I can’t tell if you’re an engineer or a video producer because the content and the production of your videos are just outstanding. So much work goes in to these videos, I can’t imagine how much time you must spend on each one. Thanks for doing what you do for nerds like us!
I like intersections where there is a countdown on the cross walk signal - it provides a good clue as to how long before the yellow light will come on. Perhaps something like that but more visible would help people avoid the dilemma zone.
Beijing has some really advanced signals where the red and yellow lights also doubles as a numerical countdown timer. Seeing the seconds until the next red/green really helps with mentality behind the wheel, especially when negotiating the much less straightforward lane usage changes and chaos of oblivious pedestrians and careless two-wheelers (both pedal and motorized).
@@robertbennett2796 I guess that you're talking about the crosswalk countdowns, correct? I've noticed the same thing where I live: just because the crosswalk timer hits zero does not always mean that the traffic light itself has just hit - or is about to hit - yellow
I've driven that intersection in Fremont! Next time I go through that perfectly timed yellow I will savor the knowledge that it was blessed by Road Guy himself.
Gilroy California is in admits of a road overhaul. A major intersection will be getting a roundabout and there will be a diverging diamond interchange eventually too
@@showusyabits that is a near impossible thing to achieve, unless you constantly monitor your speedometer. You come off a freeway cruising at 70mph, everything feels slower. Mix in all the traffic around you is still going faster than you and 45 feels like 25. Then you throw in the HORRIBLE non standard signage CA has. Unless you know, it is a last second decision in heavy traffic. Hell west bound 580 to south bound 680 and north 680 to west 580 is atrocious. 1 lane(1/8 a mile?) That handles 2 tight cloverleafs. You have 8 cars combining to 1 lane, some trying to get to 65mph the others trying to get to 25mph.
My town used to have coordinated stoplights downtown. Speed limit was 20, but if you drove exactly 15, you'd cruise through the entire downtown without a single stop (other than the first one if you are unlucky). Nowadays, those lights have drifted off of their coordinated timing, so it doesn't quite work, but I definitely remember the joy of watching the guy in the other lane accelerate past me, slam on his brakes, and then I'd gleefully drive past him just as the light turned green... and we'd do this for ten straight blocks. :-)
You took glee out of that?? That guy was, unlike yourself, probably on his way to hook up with a hot girl and couldn't care less about the things that arouse guys like you.. like "feeling smarter" by driving 15 miles per hour to avoid poor mpg or unnecessary wear and tear on your engine or brakes. He accelerated faster for one simple reason.. because it FELT FASTER and he wanted some action. That was reason enough for him.. even if he knew that the lights weren't cooperating. Only a guy with no woman waiting for him is going to drive like a little old lady. 😂
We call this a 'green wave' in The Netherlands. Besides a sign announcing you're about to pass the first light where you'll enter such a road, it will also tell you the amount of lights that are part of the green wave and a sign stating which speed to adhere to. So the sign is usually something like this: 'Green wave (6 x) at 45 km/h'. So if the first light is green when you pass it and you stick to that speed, you get the guarantee that the next 6 lights will be green as well. Near the German border in a region called the Achterhoek, a busy provincial road even has pre-advance warning signs stating if the green wave is still 'active' or not, by showing a green ~ sign accompanied by a speed in km/h, which changes as the green wave is coming to an end. When there's no green wave, the sign turns off as far as I know.
Meanwhile in my US town we will have a green light turn red for absolutely nobody LOL, seems like traffic lights could be so much better then they are with just a little bit of effort.
@@Winner3ty Exactly! We have lights that turn red for no reason, and red lights that stay red for years after the last vehicle has gone through the intersection, and then city officials wonder why people run red lights! 😡
Here in Australia we have a few things that help: Re: blind corners near traffic light, often when there is a set of lights over a crest, around a corner or even further away where queuing is likely, we have a "PREPARE TO STOP" sign on the approach with flashing amber lights that illuminate when the lights aren't green. Re: visual contrast, all traffic lights have a white retro-reflective border around the main plate. We have a lot of combo signals with turn, bus, tram, etc. alongside standard "straight ahead" signals. Re: the dilemma zone, I know that our yellows are timed to match the speed limit of design speed to help avoid that sort of thing. Normally I think 50km/h (~35mph) zones are about 3 seconds through to 80km/h (~50mph) zones at about 5 seconds. Traffic lights are very rare on roads with higher speed limits (80km/h is basically highway speed, above that is freeways and rural roads). We also have a lot of "safety" cameras which combined red light cameras with speed cameras. That extra deterrent keeps people at lower speed on approach to the intersection, increasing the amount of time allowed to stop safely.
Similar in my province in Canada. I find rspecially useful warning yellow flashing ahead of intersection with lights. They are time so that if you cross then while they are not flashing, you are quarantined to make a green driving at speed limit.
We do have warning signs for crests or corners here as well in The Netherlands. Visual contrast: same, most likely retroreflective but something I never even thought about ;) Different times for amber based on the speed the road is designed for: ditto. Red light cameras that also act as speed traps: present as well.
We also automatically take your license away if you're caught breaking the law too many times, and you can get it instantly disqualified if you're caught doing 35+ over the speed limit. I don't know if that happens in the U.S.
Those traffic lights way off to the side and mounted lower (mentioned at 7:25) are so helpful, and I took them for granted when I lived in california. It's not just when you're behind a tall vehicle, but also if you're driving into the sun, that they're important. There are so many days I've been driving around where I have to have the sun visor low enough that I literally can't see the traffic lights because I won't be able to see the road if my visibility is that tall.
@@DontScareTheFish that's well within the area you should be looking at. You should never enter an intersection without knowing what cars are on the cross street, and that traffic signal is right where you would look to see what cars are coming from the right. More importantly, it is low enough that it's not going to have the sun right next to it. You're never going to see a traffic signal while it is competing with the sun, and no one with any intelligence is going to let themselves look at the Sun and expect to be able to see what's on the road. That was my point.
Note: It is not only about the length of the yellow, but also the length of the 'all-red phase'. We call the combination of the two the inter-green interval. If you use a yellow phase that is too long, it will also confuse the driver (eventually they will adjust their behavior and use the extra yellow as additional green). Hence, you can also adjust the all-red phase to compensate for the yellow interval.
Just make the yellow flash for the last .5- 1 second or whatever is safe before the red. Too short of yellows with red light cams are racketeering and sick.
Yes, he briefly talked about it near the end of the video. I wrote my comment in the middle of watching the segment, but I discussed it in greater details. Most signals in the US have an all-red phase.
The problem with those filters is sometimes, if you're in a semi, you can't see the light until you're half way through the intersection. Because your line of sight is higher, it follows the same path that the engineers tried to block from the previous light.
Here in the UK and other European countries, the two lights would have traffic sensors and be timed in such a way that if you're driving the correct speed, both lights will be green as you pass through.
@@vanguard6937 seems like they don't want to design to reduce the speed of the cars, like narrowed lanes or less straight streets. Building citys for cars with all its stroads make just bad solutions.
It becomes an issue specifically because almost everyone has to drive. Walkable, bikeable, rail-connected cities don't need stroads in the first place, where cars are travelling too fast to safely negotiate with others on their own.
We don't have a massive problem. The problem is that running a red light so often has a consequence. Anyone can intentionally run a red light at any speed. We need to be engineering reduce the odds that people will unintentionally run them, and that when they do the consequences will be less severe.
@TNerd and what of Senior citizens that live outside of the city but need to go there to access services (ie medical centres)? Are we going to provide them ubers from their houses just because you don't want to invest in infrastructure for the largest growing segment of the population?
On some of the stoplights in Auburn CA, there was an attempt made to use the yellow tape on the lights to make them more visible. But the more important ones directly faced the morning sun (during rush hour), producing a harsh glare and overpowering the actual stoplight. They were removed within a month.
Only red I’ve ever accidentally ran was similar to this. Sun was coming up and right behind the lights so I simply couldn’t see where the lights even normally are (mind u I drove through it daily) and realized it was red as I was in the middle of the intersection
4:32 Almost as if to reinforce your point, the additional signal head is at risk of being obstructed once again by overgrowth of the tree nearby. Maintenance of intersections is just as important as good design to ensure proper safe operation!
In reference to 'maintenance', I once had to call the city of Huntington Beach (CA) to complain that I could not see the signal head on the mast arm (due to overgrown trees protruding over from nearby private property, branches blocking view) and also due to having only one signal head on the mast arm (there should be two signal heads along with the one signal head pole-mounted). The trees were trimmed back in short order however the city disagreed with about quantity of signal heads required for that travel movement (three travel lanes but no left possible due to side street terminating at the signal; city claimed the two total heads comply with MUTCD -- I still disagree, you generally apply one signal head per travel lane). We were then able to see the traffic signal after the trim job put the signal in compliance for signal head visibility distance from intersection, based on approach speed.
"The goal of a red light camera is not to catch people running red lights, It's to reduce or eliminate the number of people running red lights" Municipal councils across America looking around nervously: sure... That's right Let's be honest, red light cameras have a bad reputation because a lot of cities have used them for revenue generation over safety.
Bingo, add to that the municipalities often are not the ones who set up said cameras a private company does so for a piece of the action and the municipality will often have a police officer that simply rubber stamps all the tickets to be sent out. It's up there with privatizing the prison system and wrong on so many levels.
@@Mike__B Sure, but the municipality is still the ones enabling, contracting, and overseeing such companies. Corrupt politicians find corrupt businessmen (or, let's be honest, more likely are related to them). Avoiding privatization only really helps if the politicians aren't corrupt anyways, or you'll get more of the same through some stupid bureaucracy instead of some stupid business.
The corruption is just too easy. It doesn’t help that we have somehow decided people in government should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to judgement.
One thing I'd like to see discussed is the placement of traffic lights on the far vs the near side of intersections. Near side signals require a larger setback, which costs space, (but leaves a convenient spot to put in a pedestrian and/or cycle crossing) but it also gives accidental red light runners a little more time to react. As I understand, the placing of traffic lights on the near or far side isn't as uniform in the US as I first thought. Any comments on this?
I came to make the same comment. It is my understanding that near side signals greatly discourage crosswalk and stop bar encroachment, and in addition they would be visible earlier in scenarios like following the RV. Is it true that the primary reason for mid-intersection signals is cheaper installation?
That was what I wanted to ask as well since the near side is the standard in Europe and far side is more of an NA thing and a comparison by Rob is certainly interesting. I can certainly add another benefit for front lights: They have to be installed to the side, slightly above the sidewalk, which in turn makes pedestrians and cyclists more visible for drivers.
@@MarioFanGamer659 Something else that isn't mentioned is the painting of the poles that carry the stoplights. Just like the backplate with reflective stripe (which is also used here), the very recognisable poles make it a lot easier to see stoplights.
@@Robbedem MN traffic light masts were historically painted yellow, while the arms over the street were typically grey. Lately the state seems to have switched to all-grey, but new yellow masts do exist. Painting the arm yellow as well would certainly make the signal stand out (the standard mast arm has two 'arms' - the main and a smaller support arm just below it)
Far-side signals seem to be the standard on state installations here in Texas, but I think this facilitates the use of camera or radar sensors to adjust the light cycles to demand, which is also very common in Texas. Obviously, a sensor can get a broad view of all lanes from the other side. Keep in mind that TxDOT always uses wide stop bars where you need to stop, even if it's just a rural intersection with a stop sign.
There's a technique used at least here in Sweden to reduce the number of yellow light dilemmas drivers face: The green time is flexible and can be different in opposite directions. After a certain green time, the signal computer looks for gaps in traffic and tries to switch the light to red at an appropriate time when nobody is in that zone where deciding whether to go or stop is difficult. This means that traffic in one direction often has to stop while traffic in the opposite direction is allowed to go for several more seconds, but reduces the risk of rear-ending.
