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We called them traffic circles in Syracuse New York. I drove through plenty of them in Ireland too, clockwise, which is a trip until you adapt to it. I dream

We called them traffic circles in Syracuse New York. I drove through plenty of them in Ireland too, clockwise, which is a trip until you adapt to it. I dream about roundabouts every time I'm stuck at a light in Silicon Valley and absolutely nothing is crossing the intersection. During rush hour here, the light stays green in one direction for several minutes, so you wait around a lot before you can get on to te main thoroughfares.

petercooper 16y ago
I dream about roundabouts every time I'm stuck at a light in Silicon Valley and absolutely nothing is crossing the intersection. Rather than redesign the road, this could be resolved with intelligent traffic lights that notice traffic flow (or lack of it). The lights in my town change to this mode after dark and often I'll see them turn to red but a few seconds later go back to green as I approach them.
- stretchwithme 16y ago
  yes, traffic lights could be a lot more intelligent. If Microsoft Kinect can reliably detect what people are doing, traffic systems should be able to figure out how many cars and people are approaching intersections. Its unfortunate that the costs and benefits of traffic solutions are not connected like they are for most things. It would be a no-brainer to fix this if one balanced hundreds of dollars per day of lost time versus the cost of upgrading. But separating who pays costs and who gets benefits is what government seems to do best.
  - petercooper 16y ago
    If Microsoft Kinect can reliably detect what people are doing, traffic systems should be able to figure out how many cars and people are approaching intersections. The systems around here just seem to have infrared cameras on the top to notice the presence of a vehicle, nothing quite so fancy as Kinect! :-)
- joezydeco 16y ago
  Intelligent lights still won't work as well in a lot of situations. Roundabouts are just more natural. Think of a situation where four cars approach a roundabout at exactly the same time. With a roundabout (and I've driven this exact situation in Germany) everyone can smoothly enter at the same time and continue on. No technology needed. What would the intelligent stoplight do?
  - petercooper 16y ago
    It's a tradeoff. The OP was referring to waiting at lights in Silicon Valley, an area where there are literally thousands of 4 way intersections (as in most US cities). It would be impossible to convert every intersection (or even 10% of them) to roundabouts effectively (within a reasonable budget and maintaining the number of lanes American drivers are used to). It would be easier to maintain the road layout and use intelligent lights to make the junction, say, 50% more efficient, than spend large amounts of cash making the junction, say, 80% or even 90% more efficient with roundabouts.

petercooper 16y ago

I dream about roundabouts every time I'm stuck at a light in Silicon Valley and absolutely nothing is crossing the intersection. Rather than redesign the road, this could be resolved with intelligent traffic lights that notice traffic flow (or lack of it). The lights in my town change to this mode after dark and often I'll see them turn to red but a few seconds later go back to green as I approach them.

stretchwithme 16y ago
yes, traffic lights could be a lot more intelligent. If Microsoft Kinect can reliably detect what people are doing, traffic systems should be able to figure out how many cars and people are approaching intersections. Its unfortunate that the costs and benefits of traffic solutions are not connected like they are for most things. It would be a no-brainer to fix this if one balanced hundreds of dollars per day of lost time versus the cost of upgrading. But separating who pays costs and who gets benefits is what government seems to do best.
- petercooper 16y ago
  If Microsoft Kinect can reliably detect what people are doing, traffic systems should be able to figure out how many cars and people are approaching intersections. The systems around here just seem to have infrared cameras on the top to notice the presence of a vehicle, nothing quite so fancy as Kinect! :-)
joezydeco 16y ago
Intelligent lights still won't work as well in a lot of situations. Roundabouts are just more natural. Think of a situation where four cars approach a roundabout at exactly the same time. With a roundabout (and I've driven this exact situation in Germany) everyone can smoothly enter at the same time and continue on. No technology needed. What would the intelligent stoplight do?
- petercooper 16y ago
  It's a tradeoff. The OP was referring to waiting at lights in Silicon Valley, an area where there are literally thousands of 4 way intersections (as in most US cities). It would be impossible to convert every intersection (or even 10% of them) to roundabouts effectively (within a reasonable budget and maintaining the number of lanes American drivers are used to). It would be easier to maintain the road layout and use intelligent lights to make the junction, say, 50% more efficient, than spend large amounts of cash making the junction, say, 80% or even 90% more efficient with roundabouts.