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I've noticed that a lot of the traffic lights are timed at about 10mph over the speed limit. I suspect that this is an attempt to get people to speed up in order to give them speeding tickets. Watch out!
Gratiot in the city is exactly that way.
During the morning commute, you will never stop at a red light from 8 Mile from downtown going 45 MPH.
Of course, the Detroit Police Department certainly aren't wasting their time and energey handing out speeding tickets now.
In metro Detroit, roads with high volumes and high capacities typically have longer greens. The infamous 8 Mile road is a route I use pretty much every day. Going 45, there's only 2 reds that I stop at along a 10 mile stretch. 9 Mile on the other hand, is a more narrow road and pretty much has a red on every mile within the same distance.
The light all over the metro are timed like clock-work. Except in some suburbs, they've put in new lights and it seriously disrupts the timing. I don't like the new lights.
The secondary streets in Detroit proper are quite annoying though.
For example, it's not uncommon to drive down 7 Mile and stop at several stoplights back to back, some of which don't even need to be in commission any more (there are absoutely cross traffic benefitting from the right away).
Why don't more urban areas with a high volume of commuter traffic work harder to adjust and synch up the timing of the stoplights to improve the flow of traffic?
I live in Northern Virginia and in old town Alexandria, the stoplights on US Hwy 1 are so well synched and timed that once you go through the first red light off the I-495 beltway, you smooth sail all the way into Crystal City, passing a least two dozen other stoplights that are all sequenced to turn after the current herd of vehicles passes through. The perception/illusion (or reality!) is that traffic flows so smoothly through that whole area. I have no idea what the wait times are for those trying to get onto Hwy 1 or in the rest of old town Alexandria but Hwy 1 is a dream.
Now, almost every other area of the city has bottlenecks that clearly seem the result of mis-timed lights or lack of traffic engineering. With such an impact to many daily lives of commuters (and voters), why isn't more effort put into increasing traffic flow on what appears an easy fix by adjusting the timing of the lights?
In Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I lived for a while, the lights along both Washington Blvd and Jefferson Blvd through downtown were timed perfectly that once you got the green light at the first signal, you could drive 30 mph and each successive light would change green just before you got to it. The best part was as a pedestrian, it really broke up the flow of traffic as well, as you'd have a block of 20 or so vehicles go by, and then nothing for a minute or two, then another block of vehicles, then nothing again. Granted, both of those roads were one way parallel roads going in opposite directions a block apart so that may have made it easier to time up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Troubleshooter
- The word "parkway" has a varying definition depending on what state it is in. Originally in New York, a parkway was a freeway with truck and bus traffic prohibited. In New Jersey and Kentucky, a parkway was a toll version of a freeway. But the tolls were removed from most of the Kentucky parkways after their bonds were paid off. In Indiana, a parkway is a road following a park or a river. And sometimes parkway is just the given name of the road.
Not necessarily. Much of the time, this is true, but for example, Carmel, Indiana has Keystone Parkway, a major limited access thoroughfare, that doesn't go near any parks and is at least 2 miles from the nearest river. I think sometimes it's just used because Parkway sounds more upscale. I feel the same way with Boulevard as I've seen that used in quiet subdivisions.
I have driven on all of those. Yes, Keystone parkway was chosen just to give it a name, unlike Fall Creek Parkway, White River Parkway, and Pleasant Run Parkway (in Indianapolis).
The Madison Avenue Expressway (Indianapolis) is an example of a divided road with traffic signals and grade separations. It has one interchange. Raymond Street and Binford Boulevard are also examples of expressways (as defined by the US DOT).
In Evansville IN, the Lloyd Expressway is being converted to a freeway, but still retains the expressway name.
Last edited by Troubleshooter; 02-19-2013 at 11:30 AM..
I live in Northern Virginia and in old town Alexandria, the stoplights on US Hwy 1 are so well synched and timed that once you go through the first red light off the I-495 beltway, you smooth sail all the way into Crystal City, passing a least two dozen other stoplights that are all sequenced to turn after the current herd of vehicles passes through. The perception/illusion (or reality!) is that traffic flows so smoothly through that whole area. I have no idea what the wait times are for those trying to get onto Hwy 1 or in the rest of old town Alexandria but Hwy 1 is a dream.
I'm curious what the drive time is going the opposite direction of travel. It doesn't appear Hwy 1 is capable of good 2-way progression due to the close proximity of traffic signals (at least between the non-couplet section from Vernon St to Airport Access Road).
If you're the unfortunately sole driving in the uncoordinated direction of travel the "dream drive" turns into a nightmare.
The chart below lists the theoretical cycle lengths that achieve 2-way signal progression for different speed limits and signal spacings. As the distance between traffic signals gets closer together it becomes increasingly difficult to achieve good 2-way progression.
Cycle values highlighted "orange" indicates the theoretical cycle is too short in most real-world conditions (pedestrian intervals don't fit, time wasted due to safety yellow & all red minimums). Values highlighted "green" indicates the theoretical cycle is long enough to fit most real-world conditions (even long pedestrian crossings fit into the cycle, the safety yellow & all red is only a small percentage of the total cycle).
Signals spaced 1/4 mile apart is impractical to get good 2-way progression (much of the chart highlighted orange).
Signals spaced 1 mile apart can achieve good 2-way progression (much of the chart highlighted green)
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Watch out!
