Stop Lights with a Progress bar!
 

http://gizmodo.com/5415358/a-stoplig...bar-generation

http://www.yankodesign.com/images/de...1/29/eko02.jpg

Wow, finally someone will modify the lights to let you know when they are getting stale!

This could be huge for EOC and so you know when it's ok to turn off your car at a light that just turned.

http://www.yankodesign.com/images/de...1/29/eko01.jpg

Ticks down as you wait. I can also see where this could be absolutely awful if someone just blows through a red-light that is at the last notch. Your thoughts?

in most parts of nj, they have timers for the crosswalks on the light poles. They count down to the red light so walkers know how much time there is. Helps to figure out whether to eoc or not early.

Granada, Spain, not only has timers on crosswalks, the ped figure is animated! When it's green, the ped figure walks, when there is only 5 seconds left he starts hurrying. Pretty cute.
I've seen timers for traffic lights in many European cities, almost every larger town in Romania had them. They would not only count down how much time was left for the red, but also for the green. I loved that! Unfortunately, none around here :( Too bad, because I'd think it's cheap to add a timer to each street light, while the improvement to traffic flow, safety, fuel usage and smog is almost priceless.

I just watch the traffic pattern in the intersection. If people are turning left from the perpendicular lanes, chances are, it's OK to shut 'er down. If they're going straight, it's a bit harder to tell, but you can always tell if they just started moving, or if they've been moving for a few mins by how tight the cars are packed going through the intersection. If they're spaced a bit, the light's going to turn soon.

Also, if you're at a 4 way with left turns, you've still got time, because lefty's go first.

It's really not that difficult a thing to master, once you realize that all intersections have the same basic light pattern.

I actually disagree with the use of lights at intersections being as widespread as it is...

In my town, there is one red light. There are less than 2,000 people in this town, and we could all suffice with a stop sign there, but they put up the red light as a "traffic improver".

You can't make a right on red from any part of the intersection, either. It's ridiculous. It's a waste of power, honestly. Imagine how many times you've seen a light in the middle of nowhere that could have been replaced with a stop sign? Now think about how much power the lights use... then the switch boxes, then the computer systems to run them... etc. It's a constant draw that isn't usually necessary.

Hi,

In England, they turn on the yellow light with the red light about 1 or 2 seconds before it goes green. This allows the first 5 or 6 cars in the line to get ready to go, and they all start rolling at virtually the same time. A LOT more cars get through the green light, than is typical here in the USA.

100% agreement. Plus traffic lights cost a mint in the first place. They are starting to put in roundabouts here instead of stop signs. They are much safer but don't allow for the best high speed coasting. Still, much better than stop signs.

theycallmeebryan -

Yup, they also have those in LA, but not in most places. But some intersections don't have crosswalk lights, so the stoplight progress bar has an advantage there.

I would like little "holes" in the side of the light so I can see the status of the cross-traffic light at intersections :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-cf...hole-light.jpg

If I had those, I could easily figure out when the cross-traffic light is changing at intersections. This would help me becuase it would make it easier to time my engine restart. This would be a cheap retrofit to existing stop light systems. But, I don't think you can do my idea because of safety issues. I am guessing that some people would argue that this little light would confuse drivers.

CarloSW2

Carlos -

Pennsylvania lights are on two different wires per intersection, hung directly over the cross walks. This makes for more wires, which means more transmission loss, but also that as you come up to the intersection, you can view the opposing light, which allows you to make a judgement call if you can't figure out the traffic pattern.

As soon as you enter NY state (I live near the border, travel to NYS often), the lights are strung diagonally across the intersection, saving on wiring and latent/transmission losses, and wiring installation/maintenance, pole installation/maintenance, etc... but its' a PITA when you can't see the opposite light at times. Not all intersections are created equal... and if you're not familiar with the intersection, it's a bit harder to judge the pattern of traffic exiting it.

Christ -

Yeah, it sounds like LA is more like NJ. Looks like we need another database for stoplights, ha ha.

CarloSW2

They've been putting in roundabouts around here lately. They're excellent for intersections that are too busy for a stop sign, but not so busy as to need multiple lanes. The problem is when old folks come up to a roundabout, they get scared and stop, sometimes in the roundabout. When you see a Buick ahead of you, be prepared to stop.

I'm also a fan of blinking yellow lights. More traffic lights should be set to blink during quiet times of the day. Traffic can govern itself better than you might expect.

I love the idea of this, but fear that it may also encourage street racing more so than normal lights.

I worry too much.

Here in Austin, most crosswalks give you around 5 to 6 seconds to cross the road. ( two lanes )
I feel sorry for anyone that is handicapped or elderly and has to race across the road.

