3 ms·

I was taught to always assure that the drivers on the cross street are stopping, and its saved me a couple times, particularly in the rain when people think the

I was taught to always assure that the drivers on the cross street are stopping, and its saved me a couple times, particularly in the rain when people think their car will continue to brake in 10' despite the roads now being covered with a mixture of oil, tire sludge and water which is almost as slick as ice. But, yes I find myself not having a lot of respect for much of traffic control these days, when the cities can't be bothered to even make the lights flash at 3 AM, and instead are stopping me at every single light down a road for exactly zero cross traffic. Or when there is a light out, and a cop sitting in their car waiting for someone to not treat it like a 4 way stop instead of getting out and directing traffic. So, while I don't live in a place with automated ticketing, I can see the allure of fake license plates. My brother in law's house just had a light added on the cross street he uses to leave the neighborhood. Whats the first thing its doing? Long light cycles with short interruptions and ticketing everyone who runs it. Again because while that intersection hasn't needed a light for the past 40 years, and the town he is in hasn't grown much it got one after some drunk teenager caused a big accident. So, now it backs up, and instead of just turning left after a 10 seconds or so with a gap, one can sit there for multiple minutes because there are a dozen cars backed up trying to get out. And of course the ticket is like $150 or something, most of which goes to the private corp that put the camera in.

lotsofpulp 3y ago
>when the cities can't be bothered to even make the lights flash at 3 AM, and instead are stopping me at every single light down a road for exactly zero cross traffic. On the east and west coast, I feel like car sensing traffic lights are the norm.
- devilbunny 3y ago
  They're pretty common elsewhere, but many intersections have fixed cycles before they actually pay attention to the sensors - they're only polled when another cross-traffic cycle is about to come up. But this is about the situation in which the main road should be flashing yellow at low-traffic times, and the cross streets flashing red. Or, all flashing red if it's a limited-visibilty intersection. There's one of the latter near me, and it really only needs full cycles during morning and evening rush. The rest of the time, it would be faster for all involved as a four-way stop.
HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago
> when the cities can't be bothered to even make the lights flash at 3 AM I live in a rural area where, as you can expect, traffic is very light. It was an absolute godsend when all the turn arrows changed from red/green to red/green/yield on flashing yellow. The frustration of sitting at a red turn signal when you could see that there was no oncoming traffic for a mile down the road was palpable, but cops are very good at hiding.

lotsofpulp 3y ago

>when the cities can't be bothered to even make the lights flash at 3 AM, and instead are stopping me at every single light down a road for exactly zero cross traffic. On the east and west coast, I feel like car sensing traffic lights are the norm.

devilbunny 3y ago
They're pretty common elsewhere, but many intersections have fixed cycles before they actually pay attention to the sensors - they're only polled when another cross-traffic cycle is about to come up. But this is about the situation in which the main road should be flashing yellow at low-traffic times, and the cross streets flashing red. Or, all flashing red if it's a limited-visibilty intersection. There's one of the latter near me, and it really only needs full cycles during morning and evening rush. The rest of the time, it would be faster for all involved as a four-way stop.

HeyLaughingBoy 3y ago

> when the cities can't be bothered to even make the lights flash at 3 AM I live in a rural area where, as you can expect, traffic is very light. It was an absolute godsend when all the turn arrows changed from red/green to red/green/yield on flashing yellow. The frustration of sitting at a red turn signal when you could see that there was no oncoming traffic for a mile down the road was palpable, but cops are very good at hiding.