Smart traffic lights...why aren't these everywhere at this point?

[Slo Yelo C5]

Serious question...

The tree huggers love to talk about replacing all ICE vehicles with EV. I say...EVs are not good. For multiple reasons (including environmental -- digging for precious metals is not exactly "earth friendly").

The simplest solution...smart traffic lights. I've heard of smart traffic lights that use sensors to adjust traffic light timing in real time to keep traffic moving as much as possible.

Seems pretty dam logical. I found out my area, which has consistently horrible traffic (think 20-30 minutes to go 3-4 miles during rush hour) had a study done to implement smart traffic lights...in 2011.

It's 2023. Not a single smart traffic light in my area. I consistently wait at traffic signals with hundreds of cars waiting while opposing lights with 2-3 cars in line have equal timing on the lights. WTF!!!

So why aren't these smart traffic lights implemented everywhere? Or was my smart traffic light funding sent over to Ukraine so they can have smart traffic lights?

[Louie Detroit]

Originally Posted by Slo Yelo C5

Serious question...

The tree huggers love to talk about replacing all ICE vehicles with EV. I say...EVs are not good. For multiple reasons (including environmental -- digging for precious metals is not exactly "earth friendly").

The simplest solution...smart traffic lights. I've heard of smart traffic lights that use sensors to adjust traffic light timing in real time to keep traffic moving as much as possible.

Seems pretty dam logical. I found out my area, which has consistently horrible traffic (think 20-30 minutes to go 3-4 miles during rush hour) had a study done to implement smart traffic lights...in 2011.

It's 2023. Not a single smart traffic light in my area. I consistently wait at traffic signals with hundreds of cars waiting while opposing lights with 2-3 cars in line have equal timing on the lights. WTF!!!

So why aren't these smart traffic lights implemented everywhere? Or was my smart traffic light funding sent over to Ukraine so they can have smart traffic lights?

Because the politicians usually aren’t the best and brightest and the traffic engineers are probably affirmative action hires or some politicians kid.

[Rodnok1]

The county I live in had the worst traffic signal coordination in the state, it was absolutely ridiculous how long it toom to get across town. The largest city spent hundreds of thousands(if not millions) for a system then put the servers in a basement downtown and hurricane floods got to them. System was down for 2 years. It was murder for months as they had to manually redo the timing of lights and must have only been 2 guys knew how to do it. Ever power outage resulted in horrible backups for weeks.
It was easier and quicker to drive outside the city and go an extra 20 miles of you had to cross the city.

[bill_daniels]

Houston has had a whole succession of shitty mayors as far back as I can remember. One of them, Bill White, ran and won on a campaign promise that he would time the lights on major thoroughfares. He actually started making progress on that, something that benefited all drivers. Of course, he just couldn't help himself and he brought Houston those damnable red light cameras that voters actually had to sue the city to get the issue put on the ballot so voters could VOTE the cameras out.

White was popular early on, when he governed as a moderate, then as he rolled out his crazy leftist bullshit, he started becoming unpopular, and when he ran for governor, got handily BTFO by Rick "Oops" Perry, not the brightest bulb in the lamp.

[LATB]

Smart traffic lights...why aren't these everywhere at this point?

Money

[ptindall]

Because government.

[Torqaholic]

Imagine that'd cut into their ticket revenue. Not that I care, it's been ten years since I had to deal with one, but as I recall they're programmed to force people to speed if they don't want to be stopped at every intersection.

[Bruze]

Originally Posted by Slo Yelo C5

Serious question...

The tree huggers love to talk about replacing all ICE vehicles with EV. I say...EVs are not good. For multiple reasons (including environmental -- digging for precious metals is not exactly "earth friendly").

The simplest solution...smart traffic lights. I've heard of smart traffic lights that use sensors to adjust traffic light timing in real time to keep traffic moving as much as possible.
< SNIP >
Seems pretty dam logical.

Rochester NY had them on Main St. when I was young, 50-55 years ago. We used to go downtown late at night to drag race. If you were just cruising along at 30 and hit one green light, the rest would also turn green before you got there. It would probably be a mess during the day though, with all the normal traffic.

The nearest town to me now, Honeoye NY, has one traffic light. Main Street is NY 20A, a main route, and the other way is a county road, much less traffic.

But there is no tripper and it seems like it's green more often for the county road than for Main Street. ****ing dumb. When I approach it on Main St it will often turn red even though THERE ARE NO CARS on the county road.