@@vortexriver1071 Are big countries incapable of technology? There's some weird notion that something has to be introduced everywhere all at once, but that's simply false. If anything, a large country benefits from economy of scale at some point.
In some parts of Utah, such as the 193 in Layton, they've installed stoplight warning lights, that are 100-500 feet up the road and turn on when the light is about to cycle off green. They had them on the Davis county segment of 89 before the construction removed at-grade crossings. Also, in terms of signal coordination, the best road I've ever driven with it was the Great Highway in San Francisco (along the beach). The only hindrance to that one was the other drivers who would speed to the next light, get stuck, and cause a backup, so if you were travelling at the proper speed, you'd still have to slow down due to the wall of cars that sped up to the lights and waitied.
@@RoadGuyRob they really just need to rip out all the stop lights on Bangerter and turn it into a proper freeway. As a recent addition to Utah, I always worry about high speed collisions on Bangerter and also on Mountain View Corridor - since both of those are basically freeways but yet still use stop lights.
As a trucker based in Utah I avoid Bangerter whenever possible. I can't get up to speed quickly enough before having to slow for the next light. So people in cars are annoyed and make unsafe maneuvers to get around. And the left turn lanes that are inconsistent make that very hard unless you are very familiar with the highway.
As a truck driver I would absolutely HATE the lights being obscured until you get close enough. First of all it would be even closer for trucks because of our height. The most important issue, though is how we need to maintain our momentum. Stopping at every red light is something we need to avoid to be efficient.
I hope you meant "at every intersection", because a going on red in a truck creates major, major danger for all other vehicles, not to mention pedestrians
i think people have missunderstood you a bit here. i assume you mean maintain a speed that allows you to time the junction so you don't need to actually stop rather than their interpretation that you are just going to bust a red rather than stopping?
In Europe the lights placed right before the intersection instead of after or in the middle. I find it reduces confusion issues significantly as the only visible light is yours and it’s where you are supposed to stop.
When using red light cameras in the early 2000's, they found out that the number of intersection accidents dropped, but the number of rear-endings increased exponentially. Not only that, but northern states where icy roads are common, people were getting tickets in bad weather, even if they were driving safely for the conditions, but they just couldn't stop (been there myself).
It's definitely not all it's cracked up to be, same with speed cameras. Comparing the places that use them, the accidents and fatalities per Capita aren't reduced or significantly lower than most other places.
@@matthewm4020 Oh, I'm certainly not trying to place blame on any one thing, just stating something that I found about these cameras once. Nothing can be perfect in this situation.
I'm a big fan of the "All or None" approach to red light cams. If the cams are at all intersections at once instead of only a few it well train people to not run them or they'll forget they're there after a while. :)
I'm a fairly new driver. I've only run two red lights. Both were on days with icy conditions where the light turned yellow at a bad time. On both occasions, I attempted to slow to a stop but didn't have enough traction, so I wound up going through the intersection after the light turned red.
It's always a good time when Road Guy Rob uploads. Love the content, Rob! I have a light I go through constantly - the intersection of Ray Rd and Santan Village Pkwy/Greenfield Rd in Gilbert, Arizona - it has one of those handy extra lights (4:30) you see well before the rest of the intersection because right before the intersection, the south bound road curves and dips under to make way for a RR track.
My favorite solution is the warning flashing yellow which tells the driver to prepare to stop when they see the flashing lights. A driver going the speed limit will enter the intersection on a green if they don't see the amber, but if they do then there is plenty of room to slow down. Timed to sync with the future state of the intersection light, it removes all uncertainty. It encourages the driver to adjust their driving in a safe and predictable way.
This is what we have in my city. These advance warning lights are perfectly timed with the intersection. Once they start flashing there is no way you will make it across the intersection.
I have seen the countdown timers, these are very useful, there work on many levels, one they give real time how long that yellow is going to last, and second, prevents road rage/stress/panic driving. even green and reds have timers, it's good to know how long you have on your red light, it give the driver up front a heads up, on how long they have to, change that radio station, and/or look at text message, this may help with traffic congestion as well, a few seconds is enough for one or two extra cars being able to make the light in that cycle.
@@wflzoom6219 Countdown timers do not work for dynamic lights. How long the red or green phase is depends on the current traffic and the phases of the other junctions up and down stream. This is a much better system because the red phase can end early if it detects no more oncoming traffic, and also adjust the green light phase of several junctions to have smoother traffic.
These are very popular in my area (eastern Nebraska), especially for roads with speed limits over 45 MPH. I've seen a few isolated use of them for railroad crossings, too.
I used to live in Fremont near CA-262 (Mission Boulevard). Been watching you for years now and so glad to see this cameo! Thank you! CA-262 is such a disaster during rush hour since it is the primary connector between I-880 and I-680. That light I think you're at is a pretty major thoroughfare - Warm Springs Boulevard - which bisects an already-short segment between the two freeways. There was something in the works to turn it more freeway-like without going complete controlled-access freeway - doesn't look like it happened, though. Also no one in California is actually following any speed limit, lol.
As a European, while I agree a roundabout might often be the answer, I was also gratified to see that the US has picked up back plates on Traffic Lights (which we've had in UK for decades - don't think any haven't for many years) and yellow borders also standard for a lot of years!
We've had backplates in most parts of the US I've driven in for a very long time. Especially in the big cities where it matters. The yellow reflective ones are new though. California is installing them statewide as we speak like Rob said.
We've had yellow blackplates on our traffic lights here in Canada, and advanced warning signals on most roads over 60km/h (30Mph) Those warning lights are so common, it really sticks out when they're absent. I think this is another case of planners just not looking for solutions outside of their local area. Imagine how much faster we could improve infrastructure if we looked worldwide for ideas that have been tried and tested.
We've had backplates forever in MN, but the reflective strips have only shown up in the past few years and are not quite universal yet. At first I thought the strip might drown out the lights at night, but they don't, so I think they're a very good addition. Distant signals are common on high-speed roads like highways, but somewhat rare elsewhere
@@ebnertra0004 Yah, here in Minnesota, the advance "prepare to stop when flashing" signs are mostly on higher-speed roads (55+ MPH) or where curves make the actual light hard to see in time. I haven't really noticed the retroreflective strips on the backplates yet, but then I live in an older suburb that hasn't had traffic lights replaced in some years.
@@AaronOfMpls I just checked my pdf copy of MN's MUTCD, and apparently the strips are an option, but the state seems to be applying them to all the signal faces in their system (mostly state and US highways). Other authorities are less likely, especially cities, who seem to have no interest in modifying signals after placement, except to change bulbs
Yellows should have a countdown. Also I love roundabouts. When a roundabout is well marked so that drivers know what lane to be in, they are so stress free.
I absolutely love when they put in a prepair to stop intersection ahead. The sign blinks, you slow down and the light turns red . No misjudging. Perfect.👍
Thanks for your efforts to explain to us how these things work, why they work that way, and often the downsides. Traffic engineering is clearly a hugely complex endeavor, and it's easy to see where it fails, but we often lose sight of its many successes.
Rob, I'm red green colorblind. White on the bottom means go, yellow in the middle means slow down, and off means stop (or dim red at night). The problem? My county has been replacing all our vertical lights with horizontal ones. This has created serious confusion for me, but I haven't said anything because I'm afraid I'll lose my license. But it's a major issue.
ב''ה, down the east coast (some places between NJ and FL) visibility strobes overlaying lights were a thing, particularly where lights end up directly in the path of the setting or rising sun. 20 years ago I think this was a real xenon flashbulb suspended across the face of the red. LEDs would give some opportunities here. Are red LEDs less visible with your form of colorblindness than the old filtered bulbs?
I just watched another video about horizontal lights. It seems they must be left to right in the way vertical lights run top to bottom (i.e. red always on the far left). Is that not sufficient to work for r/g colorblind folks?
Yellow doesn't mean slow down here... it means the light is about to turn red. There is no legal requirement to slow down. You can cross the line into the intersection as long as the light is not red.
I hate to say this but you clearly know you have a problem which should be communicated to the DMV. Perhaps they have a solution for you other than taking away your licence.
Some places I've been too in South East Asia uses a timer before it turns, red, yellow or green. I have no statistics to back me up, but I feel while it won't stop people who deliberately run red lights, it will reduce the number of people who accidentally run reds, and will help those who might end up worrying in the "dilemma zone" by knowing roughly how much time they have to stop.
We NEED those programmable filters on our LEFT TURN signals, too! I can't begin to tell you how many times that people here in unincorporated Jefferson County, CO have run (or almost run) a red light because of the fact that a light turned green NEXT TO their lane and confused them! A simple twist in the filter's angle of installation would work WONDERS!
@@mari_023 the problem is not the shape of the signal, it's the color change. All of our left-turn-only signals use arrows, I'm sure that it's required in that big book that Mr. Rob keeps bringing up - the problem is that, when the driver in the straight-ahead lanes is too close to the left-turn lanes, sometimes the driver's brain registers the change from red to green in the turn lane and mistakes it for a change from red to green for their lane. It's all part of being human, really. Hopefully I've explained this well :-)
@@brandongaines1731 I’ve made this exact mistake by accident while coming home from an overnight shift before. Thankfully it was still so early in the morning that there weren’t other cars.
Glad to see the mention of roundabouts, but there is a whole world of options for traffic calming to give drivers psychological signals to slow down, with many listed in FHWA's Proven Safety Countermeasures under the Safe Systems Approach. (In fact, the Safe Systems Approach probably deserves a whole video in itself!)
Most highly underrated comment on this thread. Absolutely. The thing that would have saved the 7 year old from being murdered by a car is to not have the 71 year old driving, which is only accomplished if he has an alternative substitute like transit or can walk or bike to where he needs to go, without worrying about getting hit by drivers.
@@jayjackson5705 if you first build the city to highest level of car depending levels, its hard to choose something else or even fit the other options in. For a lot of the solutions sounded like we engineer around the misbehaving drivers and make it easier/nicer for them. Not forcing them to reduce the speed, but building around there inappropriate speed.
The downtown area of Boise, Idaho has about 9 stop lights in a row down the two main one heat streets, and almost consistently they will all light up green in perfect succession, I notice and appreciate it every time I'm down there.
One thing I was taught in driver Ed, watch for the cross walk signs to prepare yourself to stop. See the red hand flashing? Probably get ready to hit the breaks. It’s helped me anticipate when a light is going to turn red in some areas, deff a good little tip
You shouldn't have to watch a signal meant for someone else, to determine your course of action. Roads should be painted with a yellow line to indicate when to recommend you speed up for yellow, and when to recommend you slow down for yellow, assuming you were driving the speed limit.
I grew up in Shanghai, and most of the time there, the lights had a countdown for when it will change, and if they did not, the green flashes for three seconds before the yellow. Running a yellow is not legal. This solves both the going though yellow and the confusing which light is which problems. Also, here in Calgary, the background of the signals are simply yellow.
Then you don't need a yellow light. A yellow light in your system is just a legal red light, and the blinking green is the yellow light. If you don't stop during the flash, you'll eventually run the yellow light you said isn't allowed. So it's a cultural familiarity but the same logical situation. In pre 1960 US, some very old lights did. Green, Green-Yellow, Yellow, Yellow-Red, Red. The reverse on the 90 degree. That basically says everyone stay stopped till Andy and Barney decide you've enjoyed enough relaxing..then go slow. People ran those frustrating things a the time.
Oh it is dark in Canada and South Canada (Michigan) most of the day on the winter side of the equinoxes. That's why you have the yellow backer plate and lighted street name signs that down light crosswalks and school bus stops. Good ideas too. In Pensacola Fla the sun is blindingly white most of the year and most of the day....black backer plates help shade and contrast the light. The yellow stripe is for the dimmer or darker hours.
