another day driving home and hitting all red traffic lights

[Ron Beaufort]

to be quite honest – I do make every effort to "start out early" – and to arrive "on time" ...

but quite often even our best-laid plans don't work out the way we'd like ... in those situations, I've started asking myself two questions:

"What do I stand to gain by rushing to make this appointment?" ... and ...

"What am I risking in order to arrive on time?" ...

every little roadside memorial – every little clutch of flowers placed on the shoulder of a highway – represents someone who thought: "It will never happen to me." ...

as you get older you start to consider the ones who have been lost – and more importantly – the loved ones that have been left behind ... who put those flowers there? ... what are they being forced to go through now – and into the future? ...

I'll admit – I didn't always think this way – but the older I get, the less value I see in hurrying through life ...

Out of anyone here, I think you've earned it.

thank you for that kind compliment ... and yes, I have worked very hard to get to where I am – but trust me, there is another Hand at work here ...

peace ...

 

[Freak]

What's a traffic light???

20 minutes maximum to work everyday with maybe one car that slows me down, no traffic lights and only one stop sign, and that's on the way home.

 

[ASF]

Yeah but then you have to live in SA

(I'm kidding, I've been through your neck of the woods and it's a very beautiful place )

 

[Bering C Sparky]

SA ?????

Is that the Ausie equivilant to "BFE"????

 

[Mickey]

SA ?????

Is that the Ausie equivilant to "BFE"????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Australia#/media/File:Barossa_Valley_South_Australia.jpg

 

[shooter]

sparky only has red and green on his ship, no yellow.

 

[dlweber]

I had yellow on my ship...submarine beacon

 

[rdrast]

It used to bother me that I had two traffic lights on my 50 mile commute, but now with road work, I have to go through THREE!

The indignity of it all.

 

[dmargineau]

That yellow is for reactor hiccups...

 

[sixstringz]

I find that troubling.

If you find that troubling you should see what the Feds are doing!

 

[Timbert]

I don't know why but it seems like the best stories are the ones that involve failure.

I don't think you learn much from success. Sure it works, could it have been done cheaper, faster, or better some other way?

I believe you remember those "Oh ****" moments better than anything you read in a book.

 

[Firejo]

@Firejo, are the cables I see running across the road used to collect data for the traffic light controllers?

Yes the cables, actually rubber hoses, are for counting cars but they aren’t tied to the controllers they collect the data that is used by traffic engineers.

(Everyone else) There are lots of factors that aren’t readily known. Like when you transition from one jurisdiction to another, say from a city to county or state, many times the controllers are not connected and whoever has the intersection decides how it’s controlled. On the Bellevue/Redmond northern border there are three intersections within a few hundred feet. The northern and center ones belong to the state as they are part of the on/off ramps to SR520 and the southern intersection is Redmond’s. A little further south is another set of intersections owned by Bellevue. Bellevue and Redmond finally reached a working agreement but the state won’t play nice and all they are concerned about it keeping the freeway clear. For about 20 hours a day it’s a mess.
Like I said, it’s a lot more complicated and difficult than most realize. I know a couple of traffic engineers and those who resort to disrespectful comments, you simply don’t know what you’re talking about. There are idiots in all aspects of life. I deal with tech support for my company (we’re in the industrial automation field) and I talk to a fair share of “less than smart” automation engineers. That doesn’t mean all automation engineers are idiots. By the way, at least for the cities around my neck of the woods (county and state as well), traffic engineers are well paid. It’s not the “it’s the only job they can get” scenario.

 

[DaveW]

Sensors in the ground do help, especially on left turns. Light synchronizing do help some but during heavy rush hours, traffic is still a nightmare. I'm still waiting for the driverless car.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/u...ngeles-synchronizes-every-red-light.html?_r=0

 

[Peter Nachtwey]

Like I said, it’s a lot more complicated and difficult than most realize.

I know it is but there is a lot of room for improvement

I know a couple of traffic engineers and those who resort to disrespectful comments, you simply don’t know what you’re talking about.

I program PLCs from time to time but mostly I am solving complex problems that others can't. That includes modeling, simulation, and optimization. I would challenge any of those traffic engineers. The traffic engineers have not impressed me at all.

Face it, traffic control is poor. The other problem is stupid drivers. I have been to Japan where drivers are much more cooperative. In the US and China it seems it is everyone for themselves even though it screws up the overall flow of traffic.

 

[rankhornjp]

Face it, traffic control is poor. .....

Example:

In my town, we have 2 1-way streets downtown running East-West. There are 7 traffic lights on each road in a span of less than a mile. (Google maps says its about 4000ft)

When you are headed East, you might get stopped by 1 light, but if you do, you will hit all the rest when they are green. Sometimes you will make it all the way through town without hitting any red lights.

However, if you are headed West, you are getting stopped by 2 lights, no matter what time of day or night.


I have several examples of this in my town. The local Gov is traffic light happy around here. We have a ton of new traffic lights that have made traffic worse, instead of better.