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It’s time to take a break from the burning orange skies of doomsday, the radical politicians as well as the ongoing pandemic creeping up closer and closer to your door steps breathe by breathe or the herds of homeless populations rampant in the streets to show a moment of appreciation to California’s traffic lights!
To put it short, they’re awesome. I love them. They are literally like having a traffic director at every intersection. How intuitive they are in how they manage traffic and skipping cycles to allow let’s say a left turner to turn if it detects there is no oncoming traffic rather than waiting an entire cycle for an arrow. By far the best programmed throughout the entire country. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any as intuitive as they are in California. I kinda wish they were like that here in Texas.
It’s time to take a break from the burning orange skies of doomsday, the radical politicians as well as the ongoing pandemic creeping up closer and closer to your door steps breathe by breathe or the herds of homeless populations rampant in the streets to show a moment of appreciation to California’s traffic lights!
To put it short, they’re awesome. I love them. They are literally like having a traffic director at every intersection. How intuitive they are in how they manage traffic and skipping cycles to allow let’s say a left turner to turn if it detects there is no oncoming traffic rather than waiting an entire cycle for an arrow. By far the best programmed throughout the entire country. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any as intuitive as they are in California. I kinda wish they were like that here in Texas.
I'm from New Jersey and I just moved here to the Bay Area about a little more than 2 months ago and I have to say I am very impressed with the roads and the traffic lights here, however, I don't think the traffic lights are perfect as I expect them to be, because the lights change too fast and the yellow lights are very short here. I find that mainly a problem in Dublin and it sucks that I still have to slam my brake even on flat land there.
The issue with the traffic lights here is that even though I am not on hilly roads for traffic lights, I still have to put wear and tear on my brakes when the light changes to fast while I am going 35-40 mph. I am already putting so much wear and tear on my brakes just by driving down this one hill every day where I live.
Overall, the traffic lights are amazing out here. I love how most of the West Coast puts separate left turn signals to avoid conflict with traffic, while the east coast just has traffic lights that has green arrow on the bottom. The separate left turn signals and the longer traffic light cycles actually help move traffic better, while the traffic lights in NJ were basically timed and changed as soon as the crosswalk hits zero and people had to speed to beat the timer. A lot of NJ traffic lights have cameras, but the cameras do not react fast enough.
Also, I like how California traffic lights do not always go through the fixed cycle, which saves time if traffic is not in a certain direction or lane.
the traffic lights in NJ were basically timed and changed as soon as the crosswalk hits zero and people had to speed to beat the timer. A lot of NJ traffic lights have cameras, but the cameras do not react fast enough.
Also, I like how California traffic lights do not always go through the fixed cycle, which saves time if traffic is not in a certain direction or lane.
I think this is a combination of high population and low pedestrian activity. Once you have high pedestrian activity at the intersections, traffic signals cannot operate as efficiently because you need to give some time to pedestrians. If there is almost no pedestrian, you can operate the signals much more efficiently for car traffic. There are more car dependent state than California, but they often have very small population (which leads to weak traffic), thus don't care about signal operations as much.
I think this is a combination of high population and low pedestrian activity. Once you have high pedestrian activity at the intersections, traffic signals cannot operate as efficiently because you need to give some time to pedestrians. If there is almost no pedestrian, you can operate the signals much more efficiently for car traffic. There are more car dependent state than California, but they often have very small population (which leads to weak traffic), thus don't care about signal operations as much.
Population also affects speed limits too. New Jersey is car centric and has less pedestrian traffic, so the crosswalk sign tells you to walk once the lights are green. California has longer cycles due to giving the pedestrian the go sign first and then the lights change. Intersections are larger in California, due to the turning lanes, while NJ intersections are smaller due to jughandles, which was actually invented for removing pedestrian conflict and turn conflicts. Due to covid causing people to work at home or exoduses around the country, there is no need for NJ to invest into traffic signals or road improvements.
Population also affects speed limits too. New Jersey is car centric and has less pedestrian traffic, so the crosswalk sign tells you to walk once the lights are green. California has longer cycles due to giving the pedestrian the go sign first and then the lights change. Intersections are larger in California, due to the turning lanes, while NJ intersections are smaller due to jughandles, which was actually invented for removing pedestrian conflict and turn conflicts. Due to covid causing people to work at home or exoduses around the country, there is no need for NJ to invest into traffic signals or road improvements.
Not sure what you're talking about. In case of Los Angeles metro area (pre-covid era), most pedestrian crosswalk signals are operated optionally, hence by default, zero go sign for pedestrian, unless someone press the call buttons. However, you can hardly find anyone pressing the button (except for a few places), because there is not much of pedestrian activity in the first place. On the contrary, most NJ cities have far more pedestrian activities than most cities in OC, and NYC absolutely murders LA (either city or county) in terms of pedestrian activities.