@@maxxiong so the blinking green is meaningless,but a secondary device with a countdown is just now the equivalent of the yellow light of tradition. Do you still go on 15? 10? 5? 4?.... 1???? How long does it take you to clear a 4 lane intersection, a 6, a 2, a hillcrest, a dip????? Is that a guess, a detailed Mr Spock calculation, a known objective fact. We have crosswalk countdowns, and I do tend to use them to guess at the light....but they aren't necessarily exactly linked.
Great content! I would love to see you talk a bit more about "planning" solutions for these challenges, in addition to engineering ones. It seems some of these issues can be solved with more systematic change - like traffic calming, pedestrianization, road diets, etc.
About 30 years ago, in my area at intersections where there were lights that were close together, the first light would have a strobe surrounding the signal to get a driver’s attention. This practice was discontinued, possibly because strobes can trigger seizures in some people, but I found it helpful.
In eastern NC a few of the busier roads have yellow/red warning lights a few hundred yards before the intersection. They flash yellow when a green light is about to change to yellow. Very helpful.
Great Video. In the UK our traffic signals are on the corner BEFORE the junction, not after. I hate driving in the US simply because the signals are AFTER the crossing, and that is not what we are used to, and contrary to common sense. A red light may appear after you've entered the crossing. We also have the red, Green, amber, red, red-amber, green series of warnings. I'm sure you've heard all this before. Be safe
What do horizontal traffic signals look like in the UK? Is red on the right to indicate the danger side? Or is red on the left, because they read from left to right? I've heard that Japanese horizontal signalheads have red on the right.
Phoenix, AZ has an offset intersection. On the south side of Indian School Road is 71st Avenue. On the north side, appropriately spaced from where 71st Ave would continue is 71st Drive. Neither 71st roads (yeah, I know, east side stuff) meet at Indian School. It used to be that mess of multiple stoplights that Rob was showing. Sometime in the early 2000's, Phoenix removed the second set of lights and made that mess a single intersection. It has X number of phases. Indian School both ways. Indian School both directions. Indian School both Left Turns only, 71st Ave, and 71st Street. Works out great.
Very good video I'm definitely going to share this one. Also though a few pointers! 1. Love the reflective border 2. Don't tailgate big vehicles and getting to know the area you drive in such as how long the lights last the speed limit and calculating these together will help you to have less occurances with stopping on a red.
Love the unbiased explanation of the problem and the solutions. UA-cam actually got another recommendation right. Now subbed. Canada is putting in more and more traffic circles, especially on high collision locations on 2-lane highways. My dad (retired, recently passed) used to love going up to the coffee shop and just watch the confused drivers trying the roundabout for the first time!
The Problem also exists in those who get distracted by other things occurring, in January a guy in a big GMC Yukon ran the red light, hitting and totaling my car, the report states he “dropped something on the floor” and supposedly didn’t notice he ran the light until impact. Goes to show people can be the error as well
Incredible video. I have a yellow light in my town that is too short and I've been saying for years that it should be longer because I can't safely stop in time and it's too dangerous to speed through.
That's how Norwood OH 25 mph speed limit lights are timed ,long intersection very short yellow lights only advantage is more traffic tickets. This is an outdated system that no longer is good for different roadways compared to 50 years ago.
Great video! Could you do one on the detection lights in the Netherlands that can detect not just cars, but buses, bikes, and pedestrians, and change the wait depending how many vehicles there are!
Budget is still a bit tight to film outside the country. But I'll certainly look at that if/when I ever make it to Europe. (I've never actually set foot outside the United States, unfortunately).
I assume that it is easier for EU to have/implement smart traffic signal controllers that can handle variable (assuming standalone- networked/coordinated systems is $$$) there are magnetic sensors (old school) and video detection packages that can help the signal controller to do that 👍🏼 Upgrading from “dumb” (fixed time/time variable only) controllers however can be pricey, typically funded for end-of-service life replacements, or big grants/funding from central governments/State/Federal authorities … the “unsexy” part of the transportation infrastructure
Love the videos. In Europe most traffic lights are on your side of the intersection instead of the opposite side of the intersection in north America. I wonder if this reduces red light running.
In Norway most intersections have the light at the side of the road by the stop line and one on the opposite side of the intersection on the pole for the opposite direction.. Lights over the road are not common, but exists in some places. But they like roundabouts where possible, but roundabouts are not god for very heavy traffic, especially if the bulk of the traffic takes a left turn.
Rob, I have learned so much from your videos. I never thought a channel about roads and traffic patterns would be so interesting… But you’ve made a topic that I would normally find so boring quite fascinating. Thanks so much for what you do.
Every new traffic signal I’m seeing is Seattle after around 2010 has been bigger than the old ones, and has the yellow reflective tape around the edge! I’ve also seen some signals in the city that seem older, but use the bigger lenses, however, those are quite rare. Where they are, I notice they have sometimes put yellow reflective tape on them instead of replacing them.
Your editing is very par. Great dramatization at 0:55. You also do a great job at explaining the problems that we face with our traffic infrastructure and how to fix it. Thanks for the free knowledge!
There is a set of filtered lights on Democracy Blvd in Bethesda MD, where the filtered lights are poorly set so if you are stopped at the stop line, looking up, you can’t see the light at all, so when it turns green, you have to wait for the people behind to honk at you.
One thing that exists in france I find very handy is there's almost always a small traffic down low on the poll making it easy to look at it if you're stopped at the lights. But this may also be done as here, traffic lights are typically located at the stopping point, rather than above, or across the intersection. I wonder if that aspect also helps reduce ambiguity, no need to figure out where to stop for the lights, you stop at the lights and you can't confuse them with the lights from a different direction either.
Рік тому+1
It's surely and advantage. In the US it's often cluttered with lights and on large intersections it's sometimes hard to tell which one is which. In Europe you will see your traffic lights, in the US you see traffic lights for almost all directions and lanes at the same time. That's a lot of lights! At night they may sometimes blend together and you just see one green-red blob of lights, especially in rain. It's also sometimes hard to figure out where you have to stop. In Europe you know, you have to stop in a way you still see the light. In the US you have to watch for a lane on the road before the intersection and those are sometimes almost invisible. Even worse in snow, you just guess where you should stop. People usually stop with larger buffer but I've seen people getting too close to intersection because they did not know that there's one more lane under the snow.
Good video. We spend so much time focusing on stopping. What I wish we would focus on is less idling time or distracted drivers sitting at the stale green lights. I wish there would be a change to the standard to a flashing red to indicate it is going to change in the next ten seconds, so finish that text... or if slowing for the red, be ready to roll again. Fuel economy would skyrocket too.
There are always about 4-5 of them in stages of development. As I get better, I keep hoping to make videos more quickly -- but end up just adding new ideas which slow them back down lol
Hey Rob - a couple years ago I was in Irvine California and I was running a red light (was kind of looking at the next light on the road before I saw my light turn red at the last second) - I managed to screech to a halt within the first lane of the 6 lane intersection. Before I did that, something very peculiar happened. My light that had just turned red switched back to green, and the cross street that was on green switched back to red with no yellow in between. There were no cars I could see luckily - but have you ever heard of something like this as a crash prevention measure?
The only time I've seen that happen (with a yellow, never without a yellow) is when the light detects incoming emergency vehicles and quickly changes to their green to let them through
Ive also ran a red just like you, luckily right outside of a dead shopping mall so not many people around lol. I realized last second and put my ABS to the test, it did not work very well lol. My reverse skills were on point though
My city took the concept of coordinated signals for controlling speeding to the next step with "rest-on-red" technology. The signals on problem roadways are always in a restrictive state (all red) unless the signal detects vehicles travelling at or below the speed limit approaching; it will give a permissive (green) signal to let them through without having to stop. If the signal detects a vehicle travelling above the speed limit, it will stay restrictive for several seconds after the traffic has stopped before a permissive signal is given.
Thank you for the shoutout for my hometown of Eureka! I don't drive myself due to disabilities, but obviously I couldn't help noticing all these stop lights getting yellow borders over the last few years.
The signal timing to minimise stopping is an interesting one because it should also discourage speeding. If driving at the limit allows you to pass through multiple lights without stopping there is no need to race to the next lights as that will increase the chance you will hit a red light
Рік тому
I found two issues with this style as it was used in the city I lived in for years. 1. As it is optimized for a speed limit, it also discourages you from driving slower even if the conditions are bad. I've seen many people driving at the limit in snow and heavy rain just to stick to the light sequence and not stop at each of those lights. 2. As it's optimized for driving straight, people turning quite often are speeding to catch up with the traffic that was going straight before. This leads to yet another issue. If there is a turning traffic (people turning on your lane on the intersection ahead), they will have to stop as the lights are synchronized to you. Now when you approach next intersection, it will turn green and you will have to slow down or stop because they are just starting to roll. Although it is fairly good mechanism, it can't enforce you to stick to a given speed. It has to act fast enough to let people waiting on the intersection to take off before you reach them. I've often been driving quite slowly on those because I knew that when I drive 50km/h, the light will turn green when I reach it but there's bunch of cars waiting. So I drive 30km/h and when I catch up with them, they are already at 30km/h too, so no slowing down. But this means that I'm also slowing down the traffic behind me. So it's better if the light changes earlier that if you were driving at speed limit. It also has to be kept longer. Imagine you've seen yellow light while leaving intersection. It's an obvious indication that if they are in sync, all following lights will be yellow too, so you will now go over speed limit just to catch up. It's bad as well and happens all the time.
There are some seriously clever solutions here - especially the filter on a 2nd set of lights in close proximity to another. I go through a junction with two sets of lights close to each other and wondered why I couldn't see the next until I was near to it. Although I have never had to stop at it, as it is a two part light where it doesn't go red unless the first light is red.
Another trick is to paint queue lines like they do in Florida --- solid stripes dividing all travel lanes approaching the traffic light, and painted as long as the must stop zone. Pretty quickly motorists pick up on the clue that when the light turns yellow before you pass the beginning of the queue lines, you need to stop. ✋🛑
That’s actually my favorite technique so far. So simple and elegant. I absolutely hate the feeling of looking at a light going 55 and hoping it doesn’t turn yellow lmao
That caught me off guard I live in Arizona but I used to frequent Alabama street in Redlands California. I’d be on that street everyday at that Redlands blvd I got in a 15 mph accident on Alabama street several years ago for the reasons of bad lights someone ran it and the person in front slammed on their breaks
I’m the UK (where we have more roundabouts than traffic/stop lights) we have rumble strips when approaching intersections such as this at speeds of 50-70mph. It really wakes up the distracted driver.
The synchronized green lights are a common sight around here, often accompanied with a sign indicating a "green wave", and sometimes even accompanied by a sign with a live updated recommended speed to keep to the wave plus how many lights you can expect to be green if you do. And yes, roundabouts. But one more that you didn't mention - stop having dead-straight roads. Being able to see for miles down the road does not help safety at all, and adding subtle bends makes them more safe. Maybe collab with NotJustBikes for video comparison? Even all the highways in NL are bent, and not because our land isn't flat enough.
@@b-chroniumproductions3177 People drive the speed that they "feel" is safe on a given road. The wider and straighter the road is, the more people tend to a higher average speed. Multi-lane roads tend to be faster, roads that "feel" wider tend to be faster. This is not so much a conscious thing, but a thing people do unconsciously. When a road - esp. one with a limit of 20mph or below - has a lot of visual detail to pay attention to, such as subtle curves, traffic isles for pedestrians and parking bays alternating sides, people will actually drive below 20mph because driving faster than that feels too risky.
