What's up with the highway traffic lights?

[McJ]

Hwy 290 coming from Dripping Springs to the Y is 65 with street lights....and is dangerous because there are a lot of business on the side that have no merge lanes to turn into. You need to have a quick reaction time.

Now, they have recently switched it to descend when you get closer to the Oak Hill area. It goes to 60 then 55 then to 50. A lot of people don't pay attention to that and then they get pulled over by the many cops that are hiding just behind the bend.

[another_hot-day]

Originally Posted by GANKS

My problem isn't with the fact there are lights on the high ways so much as the timing of the lights. North Austin and RR intersections do not seem to use sensors in the roads and the timers are pretty bad.

I'm not from Cali, but one thing I love about So. Cal is most the lights are hyper sensitive if you are the only car at night sitting in the intersection, it will "see" you and let you go through - here you sit and smile :-)

I hear ya. Nothing more aggrivating than sitting at a light for 5 minutes when you are the only car on the road!!

[love roses]

Yeah, have to agree about the sensor thing. It can't be that hard to do.

[another_hot-day]

A lot of the sensors don't even detect bikes. I'm talking motorcycles. Yo can literally sit there forever.

[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by another_hot-day

A lot of the sensors don't even detect bikes.

That is because there is not enough mass in the bike to disrupt the magnetic field of the sensor loop sufficiently. You have to hit them just at the right area of the loop and at the right speed for them to register the shift.

[Trainwreck20]

The bike lanes near my house have their own little sensor loops. Quite cool . Btw, I think every intersection around my area of SW Austin has the sensors for cars, not sure where the nearest without is.....