Very clever! I see both plusses and minuses, though. It tells you if you still have adequate time to "make" the light, and how soon it may allow "go". But, knowing where in the timing cycle you are encourages speed-up to "beat the sand". https://www.history-a2z.com/crazy-inventions-you-need-to-see-to-believe/2/?xcmg=1
I I’m trying to be a little objective about it. On one hand, it’s a change from the norm and yeah, it allows one to see how much time they have to make it through. Still, I think those who are more apt to hit the gas pedal when the light is in the caution mode will be even more apt to pay more attention to the light instead of other traffic whilst hitting the pedal. Dunno. I cannot remember what city i was traveling through, perhaps the Ft. Worth/ Dallas area, but the lights downtown had signs next to them that indicated what speed a car had to go in order to catch the next one as all the lights were timed rather than dependent upon the amount of traffic.
Looks like something you'd see on a drag strip. If I read the cycle correctly, I don't like the Yellow having two meanings (about to turn green/about to turn red.) I'd hate to have an inattentive driver thinking it meant "about to turn red" and accelerate to get through the intersection when cross traffic was coming off of their green.
Since we're discussing goofy traffic control... Here's a design they put by the Walmart I shop at all the time: It's called a "Diverging Diamond." (I call it "D.O.T. Use-or-Lose Money," or sometimes "Engineers on Acid.") -It's meant to make getting on and off the interstate safer in rural areas that lack full-blown cloverleafs. -It's supposed to save real estate in medium traffic areas. I'll try to explain as best I can. In order to alleviate the problem of some traffic having to make a hard left against oncoming traffic to enter the interstate (in half the cases), and to alleviate those exiting the interstate crossing traffic while making a hard left onto the other road (in half the cases), they have ALL traffic on the secondary road crossing over itself...twice. The secondary road that crosses the interstate in this example travels left-to-right/right-to-left. When the traffic first crosses over itself, everyone is driving on "the wrong side of the street." When it crosses over again, you're back in the normal world. -I traced the normal flow of traffic on the secondary road with a blue line...people just tryin' to make it through. -I circled the crossover spots in red. -Green arrows indicate "wrong side of the road" portions. Entry points to the interstate are marked with orange stars. -To enter the interstate one direction, you veer right just before you hit the initial crossover point. -To enter the interstate the other direction, you veer left before you hit the second crossover point. --You only cross traffic at the controlled crossover spots (normal flow), and never when getting on the interstate. Exit points from the interstate are marked with orange diamonds. -When you exit the interstate, entry onto the secondary road is controlled by the lights at the crossover points. --Whichever way you turn, you are going with traffic. --You only cross traffic at the controlled crossover spots (normal flow), and never when getting off the interstate. When you live around here and get used to it, you adjust. The first few times it was highly confusing. I can only imagine how confusing it is for those who are just traveling through. The one thing that did not change is that--absent a full-blown cloverleaf--access to the interstate is still on opposite sides of the road, depending on which direction you want to go. When they initially opened this, a woman entered the interstate going the wrong direction and was killed. I do not know if alcohol was involved. I also do not know if having ALL traffic cross over itself TWICE increased or decreased the number of accidents at this intersection.
I remember those from when I was younger. They were called Speed Control and it was actually kind of cool. If you stayed at the set speed you would make every traffic light at the same time. It kept the speeds a little more under control because everyone wanted to make that green light .. too slow you miss it .. too fast you miss it .. sort of a game ! I haven't seen that for many years now.
I gotta think that Right Turn On Red negated the benefit, as cars now enter from sidestreets and disrupt the flow.
Like I said I haven't driven in Boson this century so I don't know if it still exists. Certainly right-on-red could have screwed it up.
Anyone remember the magic speed limit signs that changed from daylight to night? Do they still have them anywhere?
Ya know, as much time on the road as I used to travel, a person would think that I would have noticed one but somehow I missed those. And to think that I deem myself as being quite observant. Guess not.
Surprised to find this Monday at an intersection that used to have a simple traffic light. Why? It takes up so much more space. But this is the one I really don't understand. I think it's there to function like a speed bump. Any construction is good for the economy. Removing it later is good for that too.
I really HATE those round-about things. They have put several in areas of Baton Rouge, one on an I-10 exit where we usually buy fuel for the motorhome when we travel east. It has 2 lanes and a lot of traffic, so maneuvering an RV is really annoying.
@Beth Gallagher The experts claim they make interchanges vastly safer. We have our doubts; they eliminate costly traffic control electronics and signals, which may enhance their popularity with the "experts". Frank
It makes sense they would reduce serious accidents, fatalities. You have to slow down to a crawl to navigate them. No running stoplights, you'd end up stuck in the middle of the circle.
Many of these goofy "sucking up all available tax dollar" designs DO make things safer for those who have had time to adapt. But get someone who has never navigated them, or someone who is easily addled, and they ain't such a smart design. I commented that not long after they installed a "Diamond" up the road from me, someone entered the 70MPH interstate late at night going the wrong way and was killed in a head-on crash. Back where I came from, they stopped calling them "speed bumps." They were "traffic calming devices." Sort of Xanax for your auto.