A Better Understanding of 'Stoplights' [Traffic Lights]

[6Foot2]

I saw this today:

 

A Better Understanding of Stoplights

 

I thought it was a good idea until I started to think about 'Boy Racers' revving their engines preparing for the end of the countdown. Might not save much fuel after all.

[BandyQuill]

ohhh they have those in china... dont work very well because people start coasting upto the lights then floor it XD...

 

they'd be perfect for racing though XD

[srochford]

I've seen traffic lights with countdown timers in various places; the count for green just seems to encourage people to speed up if it's approaching zero and the count for red just means "start moving forwards" as soon as the count gets to about 5 seconds to go!

[DrPerceptron]

ohhh they have those in china... dont work very well because people start coasting upto the lights then floor it XD...

 

they'd be perfect for racing though XD

 

I coast up to red lights... so what's new there?

 

What's wrong with the current spec of lights for racing? they're used on Drag Strips still... so there can't be too much wrong with them?

 

 

Although in principal the idea suggested is sound, quite a lot of new cars do such a thing anyway (shut their engines off or whatever they do)

Edited December 1, 2009 by DrPerceptron

[deanc]

if people anticipate that the lights are due to change and prepare themselves for doing so is this really a problem?

 

one of the things that annoys me when driving is people that only look at the car in front of them not the stuff going on in front of that (riding a motorbike you get learn to look at everything) and so sit at the lights in neutral until the car has moved, then select a gear and eventually move meaning that fewer cars move in the green phase leading to more congestion.

 

when i lived in leicester people seemd to know how to work traffic lights and at least the first three cars moved at almost the same time!

[srochford]

if people anticipate that the lights are due to change and prepare themselves for doing so is this really a problem?

Not at all.

 

people seemd to know how to work traffic lights and at least the first three cars moved at almost the same time!

 

It's when there are three cars moving in all 4 directions that it becomes a bit more complicated :-)

[6Foot2]

LED traffic lights don't melt snow, do cause accidents