I hope I live to see when we can have a smart traffic control system. A system that won't change the light for one or two cars when 10 are approaching. Or doesn't keep four directions standing still with many vehicles just so a lane with no traffic has a turn at green. Or even a system that can override the operator and apply the brakes through the existing precollision systems a lot of cars have. Basically a system with an A.I. that acts like an air traffic controller, knows the inbound traffic volume and adjusts to move the most through. Oddly though I think the oldest technology, round abouts are our best choice.
Èdmonton, Alberta, Canada has a large number of round abouts. However, when traffic volumes increased above a certain level, some had traffic signals installed to control access. Some were removed altogether and replaced with conventional intersections.
I live in WI, but grew up in MN. MN have installed flashing lights for some intersections where you have to slow from 60+mph to a stop for a red light. I find it amazingly helpful in every way! I'm not sure it would work in every intersection, but I find it a ridiculously helpful! Whether I am towing a huge trailer, or just want to shut off my cruise control early in my commuter car...it gives me a great heads up. I wish they would do that here in WI. Great video!
I've definitely almost fell for that as well, when two light intersections are very close or beside eachother. Dark out and icy roads, nobody was out on the road, but I paid attention to the further light by mistake. I caught myself last second but was very close to cruising through and not even realizing. Human brain not so great at judging distant light sources, or distinguishing multiple intersections in the dark.
I struggle with close lights all the time when I'm in the city. I'm accustomed to suburban driving and not expecting a light at nearly every intersection. You get used to looking farther ahead and have to remind yourself to adjust.
For me, the most common cause of me running or almost running traffic lights is when they change traffic light patterns (phase order, or the way the light operates in general). I think there should be a "new signal pattern" signs for people driving their daily, routine, internalized routes. These are the only times I've unintentionally or almost unintentionally ran traffic lights. I ran a red light once a few years ago. I'd gotten use to this pattern every night driving home where I could easily see what color light cross traffic had. It was a smart light, the type that senses you coming, gives cross traffic gets yellows and then reds, and then a moment after cross traffic goes red, you get a green (so long as there are no opposing protected left turns, and plus there's a little dot on the back of their traffic light so you can see what color they have). After years of this, one night, cross traffic got yellows and then reds (and the opposing protected left turn was still red) but my light stayed red anyway, and so I unintentionally ran it, even though all other directions were still red. They switched the light so that they force traffic to stop for a moment for the red light to turn green. (maybe it also had something to do with the new police station built nearby, maybe they were using the light for traffic calming?) I've almost also ran traffic lights when they changed the order of the phases. I get used to noticing the order the light feeds the intersection, the 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, and then one day, it suddenly turns to 1 3 2 4 with no warning! So I think I'm next, I see the light change, I press the gas without thinking, and then crap I'm still red, it changed for a different direction. I'm surprised there are no signs or regulations for signal changes. WHY!? Don't you think they should put up a sign when they change light patterns that we've unintentionally internalized over the years? I think it's silly that they put up "new traffic pattern" signs for clearly visible changes to the road, but they don't put ups a "new signal pattern" for something that you have no clue they changed until it's too late. They could put the sign up for a day or two until people who have interalized their driving routes notice the signs and prepare for stopping.
I've had the same issue and came close to running reds. I can usually look ahead and see the opposing signal light from the side and can tell if I have to slow down or not. Most people probably don't bother with learning the signal order though so it's probably not something even worth announcing. In fact, it would probably confuse some drivers!
I’ve seen some of my local jurisdictions use even portable changeable message signs to show change in intersection control. Otherwise the “New Traffic Pattern Ahead” Warning Sign (MUTCD Sign Designation: W23-2) can be specified in contract documents or local jurisdiction’s traffic control plans Demand change if you see it not happen again at another location.
@@Gamebuster1990 for those of us with any sort of momentum, it saves time, fuel, momentum, and traffic, if you can adjust preemptively to the signals. Slowing for a red is a lot more significant than slowing for a not yet green, if your light will change in eight seconds but you’ll get there in five, you slow down a bit, but you won’t have to stop. And stopping, and worse, restarting, is one of the concepts that the gross majority of motorists have yet to comprehend. Anticipating signal changes can greatly reduce jams if you don’t have to stop, or can get into gear and get moving just a hair quicker.
I never really thought about the filter idea for second close traffic lights. However in Lakeland Florida where I used to live we have an intersection that get quite complex with two lights one directly after the other (about 20 - 30 feet) and the second light has a filter that makes it hard too see from the second light. As you approach it the light becomes more visible but has a distinct matte appearance. I assume this is the filter you referred to in the video and it makes that first light/ intersection significantly more safe.
I wonder how this impacts drivers in a higher seating position like in large trucks. (by truck, I mean what a trucker drives to haul freight, not what every man and their dog drive cos it's in fashion)
it's probably a good idea to have alternatives that avoid the problem altogether as well that don't even involve traffic lights. Public transit, roundabouts, maybe even getting rid of stop lights in a lot of cases so people always have to be extra careful.
That's a good description, ' dilemma zone '. Many years ago, living in Victoria BC, I could tell which vehicles were out of towners by the way they were zigzaging through the traffic. One moment they're in front of me and the next, behind me. Just keep a steady pace.
1:05 "The goal of a red-light camera is not to catch people running red lights. It's to reduce or eliminate the number of people running red lights." LOL. The companies putting these things up have very much the opposite goal. And the governments contracting with them may start out with those lofty intentions, but when the income stream starts rolling in, they become addicted and it's then all about money. The fact that many cities shorten their yellow light times after installing red light cameras is pretty solid proof that income is the goal.
Let's not also forget another huge issue (at least in my city), there are too many stoplights too close together, often for "intersections" that aren't busy enough (such as neighborhood exits) or crossings that shouldn't even be there. It can be solved by adding a roundabout or just removing the stop light altogether
This is a problem in Detroit. The red lights were put in when the ppopulation was 4 times larger than now. Little side streets have 🚦 that aren't necessary.
This is a problem with stroads. The fix without adding a light at the intersection is to make right and left-hand turn lanes, increasing the width of the road.
It also doesn't help that the lights are seemingly perfectly desynchronized. If you miss one green light you're screwed. But if you run one light then you can make the next 3 or 4 lights at least. Otherwise you're just sitting there at a red light at an intersection to an empty parking lot watching all those lights ahead of you stay green with no one going through them and then immediately turn red just as you start going. I live this nightmare everyday.
@@Hooptedoodle In the cities near me, the main roads crossing a freeway have that issue in certain directions at certain times of day. In the morning, the lights are synchronized to feed traffic _to_ the freeway; in the late afternoon, the synchronization reverses to feed traffic _away from_ the freeway. All other times of day, the lights run independently on their local sensors. It's a real pain if you're going against the programmed flow, but it _significantly_ improves movement of the majority of traffic. Now the biggest problem is that there just aren't enough freeway entrances and exits for the commuter population - and they've been working on that: extending roads across the freeway, with new ramps; widening, extending, and rerouting existing ramps; adding turn lanes to _enter_ the ramps; etc.. The next-largest, and probably intractable, problem is a combination of having few places to add freeway access that are both _useful_ and _achievable,_ and not being able to add secondary arterials (paralleling the freeway) to feed the accesses that they _can_ build.
I’ll add my confession to running a red light, Rob. A couple of years ago, I was driving home on a windy hillside road in the late evening and I was coming up to where I needed to make a left turn. I saw one of those lights to the left designed to be seen around the curve and thought it was a left-turn signal, or I just wasn’t paying attention, I’m not sure which. Either way, I made the left and didn’t notice the light at the signal had turned red by the time I got there and I got more flashes than a celebrity at a Hollywood premiere. It cost me over $800 in fines and fees, plus attendance at an online traffic school starting Erik Estrada (yep, he still fits into his uniform from “ChiPs”.) 😔
American here wanting all the traffic circles. All of this extra money and maintenance and engineering where a circle can do a better job for the cheap.
Thank you so much for making this video! I moved to Philadelphia from NYC last December and I recognized the infrastructure here (in Philly) is really really bad, and extremely dangerous. I’ve been curious on how improvements are made, and what goes into a safe and productive driving experience vs. what makes it so bad. Thank you for this! Sincerely 🙏
If you want to improve safety, you need to reduce traffic, reduce the number of lanes, reduce speed. Reduce complexity. Hard facts. Just look at the Nordic countries where road fatalities are less than 20% of the American, related to pr capita.
I've got a suggestion... Have you considered reviewing some of the signal systems in other countries like Japan? Even the ones that have an actual timer for you to know when the light is changing. Then compare them to the systems here in the US? 🤔
Timothy C ours just stay red in all directions for that time, and then (at least here) nobody jumps off the starting line, just in case someone is driving a BMW cross-ways.
Australia has a solid white line leading up to the traffic signal stop line to show the safe stopping distance a vehicle should be able to break in if the light turns yellow. If you are beyond the line's beginning point you can go through the amber. Before the start of this line, you should have sufficient time/distance for a safe stop. We also have warnring amber flashing signals for roads 80km/h and over. Fatigue, inattention, speeding (deliberate) and inhibiting substances are the big 4 of intersection crashes.
I love red light cameras. I have a really responsive and fast car. If the light turns yellow I either floor it or slam on the brakes unless im at a comfortable distance. Thus making the intersection more dangerous. Luckily my town installs these all over for more income.
Slamming on your brakes constantly means that you'll have to replace the brake system components more frequently than you might expect. I'm not sure which costs more; a brake job or a couple of red light tickets.
+The reflective tape I have found useful at night for that exact reason. There are several stop lights in our small town and even they are easy to overlook if not illuminated at all. Also Roundabouts get people to slow down more than a yellow light.. lol
I recall seeing some lights in Canada where the green light started blinking just before it turned yellow - to reduce the panic stopping you might get. Seems like a good idea.
In Austria, we have a blinking green light. That means that the green light blinks 4 times at 1Hz (ish, never measured it) before turning yellow, giving you a couple seconds of warning and a way to estimate when it will change (if you saw when it started blinking, of course). It also gets your attention and gets you focussed on the signal. This is so effective that most people stop at yellow already, and there are few hard braking incidents. You have ample time to decide to either step on it or stop. The same goes for pedestrian signals, and you know that you need to hurry when it starts blinking. This is so convenient that I miss it whenever I'm driving in other countries, and feel guilty for "running the yellow light". This would be a good thing to implement in the US, especially in the light of your overreliance on traffic signals.
I live in a country with blinking green lights. Here even running a yellow light will get you a ticket. From my experience a blinking green offers zero benefits. I do not stare at the traffic light constantly when driving. I check the traffic light repeatedly as I approach it but I look at the road to avoid driving off road and crashing into the car in front. When the green turns yellow, the position of the lights change. That is immediately noticable without having to stare at the light instead of the street where you drive. Blinking greens are a hazard and driving through a yellow light should be allowed.
@@lukasmax6984 You are not supposed to stare at the lights. I can easily notice the blinking out of the corner of my eye, except in rare circumstances. The blinking is very noticeable and it rather draws one's attention to the signal, more so than the change to yellow. I follow the blinking (and count along) with my peripheral vision, I have no idea how you arrive at the idea that you need to stare at it. Driving through yellow IS allowed. I don't believe that this can get you a ticket (but you do have one excuse less for running the red light because you "saw the yellow too late").
Same here - in New York City. We've all heard how yellows are set too short and bang, you get the ticket. I wish there was a minimum time for yellows no matter the intersection. At least when I see the countdown timer version of the walk/don't walk signal, I know when it's going to hit the yellow. And here in New York City they just announced that the speed cameras are going to be in effect 24/7. But do they tell us where they are? Or paint the poles they're on with a blaze orange color scheme? Or even give us a heads-up sign, say 1/4 mile from the actual camera? NO! x 3. It's all a money grab by the city.
