Have you ever run a light?

[primera man]

Late at night on the way home from work i only see greens all the way to my place

[DVSNCYNIKL]

Originally posted by primera man
Late at night on the way home from work i only see greens all the way to my place

That is what you'd like to call it. Where I'm from, this is called being color blind. They all appear to be green.

[NSX-R-SSJ20K]

Originally posted by DVSNCYNIKL


That is what you'd like to call it. Where I'm from, this is called being color blind. They all appear to be green.

dangerous

[DMC12]

Running a red is something I've never done and have no desire to do.

As for the picture, its funny but (at least in CA) there is no such thing as "running a yellow". Is this true elsewhere?

[primera man]

Originally posted by DVSNCYNIKL


That is what you'd like to call it. Where I'm from, this is called being color blind. They all appear to be green.

You got the blind bit right !!

[Ssom]

depends on the circumstances- if its an emergency- only red-lights where there are actually cars I stop at- but I have quite good luck when it comes to having green lights

[replicant_008]

Most of the traffic light systems in New Zealand operate using a proprietary system called SCATS. (What that stands for I don't know...) Anyway, the system looks at patterns of traffic volume by registering vehicles that pass over the sensors buried in the road surface in the various lanes of the road.

In response to the traffic counts by direction, SCATS will alter the phasing to account for busier traffic at certain times of the day or if there is more traffic coming from a particular direction, give them a longer phasing etc.

Unfortunately, SCATS has problems with motorbikes (the sensor coils work on induction and may not be triggered by alloy block motorbikes or indeed bicyclists).

Also the problem that SPEC2GIRL mentioned at night occurs due to the relatively low traffic volumes. Because, there may be twice as much traffic coming from a direction ie 5 cars per hour vs 2 cars per hour then SCATS tends to assign a longer phasing to that direction. It may also 'wait' until it expects a couple of cars (based on traffic volume in the previous hours) have queued on the opposing traffic stream before activating a green.

Unfortunately, because SCATS links most traffic lights you can be in the non-priority traffic flow and get a red at every light while driving.

One useful thing about SCATS is that it can be remotely controlled so where there is video monitoring or a complaint, the traffic engineer can manually amend the phasing remotely without physically going to the intersection. This can be for special occasions eg parades or VIP visits or for emergency services eg intersections near police, fire, ambulances bases (if so enabled).

I've driven a car around the North Shore of Auckland with a traffic engineer with a laptop with SCATS and a mobile phone modem and had a 'green wave' ie by the time we reached an intersection it was green every time.

[boingo82]

I saw the COOLEST thing about red-light-cameras on TLC the other night... they have this new system for busy intersections which has 8 or so cameras monitoring traffic for a bit ahead of the intersection. When the cameras detect a vehicle that is not stopping for the light in time (i.e. is going to run the light) it holds the red for cross-traffic long enough that a T-bone collision is avoided. Then it promptly mails out a ticket to the offender.

This prevents the often fatal side-impact collision. How many lives will be saved when this device is in common use, we can only guess.

[Moppie]

Originally posted by primera man
Late at night on the way home from work i only see greens all the way to my place

You only see greens becasue there is only one traffic light in Palmy North. :finger:




SCATS, as Rep Called it is quite an interesting thing to get to know.
If you spend all day on the road, driving through the same sets of lights at differnt times of the day it actualy becomes clear how effective it is at controlling traffic during rush hour, and how adapotive it is. For example the phasing does change during school holidays to allow for the differnt traffic flow. And there are certian lights that if I get to before 6am will go green almost imediatly for me, but after 6am I will have to wait for the phasing, as apprently 6am is considered the start of rush hour.

Unforunatly you also get to know its flaws. For example it is terriable at dealing with a fine saterday morning when everyone in Auckland wants to go shopping. Im guessing it must be the enginers day off.

[primera man]

Originally posted by Moppie


You only see greens becasue there is only one traffic light in Palmy North. :finger:

That green light is at the North End of the town to let all you Aucklander's in that are leaving...LOL
:finger: :finger: :finger:

[G-ealousy]

Well, thus far, I've been driving since I was 16 and I am 23 1/2 now, and I just got my 23 ticket from the South Carolina State Patrol! Yeah! Lets hear a big round of applause. But, out of those, only 2 have been for red lights, one was for jumping the light during a race with a kid in a A4, and the other was when running a yellow/turned red in the intersection. But, I can honestly say, I've never ran a blood red (as in the traffic going the other way has had a green light) ever.. thank the Lord. But, that's not to say it can't happen, some of the lights here in Denver are BOOTY! HA HA!