This is what I'm talking about. Unlike many NYC/NJ intersections, CA intersections mostly don't give any time to pedestrians because there is no pedestrian except for a few places, and that leads to more responsive traffic signal management for cars. Imagine the left-turn sensing scenario. If there is no pedestrian who pressed the call button on the left side, the only thing to consider before giving out the left turn signal would be 'no oncoming traffic (at least not close enough)'. If there is a pedestrian crossing, there are two conditions to be met in order to hand out the left turn signal, which are a) no oncoming traffic, and b) red light on the left side crosswalk. Naturally it takes more time.
Anyhow, this logic dictates that Midwestern/Southern states with low population should be the king (because they tend to be the most car-centric ones), but they're not. I think that's because they don't have much population (less traffic, less incentive to develop more efficient intersections).
Last edited by kantobento; 09-20-2020 at 05:16 AM..
Its interesting some one talks about traffic lights these days. Its something that has not improved too too much over the years even when every other technology has. It seems we are still far away from true self driving let alone flying cars.
While there had been improvements there is still lots of room to improve for traffic signals all over the world.
I.e we should have signals that are more dynamic with traffic conditions. Signals that provides a clear route or green wave for parades, motorcades, processions, and first responders. Nowadays first responders if they are lucky gets a preemption device that cancels out proceed lights for all directions except the direction they are coming from/heading, suppoinsingly to allow bunched up traffic waiting on a red light to release by the green light however it requires line of sight to be effective and drivers may still act like deer in headlights when suddenly confronted by bright lights and loud sirens negating the preemption's positive effect.
Its interesting some one talks about traffic lights these days. Its something that has not improved too too much over the years even when every other technology has. It seems we are still far away from true self driving let alone flying cars.
While there had been improvements there is still lots of room to improve for traffic signals all over the world.
I.e we should have signals that are more dynamic with traffic conditions. Signals that provides a clear route or green wave for parades, motorcades, processions, and first responders. Nowadays first responders if they are lucky gets a preemption device that cancels out proceed lights for all directions except the direction they are coming from/heading, suppoinsingly to allow bunched up traffic waiting on a red light to release by the green light however it requires line of sight to be effective and drivers may still act like deer in headlights when suddenly confronted by bright lights and loud sirens negating the preemption's positive effect.
Well who look who runs the traffic lights? The government. The government in the US is obviously corrupt and old fashioned as always. Traffic lights will never get fixed to the way we want them unless you live in the more modern parts of the country like the West.
It’s time to take a break from the burning orange skies of doomsday, the radical politicians as well as the ongoing pandemic creeping up closer and closer to your door steps breathe by breathe or the herds of homeless populations rampant in the streets to show a moment of appreciation to California’s traffic lights!
To put it short, they’re awesome. I love them. They are literally like having a traffic director at every intersection. How intuitive they are in how they manage traffic and skipping cycles to allow let’s say a left turner to turn if it detects there is no oncoming traffic rather than waiting an entire cycle for an arrow. By far the best programmed throughout the entire country. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any as intuitive as they are in California. I kinda wish they were like that here in Texas.
Really? No flashing left turns in Texas? Even Oklahoma has them.
California does have a lot of traffic light synchronization, though.
Really? No flashing left turns in Texas? Even Oklahoma has them.
California does have a lot of traffic light synchronization, though.
I never said anything about flashing amber left turn arrows. Honestly Seattle and Portland had those way back in 2008. That and Salt Lake City were the first cities I've noticed those in. I don't think California uses them very much though. California uses protected arrows and also left yield on green, but I didnt notice many flashing amber arrows.
Also for Texas, the flashing amber arrows are hit or miss. Many of them are still operated by the Left Yield on Green Ball where the Green Ball is only visible if you're in the left turn lane.
What I meant by left turn is.. ..most states - the left turn green arrow is at the beginning or end of a phase, meaning on a protected left turn, even if no one is coming, you still have to wait until the next cycle if you missed the arrow at the beginning of the phase, or if the arrow is at the end of the phase you have to wait till the end even if no one is coming. In California however, I've noticed that if you are sitting a light waiting to make a left at a protected arrow and lets say you missed the green phase at the beginning of the cycle, if the signal detects there is no opposing traffic, it will go ahead and give you another green arrow within the same phase without having to cycle the entire signal. Similarly lets say that you are wanting to make a right turn on red, I've seen their signals only stop traffic that will be impeded by your right turn, but letting cross-traffic on the opposite side of the street continue to move.
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