Unfortunately for smaller jurisdictions, they cannot afford dedicated “traffic engineers” but general civil engineers (as City Engineers or Public Works Directors, for example) who knows a bit about everything/specialized in something else. Often consultants would be contracted to help these jurisdictions in official capacities for them. The loss of institutional knowledge from personnel change is a downside to these arrangements, but it is what smaller jurisdictions can afford without funding/staffing and potential pension issues.
I remember when I was stationed at Fort Bliss, TX, that all the intersections in El Paso that had stoplights had solid white lane lines that basically told drivers, if you are in the solid white lane line zone when the light turns yellow, keep going, otherwise stop. Ingenious little trick.
The isthmus of Madison WI has excellent signal coordination. I love watching drivers who don’t realize it go 35/40mph in the 25 and have to stop at each light while I’m on cruise control set to 25 almost running each red light and somehow it magically turns green when I’m just about to cross the threshold. They have it set to change with different amounts of traffic around different times of day so it’s not always coordinated.
In the case I posted from Redlands, CA- it's not an intersection, per se. An old railroad parallels Redlands Blvd., which the region is turning into a new light-rail line called "The Arrow." To make the railroad crossing safer, engineers added a new signal 150 feet from the existing one. As for Portland- yeah, that's another matter!
That's why we voted to make them illegal in Texas. It was never about public safety. I looked it up and they did allow exceptions. Four towns still use the cameras. I remember going voting about five years ago and someone was gathering signatures for a petition to get that on the ballot.
Having the lights on the far end of the intersection also makes it a lot more difficult to judge whether or not you can make the yellow light. Often times the stop lines painted on the road surface are worn out. In Europe traffic lights tend to be on the near side of the intersection. A bit less comfortable when you're first in line, but I suspect it is a lot safer because it's much more obvious where exactly you have to stop.
That's what I was hoping for when he moved to "as the Europeans have been screaming for the last 10 minutes". If you want people to see a stoplight, forget about fancy high vis reflective backplates. Standardized stoplight placement is what makes people find and understand stoplights, because the stoplight is always exactly where the driver expects it to be. And the one placement that works in all kinds of situations is to put them where the cars are supposed to stop.
Wisconsin traffic signals have low-mounted lights on the near side of the intersection, and high-mounted signals on the far side. But Minnesota has all of the signals on the far side of the intersection. I moved from WI to MN over 30 years ago, and I'm still not entirely used to it.
Philly red light can’t have a “shortened” yellow light, apparently so they can make more money. The city, police and camera company share the ticket profits. Pennsylvania has some of those lights where you have to be so close before you can see what color the light is. And some of those lights, you are already in the middle of the intersection before you can see it! Signs displaying a traffic signal, should have the cross street printed below it.
There's an interstate spur that turns into a regular state highway in milwaukee, 794, which recently took some advice from this video. There's a 3 way intersection with Oklahoma Avenue that has some very funky traffic lights on what is otherwise an interstate highway. Southbound, there's a red green left turn arrow, but the right lane has a perpetually green forward pointing arrow. So people turning left sit parked right next to cars swerving past them going 65mph. Northbound is a full traffic light around a blind curve on a 55mph road that only just recently installed a warning sign for the traffic light. Before you used to come around the corner and have around 2000 feet to determine if you could make the light or not
11:40 That turbo-roundabout looks a bit odd, it can still be better by putting a physical barrier between the lanes so traffic has to choose in advance if it wants to go for instance only left or straight /to the right.
There are turbine roundabouts in Europe. Each lane before the roundabout leads to specific direction. Drivers are not supposed to change lanes on the roundabout. Barriers are not needed, solid lines are enough.
I like the barrier idea. Good signage well before the intersection is also important and sometimes here in Washington State, you MUST change lanes one way or the other (yep, cross each other) IN the roundabout to prevent a forced right turn and go to the lane you need.
The strangest thing about that roundabout is that all lanes on the approach from the bottom have right arrows. Are people not allowed to turn left on that roundabout? (Compare to the approach from the left, where the left of the 2 lanes has a left arrow). The rightmost lane at the bottom is basically a normal slip lane, except that it has to join the road going right very early, to keep the distraction of that process away from the rail crossing.
@@Pystro Yeah, that's obviously painted incorrectly. That's what I'm talking about regarding confusion in these if not properly signed. If this was the first time someone used this roundabout, they would rightly be confused. From the areal view, and with time to study it, we can see once you enter the roundabout, it shows a left arrow. If the idea is that you must always enter the roundabout toward the right (as it always is in USA), then the left approach is signed backward. Since we always enter toward the right, those arrows on the bottom approach are redundant.
@@mr65136 Massachusetts also has a lot of older rotaries that act like UK roundabouts: you're required to yield/give way upon entering otherwise you can fly in and fly out. I thought old NJ traffic circles assigned the incoming traffic the right-of-way which can gridlock the circle.
Every single place showcased in this video looks absolutely awful to be at, especially if you're not in a car. Condolences to Rob for having to go film in places like this.
For your "dilema zone" I dont know about US but Canada the lines on the road help decide whether you can stop or go on a yellow....provided youre doing the speed limit. Lines are dotted all down the road, then using math they start a solid line where in that zone your car isnt going to stop with a sudden yellow and its safe to proceed. But if youre not in that small space and light goes yellow you have plenty of room to stop. Theres also a 3 second delay from 1 direction to the other for red light runners. When my city installed 3 red light cameras they nab about 200 a week collectively, kinda wish they were multiuse though, stop cars from stopping in crosswalks and fine them when they do. Its an all too common issue with right turns on red allowed.
It depends on region and state in the United States, as it always does. So I can only judge for my state and the states I've driven through, which is mostly the midwest (sorry Florida drivers, but your roads and driving is shit). For most Midwest states, the point to brake is where the solid lines for your lane start when coming to an intersection, and if you don't have them, then oh well. However, we've been adopting the roundabout more often than redesigning our traffic signals. Best examples are Missouri and Michigan when it comes to roundabouts. We do have delays where the traffic next to go have to wait for the intersection to clear before the crossing traffic turns green. But the use of cameras for tickets are a mere gimmick, for I see multiple people running red lights in St. Louis even with the traffic cameras that blatantly flash their red and blue lights to mimic police enforcement, but do not do shit in reality, as drivers will look both ways on a red light and see if traffic is clear to run the red light. Wisconsin implements traffic the best in my opinion, but I have yet to visit and drive in each state.
I'd also like to point out that a yellow light should never be any shorter than 5 seconds. Almost all states require the yellow light to be no shorter than 3 seconds. When you add the national highway traffic safety administration requirement to work in a 2 second reaction time for those drivers with the least ability to react, you have a 5-second light at minimum.
I was in the UK in 2009. They had started to install traffic signals at roundabouts because if there was a busy road intersecting with a less-busy road, cars from the less-busy road would have to sit for a significant amount of time because the cars from the busy road kept coming into the roundabout leaving no openings.
The traffic lights at roundabouts are often timed usage. ie they come on during the rush hour or busy times and then when the traffic subsides the lights switch off completely and it functions as a normal roundabout.
I can’t tell if you’re an engineer or a video producer because the content and the production of your videos are just outstanding. So much work goes in to these videos, I can’t imagine how much time you must spend on each one. Thanks for doing what you do for nerds like us!
I think he did student TV as a side gig while studying civil engineering at university!
This is among the best compliments I could ever hope to get. Thank you!
@@RoadGuyRob It's well deserved and accurate.
Engineer or video producer? According to the local news he's clearly a surveyor, wearing that reflective clothing and carrying a tripod on a scooter.
Plus the cost of making the graphics, animations and video footage himself is huge! (obviously it's not from any stock footage library)
I like intersections where there is a countdown on the cross walk signal - it provides a good clue as to how long before the yellow light will come on. Perhaps something like that but more visible would help people avoid the dilemma zone.
Beijing has some really advanced signals where the red and yellow lights also doubles as a numerical countdown timer. Seeing the seconds until the next red/green really helps with mentality behind the wheel, especially when negotiating the much less straightforward lane usage changes and chaos of oblivious pedestrians and careless two-wheelers (both pedal and motorized).
where i live those count downs are totally misleading at some intersection
@@robertbennett2796 I guess that you're talking about the crosswalk countdowns, correct? I've noticed the same thing where I live: just because the crosswalk timer hits zero does not always mean that the traffic light itself has just hit - or is about to hit - yellow
I agree with you, but I think it currently violates the US DOT road signal/signage regulations. I looked it up a year or two ago.
Morocco does this with their traffic signals. Red and green lights with a count-down to the next flip. I loved seeing it when I visited!
I've driven that intersection in Fremont! Next time I go through that perfectly timed yellow I will savor the knowledge that it was blessed by Road Guy himself.
I always assumed it was a freeway -- looking at the map!
Or just slow down to the speed limit....
Gilroy California is in admits of a road overhaul. A major intersection will be getting a roundabout and there will be a diverging diamond interchange eventually too
Never understood why they didn't just properly connect the two interstates - that road is always a traffic jam.
@@showusyabits that is a near impossible thing to achieve, unless you constantly monitor your speedometer.
You come off a freeway cruising at 70mph, everything feels slower. Mix in all the traffic around you is still going faster than you and 45 feels like 25.
Then you throw in the HORRIBLE non standard signage CA has. Unless you know, it is a last second decision in heavy traffic.
Hell west bound 580 to south bound 680 and north 680 to west 580 is atrocious. 1 lane(1/8 a mile?) That handles 2 tight cloverleafs. You have 8 cars combining to 1 lane, some trying to get to 65mph the others trying to get to 25mph.
My town used to have coordinated stoplights downtown. Speed limit was 20, but if you drove exactly 15, you'd cruise through the entire downtown without a single stop (other than the first one if you are unlucky).
Nowadays, those lights have drifted off of their coordinated timing, so it doesn't quite work, but I definitely remember the joy of watching the guy in the other lane accelerate past me, slam on his brakes, and then I'd gleefully drive past him just as the light turned green... and we'd do this for ten straight blocks. :-)
pity you didn’t capture that on dashcam! Would have gained a lot of views!
You took glee out of that?? That guy was, unlike yourself, probably on his way to hook up with a hot girl and couldn't care less about the things that arouse guys like you.. like "feeling smarter" by driving 15 miles per hour to avoid poor mpg or unnecessary wear and tear on your engine or brakes. He accelerated faster for one simple reason.. because it FELT FASTER and he wanted some action. That was reason enough for him.. even if he knew that the lights weren't cooperating. Only a guy with no woman waiting for him is going to drive like a little old lady. 😂
We call this a 'green wave' in The Netherlands. Besides a sign announcing you're about to pass the first light where you'll enter such a road, it will also tell you the amount of lights that are part of the green wave and a sign stating which speed to adhere to.
So the sign is usually something like this: 'Green wave (6 x) at 45 km/h'. So if the first light is green when you pass it and you stick to that speed, you get the guarantee that the next 6 lights will be green as well.
Near the German border in a region called the Achterhoek, a busy provincial road even has pre-advance warning signs stating if the green wave is still 'active' or not, by showing a green ~ sign accompanied by a speed in km/h, which changes as the green wave is coming to an end. When there's no green wave, the sign turns off as far as I know.
Meanwhile in my US town we will have a green light turn red for absolutely nobody LOL, seems like traffic lights could be so much better then they are with just a little bit of effort.
@@Winner3ty Exactly! We have lights that turn red for no reason, and red lights that stay red for years after the last vehicle has gone through the intersection, and then city officials wonder why people run red lights! 😡
Here in Australia we have a few things that help:
Re: blind corners near traffic light, often when there is a set of lights over a crest, around a corner or even further away where queuing is likely, we have a "PREPARE TO STOP" sign on the approach with flashing amber lights that illuminate when the lights aren't green.
