured speed of the car. It's important to get two pictures of the car to show that it entered the intersection when the light was red and then proceeded through the intersection.

Now, go tell Marshall Brain he's wrong.

[Piwoslaw]

Is a 4+sec yellow long enough to ensure that the driver has enough time to stop texting and look around?

[Funny]

Just ban texting while driving and that solves that problem.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by Funny

Just ban texting while driving and that solves that problem.

No, it doesn't.

It's illegal to touch a cell phone in NY state while you're driving... how many people do you think actually care?

Frankly, we'd be the only ones following that rule, and I doubt if even half the people on this site would follow it, either.

[Piwoslaw]

I found this link at a local forum. It's a research paper comparing intersections with and without countdown lights.
The Effect of Digital Count-Down Display on Signalized Junction Performance
Here are the conclusions:

Following conclusions are drawn from the present research:
• The time to reach stop line for all car positions show the similar trend for count down the no-count down situations.
• There is a wide variation for the time to reach stop line, for the same car positions the reason may be attributed to difference in drivers’ abilities and car sizes.
• The discharge headway shows a high variance for the same car positions in different cycles for types of intersections. Although the headway is decreasing pattern for the subsequent cars in the queue but the trend very much differs from the theoretical trend presented in US Highway Capacity Manual, 1985.
• The digital timer has no significant effect on the travel time to stop line especially for the
first few vehicles.
• The digital timer has significant effect on discharge headway for all the cars in queue.
• The rate of red light violation is more for count down intersections than for non-count down ones.

(I highlighted the last point.)
The testing is far from ideal: The comparison was done for 3 intersections with countdowns and 3 without, so the difference may come from the intersections themselves and not from the countdown timers on the lights. A much better test would have been for the same intersections, with and without timers.

Has anyone found similar papers? A lot of European countries have displays on traffic lights and I haven't heard a bad thing about them, but I can't find hard facts. In fact, they were recently tested at 2 intersections in Wrocław and everyone liked them - both drivers and police. In Toruń countdown timers increased the number of cars going through the intersection by 70 cars per hour per lane. But I got this info from internet articles, not scientific research results.