Late Night Traffic Light Solution ??

Nanfeishen

Nanfeishen

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So one of the major problems WRT accidents after hours is people jumping Robots that have just turned Red
I.E. driver is approaching Robot, on quiet road after hours, it turns orange, but instead of slowing down the driver speeds up and hits the intersection just after it turns red thinking "oh well, its late i can do it", and collides with the car who was approaching at speed from the other way , hadnt quite stopped because the robot turned green and so accelerated and voila accident.

So possible solution is to ensure that all traffic lights flash red from both directions, from 12 midnight to either 5 or 6 AM.

This would reduce the Robot jumpers IMO, it would also allow people to regard the traffic light as a 4 way stop when it is late, so also reducing the amount of time often spent waiting at a dangerous intersection (crime wise) for the light to change to green in your favour.

Thoughts ?
 
I like it.

Also, they never seem to change the timings of some intersections in CT for night time. So intersections that are busy in the day but dead quiet at night still make you wait minutes for literally no cars to pass you.

During the power cuts when all the robots were out, I swear traffic flow was better. Even at peak hours.
 
Nanfeishen said:
So possible solution is to ensure that all traffic lights flash red from both directions, from 12 midnight to either 5 or 6 AM.
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They'll just run the lights anyway.

I'm in favour of great steel bollards that pop up from the road on the white line the moment the lights go red.
 
They did something like that in Nasrec, because of all the hijackings that would take place on Nasrec Rd after 6pm the robots would flash red so drivers would only stop for a few seconds...basically turning the intersection into a 4 way stop. It definitely worked...and should work with the accident issue.

I live on Witkoppen Road, the madness I see happen at night is just astounding.
 
I've witnessed this so many times late at night, people will get used to the flashing and just skip it... this weekend when heading home at around 00:30, I witnessed how easy about 12+ cars skipped red lights and this was in around 25 km.
 
Yeah, when driving at night, it's always a good idea to treat a traffic light as a 4-way yield anyway. I always slow down, even if it's green for me. I've had way too many near-misses. Now that I'm on the bike most of the time, I'm even more careful but I still prefer taking the car at night.

The other problem is that people are usually intoxicated late night/early morning while driving. This has also nearly cost me my life on many occasions. I think it's a cultural problem in South Africa. Way too many people see nothing wrong with drinking and driving.
 
Nanfeishen said:
This would reduce the Robot jumpers IMO, it would also allow people to regard the traffic light as a 4 way stop when it is late, so also reducing the amount of time often spent waiting at a dangerous intersection (crime wise) for the light to change to green in your favour.
Click to expand...

People don't even treat flashing red traffic lights in peak hours as four-way stops, let alone in the early morning hours! :mad: If it's late, and the light doesn't turn green and there are no other cars, after a while I'll just drive.
 
They should just switch the traffic lights off completely from say midnight to 6 am... with all the load shedding, imagine how much we'll save. Drivers will have to treat every intersection as a 4 way stop.
 
But the lights already flash red after 12:30 and some places earlier.
 
Fiekus said:
They should just switch the traffic lights off completely from say midnight to 6 am... with all the load shedding, imagine how much we'll save. Drivers will have to treat every intersection as a 4 way stop.
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lol, imo that would never work. 9 out 10 times when i drive at night and see a traffic light that is off, more than half the folk on road just speed accross. or if you are the unlucky one that decides to stop like you are supposed to, you either get, flashing or hooting from the people behind you, or you get rear-ended (or very close to it).

i would suggest, although this will probably never happen, that all intersections get robots with sensors in the road, which help the light change if there is a car on them
 
wizdumb said:
lol, imo that would never work. 9 out 10 times when i drive at night and see a traffic light that is off, more than half the folk on road just speed accross. or if you are the unlucky one that decides to stop like you are supposed to, you either get, flashing or hooting from the people behind you, or you get rear-ended (or very close to it).

i would suggest, although this will probably never happen, that all intersections get robots with sensors in the road, which help the light change if there is a car on them
Click to expand...

Erm ... most traffic lights do have loop detectors already.

1 near the front and one a couple of meters back. Only when both are activated, will the robot learn that there is a queue.

You may find it odd/coincidential that a robot late at night is red all the time until you arrive - then as if by fluke, it turns green in less than 5 seconds.
 
Voicysaurous said:
Erm ... most traffic lights do have loop detectors already.

1 near the front and one a couple of meters back. Only when both are activated, will the robot learn that there is a queue.

You may find it odd/coincidential that a robot late at night is red all the time until you arrive - then as if by fluke, it turns green in less than 5 seconds.
Click to expand...

i know of these, but thats why i said ALL, as they (depending on the area) are few and far between, and i know of quite a few just in and around sandton that doesn't have this functionality....
 
must say the 4-way stop idea doesn't work too well in this country.
for some reason people at a 4-way count how long they stopped not if they were last last tom arrive. i see this everyday when driving around work

and putting off the lights is a recipe for disaster as even sane drivers would be left none the wiser as to the existence of a traffic light ahead at night. i have gone thru lights that'd been off at night, esp driving thru towns i'm not familiar with.
 
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