Re: visual contrast, all traffic lights have a white retro-reflective border around the main plate. We have a lot of combo signals with turn, bus, tram, etc. alongside standard "straight ahead" signals.
Re: the dilemma zone, I know that our yellows are timed to match the speed limit of design speed to help avoid that sort of thing. Normally I think 50km/h (~35mph) zones are about 3 seconds through to 80km/h (~50mph) zones at about 5 seconds. Traffic lights are very rare on roads with higher speed limits (80km/h is basically highway speed, above that is freeways and rural roads).
We also have a lot of "safety" cameras which combined red light cameras with speed cameras. That extra deterrent keeps people at lower speed on approach to the intersection, increasing the amount of time allowed to stop safely.
Similar in my province in Canada. I find rspecially useful warning yellow flashing ahead of intersection with lights. They are time so that if you cross then while they are not flashing, you are quarantined to make a green driving at speed limit.
We do have warning signs for crests or corners here as well in The Netherlands. Visual contrast: same, most likely retroreflective but something I never even thought about ;) Different times for amber based on the speed the road is designed for: ditto. Red light cameras that also act as speed traps: present as well.
We also automatically take your license away if you're caught breaking the law too many times, and you can get it instantly disqualified if you're caught doing 35+ over the speed limit. I don't know if that happens in the U.S.
Those traffic lights way off to the side and mounted lower (mentioned at 7:25) are so helpful, and I took them for granted when I lived in california. It's not just when you're behind a tall vehicle, but also if you're driving into the sun, that they're important. There are so many days I've been driving around where I have to have the sun visor low enough that I literally can't see the traffic lights because I won't be able to see the road if my visibility is that tall.
But in the video clip mentioned (go back to 7:14) and you'll clearly see the signal 2 lanes to the right
@@DontScareTheFish that's well within the area you should be looking at. You should never enter an intersection without knowing what cars are on the cross street, and that traffic signal is right where you would look to see what cars are coming from the right.
More importantly, it is low enough that it's not going to have the sun right next to it. You're never going to see a traffic signal while it is competing with the sun, and no one with any intelligence is going to let themselves look at the Sun and expect to be able to see what's on the road. That was my point.
In Australia we used to do the side lights before we started doing the high speed overhead light.
Note: It is not only about the length of the yellow, but also the length of the 'all-red phase'. We call the combination of the two the inter-green interval. If you use a yellow phase that is too long, it will also confuse the driver (eventually they will adjust their behavior and use the extra yellow as additional green). Hence, you can also adjust the all-red phase to compensate for the yellow interval.
Just make the yellow flash for the last .5- 1 second or whatever is safe before the red. Too short of yellows with red light cams are racketeering and sick.
I agree. The all red phase is the most important. It lets the intersection cool down before the light change happens.
counterpoint: I lived in a grid municipality with nice, long yellow intervals -- but cross traffic would turn green 1s before red. No all-red phase!
He talked about that in the video
Yes, he briefly talked about it near the end of the video. I wrote my comment in the middle of watching the segment, but I discussed it in greater details. Most signals in the US have an all-red phase.
The problem with those filters is sometimes, if you're in a semi, you can't see the light until you're half way through the intersection. Because your line of sight is higher, it follows the same path that the engineers tried to block from the previous light.
I pondered that potential dilemma. Good to know it is how I imagined.
Here in the UK and other European countries, the two lights would have traffic sensors and be timed in such a way that if you're driving the correct speed, both lights will be green as you pass through.
You see, the people in California only think of themselves in their own little world.
I don't think there should be semis going through towns that often. Just be careful. The filters won't cause problems. You are driving SLOWLY.
@@iamdave84
No, it isn't. Semis shouldn't be going through towns too often. He is also driving slowly. He should have time.
I am a roundabout convert. I used to hate them because I think due to poor implementation, but for most intersections, they are the best solution.
It amazes me how a country where you basically need to drive has such a massive problem with drivers running red lights due to poor designs
Well, when the driving test is a joke, you have lots of clowns for drivers
@@vanguard6937 seems like they don't want to design to reduce the speed of the cars, like narrowed lanes or less straight streets. Building citys for cars with all its stroads make just bad solutions.
It becomes an issue specifically because almost everyone has to drive. Walkable, bikeable, rail-connected cities don't need stroads in the first place, where cars are travelling too fast to safely negotiate with others on their own.
It's not poor designs, it's poor drivers.
We don't have a massive problem. The problem is that running a red light so often has a consequence. Anyone can intentionally run a red light at any speed. We need to be engineering reduce the odds that people will unintentionally run them, and that when they do the consequences will be less severe.
Replacing the 8” signal heads with 12” might also help with visibility, especially with senior drivers .
Redesigning the city so senior drivers don't need a car and can instead get around with a mobility scooter, walking, public transport, biking.
@@georgelaxton such as converting those horrible stroads into proper streets or proper roads
@@edwardmiessner6502 Yep. In his other video about arby’s and driveways he was showing how stroads create a lot of potential conflict points.
Jesus loves you alot trust in His death 4 salvation and be saved from eternal hell
@TNerd and what of Senior citizens that live outside of the city but need to go there to access services (ie medical centres)? Are we going to provide them ubers from their houses just because you don't want to invest in infrastructure for the largest growing segment of the population?
On some of the stoplights in Auburn CA, there was an attempt made to use the yellow tape on the lights to make them more visible. But the more important ones directly faced the morning sun (during rush hour), producing a harsh glare and overpowering the actual stoplight.
They were removed within a month.
Only red I’ve ever accidentally ran was similar to this. Sun was coming up and right behind the lights so I simply couldn’t see where the lights even normally are (mind u I drove through it daily) and realized it was red as I was in the middle of the intersection
When was this? I drive in Auburn everyday and I dont remmeber this.
@@baddriversofthenorcalarea500 3-4 years ago. I stopped commuting this route about a year ago too.
4:32 Almost as if to reinforce your point, the additional signal head is at risk of being obstructed once again by overgrowth of the tree nearby. Maintenance of intersections is just as important as good design to ensure proper safe operation!
In reference to 'maintenance', I once had to call the city of Huntington Beach (CA) to complain that I could not see the signal head on the mast arm (due to overgrown trees protruding over from nearby private property, branches blocking view) and also due to having only one signal head on the mast arm (there should be two signal heads along with the one signal head pole-mounted). The trees were trimmed back in short order however the city disagreed with about quantity of signal heads required for that travel movement (three travel lanes but no left possible due to side street terminating at the signal; city claimed the two total heads comply with MUTCD -- I still disagree, you generally apply one signal head per travel lane). We were then able to see the traffic signal after the trim job put the signal in compliance for signal head visibility distance from intersection, based on approach speed.
"The goal of a red light camera is not to catch people running red lights, It's to reduce or eliminate the number of people running red lights"
Municipal councils across America looking around nervously: sure... That's right
Let's be honest, red light cameras have a bad reputation because a lot of cities have used them for revenue generation over safety.
They're also not a legal way of enforcing traffic violations.
Bingo, add to that the municipalities often are not the ones who set up said cameras a private company does so for a piece of the action and the municipality will often have a police officer that simply rubber stamps all the tickets to be sent out. It's up there with privatizing the prison system and wrong on so many levels.
@@Mike__B Sure, but the municipality is still the ones enabling, contracting, and overseeing such companies. Corrupt politicians find corrupt businessmen (or, let's be honest, more likely are related to them). Avoiding privatization only really helps if the politicians aren't corrupt anyways, or you'll get more of the same through some stupid bureaucracy instead of some stupid business.
The corruption is just too easy. It doesn’t help that we have somehow decided people in government should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to judgement.
@@RSpracticalshooting they 100% are legal.
One thing I'd like to see discussed is the placement of traffic lights on the far vs the near side of intersections. Near side signals require a larger setback, which costs space, (but leaves a convenient spot to put in a pedestrian and/or cycle crossing) but it also gives accidental red light runners a little more time to react. As I understand, the placing of traffic lights on the near or far side isn't as uniform in the US as I first thought. Any comments on this?
I came to make the same comment. It is my understanding that near side signals greatly discourage crosswalk and stop bar encroachment, and in addition they would be visible earlier in scenarios like following the RV. Is it true that the primary reason for mid-intersection signals is cheaper installation?
That was what I wanted to ask as well since the near side is the standard in Europe and far side is more of an NA thing and a comparison by Rob is certainly interesting.
I can certainly add another benefit for front lights: They have to be installed to the side, slightly above the sidewalk, which in turn makes pedestrians and cyclists more visible for drivers.
@@MarioFanGamer659 Something else that isn't mentioned is the painting of the poles that carry the stoplights.
Just like the backplate with reflective stripe (which is also used here), the very recognisable poles make it a lot easier to see stoplights.
@@Robbedem MN traffic light masts were historically painted yellow, while the arms over the street were typically grey. Lately the state seems to have switched to all-grey, but new yellow masts do exist. Painting the arm yellow as well would certainly make the signal stand out (the standard mast arm has two 'arms' - the main and a smaller support arm just below it)
Far-side signals seem to be the standard on state installations here in Texas, but I think this facilitates the use of camera or radar sensors to adjust the light cycles to demand, which is also very common in Texas. Obviously, a sensor can get a broad view of all lanes from the other side. Keep in mind that TxDOT always uses wide stop bars where you need to stop, even if it's just a rural intersection with a stop sign.
There's a technique used at least here in Sweden to reduce the number of yellow light dilemmas drivers face: The green time is flexible and can be different in opposite directions. After a certain green time, the signal computer looks for gaps in traffic and tries to switch the light to red at an appropriate time when nobody is in that zone where deciding whether to go or stop is difficult. This means that traffic in one direction often has to stop while traffic in the opposite direction is allowed to go for several more seconds, but reduces the risk of rear-ending.
It’s easier to implement that in a smaller country but i agree that they could start at some cities
That is really proactive, and interesting.
@@vortexriver1071 Are big countries incapable of technology? There's some weird notion that something has to be introduced everywhere all at once, but that's simply false. If anything, a large country benefits from economy of scale at some point.
@@dykam And in the US, traffic lights are controlled at a municipal level anyways.
There are also stop light poles that show the light color in/on the vertical and horizontal parts
In some parts of Utah, such as the 193 in Layton, they've installed stoplight warning lights, that are 100-500 feet up the road and turn on when the light is about to cycle off green.
They had them on the Davis county segment of 89 before the construction removed at-grade crossings.
Also, in terms of signal coordination, the best road I've ever driven with it was the Great Highway in San Francisco (along the beach). The only hindrance to that one was the other drivers who would speed to the next light, get stuck, and cause a backup, so if you were travelling at the proper speed, you'd still have to slow down due to the wall of cars that sped up to the lights and waitied.
As a Utah native, I got used to them on Bangerter Highway and the SR-201 freeway. That (and fry sauce) I do miss about Utah.
@@RoadGuyRob they really just need to rip out all the stop lights on Bangerter and turn it into a proper freeway. As a recent addition to Utah, I always worry about high speed collisions on Bangerter and also on Mountain View Corridor - since both of those are basically freeways but yet still use stop lights.
As a trucker based in Utah I avoid Bangerter whenever possible.
I can't get up to speed quickly enough before having to slow for the next light. So people in cars are annoyed and make unsafe maneuvers to get around.
And the left turn lanes that are inconsistent make that very hard unless you are very familiar with the highway.
As a truck driver I would absolutely HATE the lights being obscured until you get close enough. First of all it would be even closer for trucks because of our height. The most important issue, though is how we need to maintain our momentum. Stopping at every red light is something we need to avoid to be efficient.