Yeah like Christ said, in PA you can see the other light so it makes coasting that much easier. In other states it seems that sometimes I can see the other light and sometimes I can't. When I can't see the other light, I just coast slower in case the light is longer than I was anticipating.

Cd-
I think it might encourage racing too, but I wouldn't be the one racing.:D

Epic!
Where did you find those?
I want to write to my DOT and ask for them. I'm sure my letter will go straight in to the Wacko bin with the rest of my letters, but oh well.

Gizmodo- Stoplight with a progress bar

That is the place I found it and went through the link to the author's site. There has been quite a lot of varied opinions here, I do think that racing might become a problem, but not if these were placed on single lane intersections.

I also agree with the rotary comment. There should be more rotaries, less old people, less Buicks also :D.

Seriously, I think there should be a mandatory driving test two years after receiving your license (17 - 18ish) and at 65, 70 and every 2 years thereafter. That is when you are most dangerous too other drivers on the road. Even my parents are for testing, and they are getting up there in years.

Back on subject, I think these lights could be implemented at the most active intersections and save a bunch of people like us some serious mileage. :thumbup:

Hi,

I think that we all should do what Finland does: ~6 hours of skid pad training for all drivers.

Pretty cool, that progress bar!

In Germany the stoplights do the same as in England, they turn red + yellow shortly before they go green. This is important because the stoplight phases in Europe are usually much shorter than in America.
You can tell a stale green by when the pedestrian crosswalk lights in the same direction turn red.

Back in East Germany they used to have timers on the stoplights, but that's one good thing out of the socialist countries that they didn't carry over into capitalism.

The next step would be to have the city publish stoplight information over GPS or something so that your car's navigator can tell you when the next light is gonna turn red or green and what speed you need to maintain to time it properly so that you can roll through on green.

Another option would be inter-car communication so that the cars ahead of you tell yours about red lights or other traffic jams, icy patches, etc.

In Columbia the lights are nicely tied into the pedestrian walk/no walk indicator. It makes for relaxing driving since they are visible for much further than the lights, and are lower down to let you pay attention to the road also.

Here they've started putting roundabouts into places that really should have stoplights.

They may be good on paper where everyone magically does what they're supposed to do, but in actual reality all I ever see is close calls, collisions, and hurt feelings.

Every time I see a perfectly good stoplight replaced with a roundabout I spend the rest of my day trying to telepathically give terminal colon cancer to whose ever idea it was to put in the roundabout.

When they put those roundabouts in Sedona (on a 4-lane road), it FUBAR'd the evening incoming traffic situation. Last time I went there, traffic was backed up for 3 miles.:mad:

That makes too much sense. Sounds like too much fun. :thumbup:

Somewhat off topic, but......just wondering what you guys consider a long enough red light to make turning off your engine worthwhile? 5 seconds? 10? 15? 20?

The amount of gas it takes to start up is about seven seconds worth of idling gas. So if you're going to be sitting for more than seven seconds, it saves gas to shut down. The argument is the wear on the starter and the possibility of older cars not starting back up everytime. Personally, I have an older car and I don't want to spend extra money on repairs, so I only shut down if I'm certain I will be sitting for over two minutes. But some people have their engines off while approaching the red light.:D

You betcha! :thumbup: That's one of the ones I was thinking about specifically, too! They think it makes their tourist trap metropolis more "quaint" but really what it does is make thousands of drivers miserable every single day. Makes me want to toss the city planners into a jacuzzi full of black widow spiders. :mad:

I emphatically agree!

Oh. You were talking about roundabouts. I was thinking about traffic lights with timers.

For those among us who endeavor to save fuel, the idea looks great. For those among us who endeavor to save time, the idea looks great too. Unfortunately my experience counts the the latter in far greater numbers than the former, and the result traffic lights with visible timers being far more car parts becoming detached from their vehicles in the middle of intersections.

Thusly, according to Darwin, less drivers overall. Win/Win for hypermilers.

What's the problem?

If people are going to streetrace, they're going to streetrace. Having an indication of an upcoming green does nothing to change that.

I don't think he meant street racing specifically... I'm sure that, rather, he meant throttling it to get through faster, which is, on all accounts, illegal.

Knowing that the light will turn green in just a second or two, drivers are less likely to brake or even let off the gas. Eventually, a second or two becomes 5 seconds, which is the average for how long the opposite yellow light lasts. If a driver encroaches the 5 second limit, there is a great chance for increased accident rates.

I still could care less, if you're that stupid, you deserve the Darwin Award you're so determined to get.

I don't mind if stupid people eliminate themselves from the gene pool, just as long as they don't take innocent by-standers with them. Crash into a big tree: go ahead, head-on an 18-wheeler: be my guest, drive off a cliff: you've got the green light from me, run a red and hit a car: no way Jose!

