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The problem is that you can not see down an crossing intersection at night(esp. at night) in the first place therefore you do not know there is no traffic. That is why when the stop light breaks you treat it as an 4 way stop sign. Any way car A sees the red comes to an stop does not see Car B who is further down the road and sees yellow esp. if there are any obstructions pulls out and bang T-bone.
You can see cars coming into an intersection better at night because the headlights and high beams are giving you advanced warning hundreds of feet before the car gets to the intersection.
Traffic lights are not changed to flash at night because of the expense involved getting the permissions and programing done. Who pays for that? Studies would have to be done to find the minimum number of cars per hour to determine if a light should be flashed off peak. Then each light would have to be measured. Think about how many lights are in your area. This would cost $$$ that no group has to spend.
The other problem is that many people do not know how to handle flashing yellow and flashing red lights.
They do this in the city I live in - cross steets that enter into subdivisions flash yellow after 10:00 at night. i don't see much savings, in terms of time, to make them flash versus waiting for them to change. It's alright I guess.
I'm not sure a major study was done either, as the feeder street handles about 20k cars a day, which is pretty solid suburban traffic. I'm pretty sure some guy in City Hall or wherever just said to do it.
Cincinnati does this at less-traveled intersections. Between midnight and 6 a.m., the light on the more heavily traveled street flashes yellow; the light at the cross street flashes red.
And yes, you save gasoline when you're not idling unnecessarily at stoplights.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kibbiekat
If they all flashed they would be unnecessary since stop signs would do the same thing. Surely you've been at an intersection and seen what happens when the light is out or flashing. You can't possibly think that's a good idea.
Surely you can go back and read the OP, who proposed that lights flash during off-peak hours.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chirack
Ah if one is driving you can't see down the crossing intersection in time therefore there needs to be an stop sign or an signal or something to prevent an crash.
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices states that when signals are taken out of service the faces shall be covered or taken down. Too much trouble to do this every night. http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/htm/2009/part4/part4d.htm
Last edited by pvande55; 10-12-2014 at 07:26 PM..
Reason: Add link
The lights have sensors where i live, in the middle of the night/early hours of the morning... if you pull up to a red the light will usually change with in 10 to 20 seconds because it can see your headlights.
If you're a pedestrian or cyclist, good luck crossing the road in this situation...
This exactly. With right hand turns being allowed on red lights and lingering left hand turners sailing through green arrows turning red, it's difficult enough for pedestrians to cross a busy intersection these days with only a short opportunity while the little white walk guy appears to allows them very little time to cross the street.
Using only flashing lights would make it even more difficult for pedestrians. Drivers don't even watch for people crossing the streets these days, only whether or not they have a solid traffic light and sometimes they don't even pay attention to those.
Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices states that when signals are taken out of service the faces shall be covered or taken down. Too much trouble to do this every night
Switching a light from cycling to blinking is not taking it out of service.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Minervah
This exactly. With right hand turns being allowed on red lights and lingering left hand turners sailing through green arrows turning red, it's difficult enough for pedestrians to cross a busy intersection these days with only a short opportunity while the little white walk guy appears to allows them very little time to cross the street.
Using only flashing lights would make it even more difficult for pedestrians. Drivers don't even watch for people crossing the streets these days, only whether or not they have a solid traffic light and sometimes they don't even pay attention to those.
The premise is that this would occur only during times of very light traffic. All three hand winging over poor bicyclists and pedestrians is moot.
Switching a light from cycling to blinking is not taking it out of service.
The premise is that this would occur only during times of very light traffic. All three hand winging over poor bicyclists and pedestrians is moot.
That's when it's most dangerous to cross these streets. I have seen it time and time again when drivers come to an intersection in which traffic is very light and feel they can just sail through the green arrow signal even after it has just turned red. Traffic is light and there is no one coming at the moment so they feel they can take advantage by slipping through the beginning of the red not thinking that the pedestrians trying to cross the street in which they are turning onto already have the walk sign. I have had to jump back on the curb because of drivers doing this.
This happened to another pedestrian and me just the other day as we got about ten steps off the curb. It happens a lot and always under light traffic conditions.
Not moot at all.
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