Why do cities take a road and put lights every 1000 feet on them? Were talking 0.2 miles. Can we really not work without that? Is there no back road people can use? This is a big problem around our area, and I’m sure in many areas. Major roads that are three or four lanes wide end up being packed with cars because they have to stop constantly. The lights aren’t the problem, so much as their timing. If you have that many lights in a row some effort should be spent making them coordinate. I routinely find myself stopping at several lights in a row. If I am going the speed limit this should not happen. I know a lot of cities do this, at least at night. I just don’t get why they can’t do it other times.
Another thing that aggravates me about street lights is the timing. Some lights seem to change too often. This means each side gets to go more often, but I believe it actually lets less cars through. See, most people are not really paying attention. When the light turns green people have to wake up, put down the cell phone (hopefully), turn around from the kids, stop reading their news paper and generally drop all their other distractions. Then they go. The more you turn the light red then green the more you cause this. I believe if you change from having people go 30 seconds to having them go for a minute you will actually relieve traffic to some degree.
I know I’m not the only one who sits and analyzes all of this stuff. I can often tell you the best way to go somewhere just because of the lights. My wife thinks I’m crazy and ignores me most of the time, but hey, I’m an engineer. Besides, when you’re sitting at one of those 10 red lights in a row you’ve got to do something. I think about fixing the lights.
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