What if the other car was talking on it's cell phone while applying lipstick and would have had time to avoid the accident had it been paying attention? The resultant accident kills both drivers, with no passengers, and lowers my insurance rate by .000001!

I see what you're saying, though.

I was hoping to see a progress bar on the green/yellow rather than the red. The yellows are so short around here that a routine light becomes a panic stop to avoid running the red.

Around here where it is either dark or overcast most of the time, I can usually see the green turn to yellow in the cross direction, then I have an idea when my side will be green.

I know of only one roundabout which is in Gaylord, I believe the high school is there. When I go through there is hardly anybody there. It would seem very tough to use when it is busy like after a game. It's getting more and more commonplace around here for people to not signal and blow through stop signs like they don't exist. The only way to use it would be to pull out in front of someone.

I passionately hate round-abouts. I think it's because 1 one they installed in Los Alamos is just to confusing for these over educated PhD's up here. It's called Left-of-way. If someone is to your left at the circle, they go first...

4 cars can enter a traffic circle at the same time
Multiple cars can occupy the circle at the same time
You don't have to go 2 mph around the circle!

Ugh! I've had to smack my brakes good before because some jackass decided to yield to the right, thusly stopping the traffic flow and causing mass confusion.

I typically try to spy on the Crosswalk hand. The blinking hand means ya got a while, a solid hand (in Los Alamos, at out 8 stoplights) means it's going to change soon. Never fails in this wee'lil town.

Looks good! Can you get that to my little town in Massachusetts, and make sure that the cops keep an eye on it? I know someone will try and blow through it no matter what is done.

Short Yellow Lights Mean More Tickets, Money For Cities

My comment to the people complaining on another forum about this - You don't like shorter yellow lights, you have two choices:

Speed up and get into an accident - Darwin wins.
Learn to drive correctly, and YIELD when you see the yellow light, which would entail SLOWING DOWN, not trying to "get through it before it goes red!".

Take your pick.

Not all vehicles in all conditions are capable of safely stopping within the limits of a short yellow. There's no harm (except to revenue) in having a long (4+ second) yellow.

Sure there is. The longer the yellow light, the more time people have to decide whether or not to run through it.

4 seconds at 30 MPH (44FPS) is 44*4 = 176 feet. That's enough for an F150 to stop from 55.

Sure, in inclement weather, it's harder to stop, but you shouldn't be driving as fast, either. The fact is, the law says that when the light turns yellow, your best bet is to slow down and stop. If you can't stop before the light turns red, you'll be in the "safe zone" anyway by the time it does.

That's enough for a brand new unloaded F150 to stop from 55 using maximum braking, under ideal test track conditions, with an expert driver at the wheel and no reaction time required.

The law also defines the minimum yellow times for lights based on speed limits, among other factors. However, it can be overrode by greedy jurisdictions who are tired of driving last year's model of Interceptor.

The fact is that there's a red light camera at a 50 mph intersection on my commute with a yellow time of only 3 seconds. I have to downshift and slow down below the speed limit ahead of the light so I can make that brake or floor-it decision twice a day. If cars have to slow while approaching every green light to avoid getting caught out, then the yellow light is too damn short.

For some reason, I imagine you're the only driver that does this. If that's true, your statement is self-defeating, because it relies on other drivers having to do the same thing as you're doing, which they most likely do not.

The fact is, that there is no decision to brake or floor it. Read the law. If a cop notices you attempting to beat a yellow light, you can be stopped and ticketed in many states. They don't want you to go through the yellow light.. there's a difficult concept, I see.

Yellow does not mean "make a choice" or "keep going - it's not red yet" it means "yield and prepare to stop".

I've got a variety of light timing on the many routes that I travel to get to different places... guess what's one ticket I've never had? Running a light. Why? I stop at yellow lights. If I can't stop at it, I keep going through it, and it's only because I was within 100 feet of the light when it turned yellow anyway.

Maybe I posted incorrectly... I should have posted the 30-0 time for the heaviest vehicle I could find under the worst possible non-inclement conditions... maybe that would get you to realize that 3 seconds is actually quite a long distance.

Oh - remember - those red light cameras aren't active until the other light turns green, at least as far as I know. That means you have the 3 second yellow light and another second or two of cross over time before the other side of the intersection turns, so you won't get a ticket.

By the way, at 50 MPH, 3 seconds @ 73.3 FPS is 220 feet. That means you'd be able to travel 220 feet in the time that the light stays yellow.

If you're within 220 feet, you're safe. If you're outside of 220 feet, you've got more than enough time to brake to a complete stop. They don't hire civil engineers to run numbers on traffic intersections for no reason, my friend.