Post by red on Mar 23, 2007 6:00:59 GMT -5
As far as I can tell, traffic lights operate in one of three modes:
dumb set, smart set and on demand. In the dumb set mode,
they go through a preset sequence of configurations with fixed
time intervals, without any regard to the traffic on the road.
These are the ones that make you roll your eyes by making you
yield to vehicles that are not there. In the smart set mode, the
time intervals are adjusted according to demand, and some
configurations are skipped entirely when there is no demand.
At night, some lights switch to the on-demand mode, where the
lights are fixed in a configuration that gives the right of way to
vehicles traveling on what is considered the main road by
whoever has authority over this. For example, in Iowa City,
Church Street is considered a main thoroughfare and gets the
green light at night at the HWY 1 intersection. If you are traveling
along HWY 1, which is considered secondary to Church St., you
have to come to a stop. The lights then detect your presence and
give you the green. My problem is that some of these lights are
not able to detect bicycles, so they don't recognize your
demand and make you wait indefinitely. Two hours ago, I was
stuck on Burlington Street at Riverside Drive. Many cars came
from different directions, heading to different directions and the
lights detected and responded to them, but I had to sit there and
wait until a car came from the same direction that I did, heading
the same way that I did and triggered the lights for me.
Sometimes there are no cars around to trigger the lights and you
think "Where's a stupid car when you need one?" You wait and
wait and end up either riding through the red light or hopping on
the sidewalk to make an amphibious, sidewalk-to-road cross. In
addition to the one already mentioned, I know at least three
other lights that do not detect bicycles: HWY 1 and Scott Blvd.
(and this one was recently rebuilt, too), HWY 1 and Northgate
Dr., and HWY 1 and the street immediately south of Northgate Dr.
(The one you took to vote against Optiva and "Life Without
Limits!"). I guess I could report this to someone, but I am tired of
reporting to people problems that would not have existed, had
they done their job properly to begin with and experience has
shown that reports starting with something like "To the sorry
excuse for a traffic engineer employed by a hypocritical city council
too busy creating bans against hazards that people can easily
and freely avoid exposing themselves to (How about banning car
exhaust on the streets? If smoking in the presence of someone is
like urinating in someone's face (And how many people who make
this claim suffocate me everyday on the streets with the
poisonous, carcinogenic exhaust of their car?), then driving in the
presence of someone is like defecating in someone's face. They
can go to a different restaurant, you know, but I do not have
another street!!) and giving people's money to hieranimuses so
that they can add it to theirs, to properly regulate what is their
responsibility to regulate:" do not, in general, yield positive results.
-
dumb set, smart set and on demand. In the dumb set mode,
they go through a preset sequence of configurations with fixed
time intervals, without any regard to the traffic on the road.
These are the ones that make you roll your eyes by making you
yield to vehicles that are not there. In the smart set mode, the
time intervals are adjusted according to demand, and some
configurations are skipped entirely when there is no demand.
At night, some lights switch to the on-demand mode, where the
lights are fixed in a configuration that gives the right of way to
vehicles traveling on what is considered the main road by
whoever has authority over this. For example, in Iowa City,
Church Street is considered a main thoroughfare and gets the
green light at night at the HWY 1 intersection. If you are traveling
along HWY 1, which is considered secondary to Church St., you
have to come to a stop. The lights then detect your presence and
give you the green. My problem is that some of these lights are
not able to detect bicycles, so they don't recognize your
demand and make you wait indefinitely. Two hours ago, I was
stuck on Burlington Street at Riverside Drive. Many cars came
from different directions, heading to different directions and the
lights detected and responded to them, but I had to sit there and
wait until a car came from the same direction that I did, heading
the same way that I did and triggered the lights for me.
Sometimes there are no cars around to trigger the lights and you
think "Where's a stupid car when you need one?" You wait and
wait and end up either riding through the red light or hopping on
the sidewalk to make an amphibious, sidewalk-to-road cross. In
addition to the one already mentioned, I know at least three
other lights that do not detect bicycles: HWY 1 and Scott Blvd.
(and this one was recently rebuilt, too), HWY 1 and Northgate
Dr., and HWY 1 and the street immediately south of Northgate Dr.
(The one you took to vote against Optiva and "Life Without
Limits!"). I guess I could report this to someone, but I am tired of
reporting to people problems that would not have existed, had
they done their job properly to begin with and experience has
shown that reports starting with something like "To the sorry
excuse for a traffic engineer employed by a hypocritical city council
too busy creating bans against hazards that people can easily
and freely avoid exposing themselves to (How about banning car
exhaust on the streets? If smoking in the presence of someone is
like urinating in someone's face (And how many people who make
this claim suffocate me everyday on the streets with the
poisonous, carcinogenic exhaust of their car?), then driving in the
presence of someone is like defecating in someone's face. They
can go to a different restaurant, you know, but I do not have
another street!!) and giving people's money to hieranimuses so
that they can add it to theirs, to properly regulate what is their
responsibility to regulate:" do not, in general, yield positive results.
-
