Why are lights in Atlanta timed in the middle of the night? (Buford: home, subdivision)

[ATLTJL]

Last night I came home from downtown really late, like 1am. I took Buford Highway instead of I-85 like usual, and a thought hit me...

Driving through downtown, the lights are all timed. I mean, that kind of makes sense in a downtown area if you want to keep traffic moving.

But what shocked me was that the lights on Buford Highway were also timed, through most of Brookhaven and Chamblee. What this means is that it took an unnecessarily long time to travel north on Buford Highway because I repeatedly had to stop at red lights for roads where there was absolutely no cross traffic.

So my question is this: Why don't more lights in Atlanta use the technology where the light never turns red unless another car is waiting to go? I know it may be expensive to dig up roads and put in weight pads, but if they can install cameras that can read your license tag in the dark and send you a ticket if you run a red light, I've got to believe the same technology can be used to see if there is a car sitting at an intersection waiting to go.

I've never been to a city before that has fewer of these sort of lights. Even growing up in crummy Birmingham, Alabama, I recall the lights all staying green unless someone pulled up and needed to go.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Last night I came home from downtown really late, like 1am. I took Buford Highway instead of I-85 like usual, and a thought hit me...

Driving through downtown, the lights are all timed. I mean, that kind of makes sense in a downtown area if you want to keep traffic moving.

But what shocked me was that the lights on Buford Highway were also timed, through most of Brookhaven and Chamblee. What this means is that it took an unnecessarily long time to travel north on Buford Highway because I repeatedly had to stop at red lights for roads where there was absolutely no cross traffic.

So my question is this: Why don't more lights in Atlanta use the technology where the light never turns red unless another car is waiting to go? I know it may be expensive to dig up roads and put in weight pads, but if they can install cameras that can read your license tag in the dark and send you a ticket if you run a red light, I've got to believe the same technology can be used to see if there is a car sitting at an intersection waiting to go.

I've never been to a city before that has fewer of these sort of lights. Even growing up in crummy Birmingham, Alabama, I recall the lights all staying green unless someone pulled up and needed to go.

The industry is moving to cameras that detect when a vehicle is present. Cheaper in the long run, as every time the pavement is dug up the loops can get damaged.

[Mossberg]

I'd take it further than that. In many areas up North, the lights start to flash yellow after a certain hour at night on major thoroughfares so you don't have to stop at all. The traffic on the lesser-traveled cross-road has a flashing red and has to stop before proceeding through the intersection. Obviously this only works if the cross street has minimal night time volume, such as exits from a subdivision or seldom traveled back road.

People would probably screw that up here since I often see people treat a flashing yellow as a 4-way stop even though the other side actually has the flashing red. A ton of education would be needed.

Michigan lefts would also be amazing to implement, but that would be pushing it due to lack of right-of-way space in most of the metro. It would mostly have to be OTP.

[fieldm]

I need to drive more at night then because the lights suck during the day. If i dont see any police i just drive through them

[MattCW]

Nothing but laziness and apathy on the part of the various public works divisions. Most of the places where the lights do pull that kind of a stunt, you can see the cutouts in the pavement for the induction coils, or look up and see the cameras. They are either too lazy or stupid to cycle the lights properly, or so greedy that they're trying to encourage people to run them to boost the police doughnut fund.

[InternationalWaves]

Originally Posted by Mossberg

People would probably screw that up here since I often see people treat a flashing yellow as a 4-way stop even though the other side actually has the flashing red. A ton of education would be needed.

I be one of them people! If I see a yellow light flashing I'll almost treat it like a red light flashing,out of exactly what you are saying. I don't know how the flashing red light person is going to react to the right of way,so I might as well prevent and check. Slow down or even stop accordingly,since that's what a yellow light really means!
It does not mean,keep on riding at your speed.

So my suggestion would be keep it green then flashing red in the other side Lol

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by InternationalWaves

I be one of them people! If I see a yellow light flashing I'll almost treat it like a red light flashing,out of exactly what you are saying. I don't know how the flashing red light person is going to react to the right of way,so I might as well prevent and check. Slow down or even stop accordingly,since that's what a yellow light really means!
It does not mean,keep on riding at your speed.

So my suggestion would be keep it green then flashing red in the other side Lol

You're part of the problem.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Mossberg

I'd take it further than that. In many areas up North, the lights start to flash yellow after a certain hour at night on major thoroughfares so you don't have to stop at all. The traffic on the lesser-traveled cross-road has a flashing red and has to stop before proceeding through the intersection. Obviously this only works if the cross street has minimal night time volume, such as exits from a subdivision or seldom traveled back road.

People would probably screw that up here since I often see people treat a flashing yellow as a 4-way stop even though the other side actually has the flashing red. A ton of education would be needed.

Michigan lefts would also be amazing to implement, but that would be pushing it due to lack of right-of-way space in most of the metro. It would mostly have to be OTP.

Cobb DOT attempted to implement a couple of Michigan Lefts along Barrett Pkwy at Burnt Hickory Rd. But due to public outcry and lack of knowledge, they installed a standard intersection.
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9633...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

[Mossberg]

That's tragic. Michigan lefts are much more efficient and safer for moving large volumes of left-turners. It really cuts down on intersection light cycle times since a left turn arrow is no longer necessary. It also is safer due to almost eliminating T-bone accidents at intersections.

Since when does the general public know what's best for traffic engineering or traffic planning? Just because something is less familiar to people doesn't mean it's worse.

The same people who killed this are probably the type to kill the Northern Arc citing sprawl concerns, and then they ended up with the sprawl anyway, without a much needed highway to get around the region.

sigh...

[bu2]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Nothing but laziness and apathy on the part of the various public works divisions. Most of the places where the lights do pull that kind of a stunt, you can see the cutouts in the pavement for the induction coils, or look up and see the cameras. They are either too lazy or stupid to cycle the lights properly, or so greedy that they're trying to encourage people to run them to boost the police doughnut fund.

Or incompetence.