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biofriendlyblogOct 24, 2010
It's one of those "seeing is believing" type of situations. :)
darkwater37Oct 24, 2010
There are many intersections that all they need are stop or yield signs, I can't tell you how many times I have had to sit at a intersection with no one coming and I had to wait for the traffic light
thoughtsonthisOct 25, 2010
I think some busy intersections need traffic lights. However most intersections only need stop signs. Stop signs are a lot faster and hardly any problems.
GreenBizOct 25, 2010
I can see how it might be more efficient.
rgb86Oct 25, 2010
I don't know, I'm still not sold... I can see this working in very specific situations, but as a general practice? No way. At least not here in America. I was born and raised in the Midwest, and I can tell you flat out that people here just cannot properly think about the situation and cooperate enough for this to work. And not just here, either, because I found living in the SF Bay area, the people there don't understand the basic concept of merging onto a highway.
As for other examples, I just look towards the industrialized Eastern countries for example. Some of the worst traffic situation videos/photos I've seen come from their anything-goes style of driving and intersections.
I so dearly wish we all, as human beings, could cooperate and be thoughtful enough to make something like this a reality everywhere, but I'm just too much of a realist (or cynic, if you prefer) to believe in it.
myztryOct 25, 2010
Lights do have their place but they certainly went through a habitual installation stage often causing the very issues they were meant to prevent.
Luckily in Australia, traffic lights are giving way to roundabouts which lack the "vapour lock" of a sole (line) of driver(s) facing the lights. Roundabouts can in theory enter a race condition but this can be broken by reverting to good old jostling.
As for totally unmanaged traffic, consider unsigned & unsignalled supermarket parking lots. While they are legally termed "managed parking" they are not. Yet cars and people still move quite well in the distracting (searching for parks), confined, congested & co-mingled environment.
Once people lose the arrogance that the concept of RIGHT OF WAY instils, we find that people are capable of being more cooperative than they imagine and things flow much smoother. Nobody in fact wants to hit or be hit by anybody.
rgb86Oct 25, 2010
I'm not sure what parking lots you're around, but just the other day I was parked outside the grocery store waiting for my mother and in the space of less than 10 minutes, I saw four people drive the wrong way down one-way aisles. I didn't even bother counting the number of people who just wildly cut across the parking lot, nor the number of pedestrians that simply step in front of cars without looking or thinking. Some people may do just fine without lights, but I'd be downright scared if they tried to do that around here.
rufiohoOct 25, 2010
uhhh I think we do
jamesroloffOct 25, 2010
Again reiterating what a few people have already said. This idea is might be good in practice a few a numbers of situations, but generally, busy streets will still need traffic lights.
If you imagine any intersection of a busy road with a mildly busy road, it would be near impossible for anyone from the less busy road to cross or enter traffic.
I think what really needs to happen, and has already started, is a smarter kind of traffic lights. Almost every traffic light installation in my hometown is accompanied by a sensor placed under the road to trigger traffic events. So for example, if a less busy road intersects with a busy road, the busy road will have the green for a very long time, unless a car is sensed waiting for the light on the less busy road. Then the traffic light will give the green to the slower road for a short, just enough time for the car to continue on, then give the green back to the more busy road.
nogodsorkingsOct 25, 2010
On balance, I think that lights are unnecessary, but in many areas it is clear that certain intersections were built with them in mind and do need them. I don't think they'll be going away, however, because they give local government the appearance of 'providing safety infrastructure' and create the comfortable illusion of safety, even if they actually result in more accidents. The established presence of lights also provides a critical revenue source for local government - in almost every city where red light cameras are installed, yellow light timings are shortened, often below the legal safe minimum.
If governments continue to install lights and red light cameras even in cases where they have been proven to cause more deaths, I am not very confident in any sort of reform in traffic safety devices.
joepereiraOct 28, 2010
Mini roundabouts are more practical and keep traffic filtering through. I don't know why there aren't more of them instead of the 'more expensive to run' traffic lights. Also a few years ago there was an experimental trial in a small town somewhere in scandinavia where all lights and road markings were removed in the town centre. The results were encouraging; less accidents and more attentive driving. If anyone knows the outcome of that trial pls let me know
bzhuoNov 15, 2010
After spending over five years in small town china i am not sure what are traffic lights for