I hope you meant "at every intersection", because a going on red in a truck creates major, major danger for all other vehicles, not to mention pedestrians
Please stop for red lights
i think people have missunderstood you a bit here. i assume you mean maintain a speed that allows you to time the junction so you don't need to actually stop rather than their interpretation that you are just going to bust a red rather than stopping?
@@gitootsideyeah he definitely meant avoid coming to a full stop as often as possible. Really reduces fuel cost
In Europe the lights placed right before the intersection instead of after or in the middle. I find it reduces confusion issues significantly as the only visible light is yours and it’s where you are supposed to stop.
Either way the only lights u see when looking ahead are the lights that pertain to u
When using red light cameras in the early 2000's, they found out that the number of intersection accidents dropped, but the number of rear-endings increased exponentially. Not only that, but northern states where icy roads are common, people were getting tickets in bad weather, even if they were driving safely for the conditions, but they just couldn't stop (been there myself).
It's definitely not all it's cracked up to be, same with speed cameras. Comparing the places that use them, the accidents and fatalities per Capita aren't reduced or significantly lower than most other places.
Well the near rear end collisions is the fault of bad driving habits, if people stop following so closely that would mostly stop happening.
@@matthewm4020 Oh, I'm certainly not trying to place blame on any one thing, just stating something that I found about these cameras once. Nothing can be perfect in this situation.
I'm a big fan of the "All or None" approach to red light cams. If the cams are at all intersections at once instead of only a few it well train people to not run them or they'll forget they're there after a while. :)
I'm a fairly new driver. I've only run two red lights. Both were on days with icy conditions where the light turned yellow at a bad time. On both occasions, I attempted to slow to a stop but didn't have enough traction, so I wound up going through the intersection after the light turned red.
It's always a good time when Road Guy Rob uploads. Love the content, Rob!
I have a light I go through constantly - the intersection of Ray Rd and Santan Village Pkwy/Greenfield Rd in Gilbert, Arizona - it has one of those handy extra lights (4:30) you see well before the rest of the intersection because right before the intersection, the south bound road curves and dips under to make way for a RR track.
My favorite solution is the warning flashing yellow which tells the driver to prepare to stop when they see the flashing lights. A driver going the speed limit will enter the intersection on a green if they don't see the amber, but if they do then there is plenty of room to slow down. Timed to sync with the future state of the intersection light, it removes all uncertainty. It encourages the driver to adjust their driving in a safe and predictable way.
This is what we have in my city. These advance warning lights are perfectly timed with the intersection. Once they start flashing there is no way you will make it across the intersection.
I have seen the countdown timers, these are very useful, there work on many levels, one they give real time how long that yellow is going to last, and second, prevents road rage/stress/panic driving. even green and reds have timers, it's good to know how long you have on your red light, it give the driver up front a heads up, on how long they have to, change that radio station, and/or look at text message, this may help with traffic congestion as well, a few seconds is enough for one or two extra cars being able to make the light in that cycle.
@@wflzoom6219 Countdown timers do not work for dynamic lights. How long the red or green phase is depends on the current traffic and the phases of the other junctions up and down stream. This is a much better system because the red phase can end early if it detects no more oncoming traffic, and also adjust the green light phase of several junctions to have smoother traffic.
These are very popular in my area (eastern Nebraska), especially for roads with speed limits over 45 MPH. I've seen a few isolated use of them for railroad crossings, too.
My country trialed a green light countdown timer at 1 downtown junction but abandoned it as drivers sped up as the timer counted down to zero
I used to live in Fremont near CA-262 (Mission Boulevard). Been watching you for years now and so glad to see this cameo! Thank you!
CA-262 is such a disaster during rush hour since it is the primary connector between I-880 and I-680. That light I think you're at is a pretty major thoroughfare - Warm Springs Boulevard - which bisects an already-short segment between the two freeways. There was something in the works to turn it more freeway-like without going complete controlled-access freeway - doesn't look like it happened, though.
Also no one in California is actually following any speed limit, lol.
As a European, while I agree a roundabout might often be the answer, I was also gratified to see that the US has picked up back plates on Traffic Lights (which we've had in UK for decades - don't think any haven't for many years) and yellow borders also standard for a lot of years!
We've had backplates in most parts of the US I've driven in for a very long time. Especially in the big cities where it matters. The yellow reflective ones are new though. California is installing them statewide as we speak like Rob said.
We've had yellow blackplates on our traffic lights here in Canada, and advanced warning signals on most roads over 60km/h (30Mph) Those warning lights are so common, it really sticks out when they're absent.
I think this is another case of planners just not looking for solutions outside of their local area.
Imagine how much faster we could improve infrastructure if we looked worldwide for ideas that have been tried and tested.
We've had backplates forever in MN, but the reflective strips have only shown up in the past few years and are not quite universal yet. At first I thought the strip might drown out the lights at night, but they don't, so I think they're a very good addition. Distant signals are common on high-speed roads like highways, but somewhat rare elsewhere
@@ebnertra0004 Yah, here in Minnesota, the advance "prepare to stop when flashing" signs are mostly on higher-speed roads (55+ MPH) or where curves make the actual light hard to see in time.
I haven't really noticed the retroreflective strips on the backplates yet, but then I live in an older suburb that hasn't had traffic lights replaced in some years.
@@AaronOfMpls I just checked my pdf copy of MN's MUTCD, and apparently the strips are an option, but the state seems to be applying them to all the signal faces in their system (mostly state and US highways). Other authorities are less likely, especially cities, who seem to have no interest in modifying signals after placement, except to change bulbs
Yellows should have a countdown. Also I love roundabouts. When a roundabout is well marked so that drivers know what lane to be in, they are so stress free.
I absolutely love when they put in a prepair to stop intersection ahead. The sign blinks, you slow down and the light turns red . No misjudging. Perfect.👍
Thanks for your efforts to explain to us how these things work, why they work that way, and often the downsides. Traffic engineering is clearly a hugely complex endeavor, and it's easy to see where it fails, but we often lose sight of its many successes.
Rob, I'm red green colorblind. White on the bottom means go, yellow in the middle means slow down, and off means stop (or dim red at night). The problem? My county has been replacing all our vertical lights with horizontal ones. This has created serious confusion for me, but I haven't said anything because I'm afraid I'll lose my license. But it's a major issue.
ב''ה, down the east coast (some places between NJ and FL) visibility strobes overlaying lights were a thing, particularly where lights end up directly in the path of the setting or rising sun.
20 years ago I think this was a real xenon flashbulb suspended across the face of the red.
LEDs would give some opportunities here. Are red LEDs less visible with your form of colorblindness than the old filtered bulbs?
I just watched another video about horizontal lights. It seems they must be left to right in the way vertical lights run top to bottom (i.e. red always on the far left). Is that not sufficient to work for r/g colorblind folks?
@@josephkanowitz6875 i love how you just assumed that people know what ב"ה means
Yellow doesn't mean slow down here... it means the light is about to turn red. There is no legal requirement to slow down. You can cross the line into the intersection as long as the light is not red.
I hate to say this but you clearly know you have a problem which should be communicated to the DMV. Perhaps they have a solution for you other than taking away your licence.
Some places I've been too in South East Asia uses a timer before it turns, red, yellow or green. I have no statistics to back me up, but I feel while it won't stop people who deliberately run red lights, it will reduce the number of people who accidentally run reds, and will help those who might end up worrying in the "dilemma zone" by knowing roughly how much time they have to stop.
I love your content. I had no idea just changing the time on yellow lights or adding an extra light would reduce accidents by 50-70%
We NEED those programmable filters on our LEFT TURN signals, too! I can't begin to tell you how many times that people here in unincorporated Jefferson County, CO have run (or almost run) a red light because of the fact that a light turned green NEXT TO their lane and confused them! A simple twist in the filter's angle of installation would work WONDERS!
wouldn't arrow signals also fix this?
@@mari_023 the problem is not the shape of the signal, it's the color change. All of our left-turn-only signals use arrows, I'm sure that it's required in that big book that Mr. Rob keeps bringing up - the problem is that, when the driver in the straight-ahead lanes is too close to the left-turn lanes, sometimes the driver's brain registers the change from red to green in the turn lane and mistakes it for a change from red to green for their lane. It's all part of being human, really. Hopefully I've explained this well :-)
@@brandongaines1731 I’ve made this exact mistake by accident while coming home from an overnight shift before. Thankfully it was still so early in the morning that there weren’t other cars.
@@mrraven7445
I've made this exact mistake IN Jeffco, haha
Glad to see the mention of roundabouts, but there is a whole world of options for traffic calming to give drivers psychological signals to slow down, with many listed in FHWA's Proven Safety Countermeasures under the Safe Systems Approach. (In fact, the Safe Systems Approach probably deserves a whole video in itself!)
So true, traffic calming is something easily fixed with measures like protected bike lanes, trees, and of course roundabouts
Most highly underrated comment on this thread. Absolutely. The thing that would have saved the 7 year old from being murdered by a car is to not have the 71 year old driving, which is only accomplished if he has an alternative substitute like transit or can walk or bike to where he needs to go, without worrying about getting hit by drivers.
@@jayjackson5705 if you first build the city to highest level of car depending levels, its hard to choose something else or even fit the other options in.
For a lot of the solutions sounded like we engineer around the misbehaving drivers and make it easier/nicer for them. Not forcing them to reduce the speed, but building around there inappropriate speed.
@@maltekoch1632 Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. Should be criminal.
The downtown area of Boise, Idaho has about 9 stop lights in a row down the two main one heat streets, and almost consistently they will all light up green in perfect succession, I notice and appreciate it every time I'm down there.
One thing I was taught in driver Ed, watch for the cross walk signs to prepare yourself to stop. See the red hand flashing? Probably get ready to hit the breaks.
It’s helped me anticipate when a light is going to turn red in some areas, deff a good little tip
You shouldn't have to watch a signal meant for someone else, to determine your course of action. Roads should be painted with a yellow line to indicate when to recommend you speed up for yellow, and when to recommend you slow down for yellow, assuming you were driving the speed limit.
I grew up in Shanghai, and most of the time there, the lights had a countdown for when it will change, and if they did not, the green flashes for three seconds before the yellow. Running a yellow is not legal. This solves both the going though yellow and the confusing which light is which problems.
Also, here in Calgary, the background of the signals are simply yellow.
In Michigan the signals are all around yellow, dunno if that’s a better solution than a mixed color scheme tbh
Then you don't need a yellow light. A yellow light in your system is just a legal red light, and the blinking green is the yellow light. If you don't stop during the flash, you'll eventually run the yellow light you said isn't allowed.
So it's a cultural familiarity but the same logical situation.
In pre 1960 US, some very old lights did.
Green, Green-Yellow, Yellow, Yellow-Red, Red.
The reverse on the 90 degree.
That basically says everyone stay stopped till Andy and Barney decide you've enjoyed enough relaxing..then go slow.
People ran those frustrating things a the time.
Oh it is dark in Canada and South Canada (Michigan) most of the day on the winter side of the equinoxes. That's why you have the yellow backer plate and lighted street name signs that down light crosswalks and school bus stops. Good ideas too.
In Pensacola Fla the sun is blindingly white most of the year and most of the day....black backer plates help shade and contrast the light. The yellow stripe is for the dimmer or darker hours.
@@STho205 The countdown is the main factor actually
@@maxxiong so the blinking green is meaningless,but a secondary device with a countdown is just now the equivalent of the yellow light of tradition.
Do you still go on 15?
10?
5?
4?....
1????
How long does it take you to clear a 4 lane intersection, a 6, a 2, a hillcrest, a dip?????
Is that a guess, a detailed Mr Spock calculation, a known objective fact.
We have crosswalk countdowns, and I do tend to use them to guess at the light....but they aren't necessarily exactly linked.
Great content! I would love to see you talk a bit more about "planning" solutions for these challenges, in addition to engineering ones. It seems some of these issues can be solved with more systematic change - like traffic calming, pedestrianization, road diets, etc.
About 30 years ago, in my area at intersections where there were lights that were close together, the first light would have a strobe surrounding the signal to get a driver’s attention. This practice was discontinued, possibly because strobes can trigger seizures in some people, but I found it helpful.
In eastern NC a few of the busier roads have yellow/red warning lights a few hundred yards before the intersection. They flash yellow when a green light is about to change to yellow. Very helpful.
Great Video.
In the UK our traffic signals are on the corner BEFORE the junction, not after. I hate driving in the US simply because the signals are AFTER the crossing, and that is not what we are used to, and contrary to common sense. A red light may appear after you've entered the crossing. We also have the red, Green, amber, red, red-amber, green series of warnings. I'm sure you've heard all this before.
Be safe
What do horizontal traffic signals look like in the UK? Is red on the right to indicate the danger side? Or is red on the left, because they read from left to right?
I've heard that Japanese horizontal signalheads have red on the right.
Phoenix, AZ has an offset intersection. On the south side of Indian School Road is 71st Avenue. On the north side, appropriately spaced from where 71st Ave would continue is 71st Drive. Neither 71st roads (yeah, I know, east side stuff) meet at Indian School. It used to be that mess of multiple stoplights that Rob was showing. Sometime in the early 2000's, Phoenix removed the second set of lights and made that mess a single intersection. It has X number of phases. Indian School both ways. Indian School both directions. Indian School both Left Turns only, 71st Ave, and 71st Street. Works out great.
Very good video I'm definitely going to share this one. Also though a few pointers!
1. Love the reflective border
2. Don't tailgate big vehicles and getting to know the area you drive in such as how long the lights last the speed limit and calculating these together will help you to have less occurances with stopping on a red.
Love the unbiased explanation of the problem and the solutions. UA-cam actually got another recommendation right. Now subbed.
Canada is putting in more and more traffic circles, especially on high collision locations on 2-lane highways. My dad (retired, recently passed) used to love going up to the coffee shop and just watch the confused drivers trying the roundabout for the first time!
The Problem also exists in those who get distracted by other things occurring, in January a guy in a big GMC Yukon ran the red light, hitting and totaling my car, the report states he “dropped something on the floor” and supposedly didn’t notice he ran the light until impact.
Goes to show people can be the error as well
I was rear ended while at a complete stop by a driver "who fell asleep". Funny how I saw him make nice lane change behind me with his turn signal.
Incredible video. I have a yellow light in my town that is too short and I've been saying for years that it should be longer because I can't safely stop in time and it's too dangerous to speed through.
That's how Norwood OH 25 mph speed limit lights are timed ,long intersection very short yellow lights only advantage is more traffic tickets. This is an outdated system that no longer is good for different roadways compared to 50 years ago.
*notification appears* *instant dopamine*
Literally
First time here.
Certainly won't be my last. 👍🏽
Great video! Could you do one on the detection lights in the Netherlands that can detect not just cars, but buses, bikes, and pedestrians, and change the wait depending how many vehicles there are!
Those suck
Budget is still a bit tight to film outside the country. But I'll certainly look at that if/when I ever make it to Europe. (I've never actually set foot outside the United States, unfortunately).
This happend here in Germany too. Easy for me as driver or rider.
@@RoadGuyRob check out not just bikes business parks suck video showing smart traffic lights ua-cam.com/video/SDXB0CY2tSQ/v-deo.html
I assume that it is easier for EU to have/implement smart traffic signal controllers that can handle variable (assuming standalone- networked/coordinated systems is $$$) there are magnetic sensors (old school) and video detection packages that can help the signal controller to do that 👍🏼
Upgrading from “dumb” (fixed time/time variable only) controllers however can be pricey, typically funded for end-of-service life replacements, or big grants/funding from central governments/State/Federal authorities … the “unsexy” part of the transportation infrastructure
Love the videos. In Europe most traffic lights are on your side of the intersection instead of the opposite side of the intersection in north America. I wonder if this reduces red light running.
Placing them on the opposite side gives a driver more time to see the light, so to me that is safer.
The light is further away, so you see it later. Thus you have less time to see it.
The light is further away, so you are seeing it for a longer time. Thus you have more time to see it.
The mutcd has minimum and maximum distances for head placement.
In Norway most intersections have the light at the side of the road by the stop line and one on the opposite side of the intersection on the pole for the opposite direction..
Lights over the road are not common, but exists in some places.
But they like roundabouts where possible, but roundabouts are not god for very heavy traffic, especially if the bulk of the traffic takes a left turn.
Rob, I have learned so much from your videos. I never thought a channel about roads and traffic patterns would be so interesting… But you’ve made a topic that I would normally find so boring quite fascinating. Thanks so much for what you do.
Every new traffic signal I’m seeing is Seattle after around 2010 has been bigger than the old ones, and has the yellow reflective tape around the edge! I’ve also seen some signals in the city that seem older, but use the bigger lenses, however, those are quite rare. Where they are, I notice they have sometimes put yellow reflective tape on them instead of replacing them.
Your editing is very par. Great dramatization at 0:55. You also do a great job at explaining the problems that we face with our traffic infrastructure and how to fix it. Thanks for the free knowledge!
I'm glad you liked that part. A few silly tricks make me *look* like a better editor than I actually am.
There is a set of filtered lights on Democracy Blvd in Bethesda MD, where the filtered lights are poorly set so if you are stopped at the stop line, looking up, you can’t see the light at all, so when it turns green, you have to wait for the people behind to honk at you.
One thing that exists in france I find very handy is there's almost always a small traffic down low on the poll making it easy to look at it if you're stopped at the lights.
But this may also be done as here, traffic lights are typically located at the stopping point, rather than above, or across the intersection. I wonder if that aspect also helps reduce ambiguity, no need to figure out where to stop for the lights, you stop at the lights and you can't confuse them with the lights from a different direction either.
It's surely and advantage. In the US it's often cluttered with lights and on large intersections it's sometimes hard to tell which one is which. In Europe you will see your traffic lights, in the US you see traffic lights for almost all directions and lanes at the same time. That's a lot of lights! At night they may sometimes blend together and you just see one green-red blob of lights, especially in rain. It's also sometimes hard to figure out where you have to stop. In Europe you know, you have to stop in a way you still see the light. In the US you have to watch for a lane on the road before the intersection and those are sometimes almost invisible. Even worse in snow, you just guess where you should stop. People usually stop with larger buffer but I've seen people getting too close to intersection because they did not know that there's one more lane under the snow.
Countdown lights are my favorite. If you know exactly how long until the light turns red, then you don't have to guess if you can make the gap or not.
Good video. We spend so much time focusing on stopping. What I wish we would focus on is less idling time or distracted drivers sitting at the stale green lights. I wish there would be a change to the standard to a flashing red to indicate it is going to change in the next ten seconds, so finish that text... or if slowing for the red, be ready to roll again. Fuel economy would skyrocket too.
I love your videos. The only issue is that there aren't more of them.
There are always about 4-5 of them in stages of development. As I get better, I keep hoping to make videos more quickly -- but end up just adding new ideas which slow them back down lol
@@RoadGuyRob Keep up the good work. As a former truck driver I find your productions very interesting. Thanks
Hey Rob - a couple years ago I was in Irvine California and I was running a red light (was kind of looking at the next light on the road before I saw my light turn red at the last second) - I managed to screech to a halt within the first lane of the 6 lane intersection. Before I did that, something very peculiar happened. My light that had just turned red switched back to green, and the cross street that was on green switched back to red with no yellow in between. There were no cars I could see luckily - but have you ever heard of something like this as a crash prevention measure?
The only time I've seen that happen (with a yellow, never without a yellow) is when the light detects incoming emergency vehicles and quickly changes to their green to let them through
Ive also ran a red just like you, luckily right outside of a dead shopping mall so not many people around lol. I realized last second and put my ABS to the test, it did not work very well lol. My reverse skills were on point though
My city took the concept of coordinated signals for controlling speeding to the next step with "rest-on-red" technology. The signals on problem roadways are always in a restrictive state (all red) unless the signal detects vehicles travelling at or below the speed limit approaching; it will give a permissive (green) signal to let them through without having to stop. If the signal detects a vehicle travelling above the speed limit, it will stay restrictive for several seconds after the traffic has stopped before a permissive signal is given.
Thank you for the shoutout for my hometown of Eureka! I don't drive myself due to disabilities, but obviously I couldn't help noticing all these stop lights getting yellow borders over the last few years.
The signal timing to minimise stopping is an interesting one because it should also discourage speeding. If driving at the limit allows you to pass through multiple lights without stopping there is no need to race to the next lights as that will increase the chance you will hit a red light
I found two issues with this style as it was used in the city I lived in for years.
1. As it is optimized for a speed limit, it also discourages you from driving slower even if the conditions are bad. I've seen many people driving at the limit in snow and heavy rain just to stick to the light sequence and not stop at each of those lights.
2. As it's optimized for driving straight, people turning quite often are speeding to catch up with the traffic that was going straight before.
This leads to yet another issue. If there is a turning traffic (people turning on your lane on the intersection ahead), they will have to stop as the lights are synchronized to you. Now when you approach next intersection, it will turn green and you will have to slow down or stop because they are just starting to roll. Although it is fairly good mechanism, it can't enforce you to stick to a given speed. It has to act fast enough to let people waiting on the intersection to take off before you reach them. I've often been driving quite slowly on those because I knew that when I drive 50km/h, the light will turn green when I reach it but there's bunch of cars waiting. So I drive 30km/h and when I catch up with them, they are already at 30km/h too, so no slowing down. But this means that I'm also slowing down the traffic behind me. So it's better if the light changes earlier that if you were driving at speed limit. It also has to be kept longer. Imagine you've seen yellow light while leaving intersection. It's an obvious indication that if they are in sync, all following lights will be yellow too, so you will now go over speed limit just to catch up. It's bad as well and happens all the time.
There are some seriously clever solutions here - especially the filter on a 2nd set of lights in close proximity to another. I go through a junction with two sets of lights close to each other and wondered why I couldn't see the next until I was near to it. Although I have never had to stop at it, as it is a two part light where it doesn't go red unless the first light is red.
How about not putting junctions so close together. Turn it into one larger junction ?
@@DontScareTheFish This isn't Cities Skylines, this is real life.
Another trick is to paint queue lines like they do in Florida --- solid stripes dividing all travel lanes approaching the traffic light, and painted as long as the must stop zone. Pretty quickly motorists pick up on the clue that when the light turns yellow before you pass the beginning of the queue lines, you need to stop. ✋🛑
Seen that in Virginia. Only place I've seen those extended solid white stripes on the road before an intersection.
That’s actually my favorite technique so far. So simple and elegant. I absolutely hate the feeling of looking at a light going 55 and hoping it doesn’t turn yellow lmao
That car about to hit you got me good, I did not expect a jump scare like that lmao
That caught me off guard I live in Arizona but I used to frequent Alabama street in Redlands California. I’d be on that street everyday at that Redlands blvd I got in a 15 mph accident on Alabama street several years ago for the reasons of bad lights someone ran it and the person in front slammed on their breaks
I’m the UK (where we have more roundabouts than traffic/stop lights) we have rumble strips when approaching intersections such as this at speeds of 50-70mph.
It really wakes up the distracted driver.
Rumble strips are great as long as there are no residential homes within earshot. People certainly do not want to hear that extra noise 24x7.
The synchronized green lights are a common sight around here, often accompanied with a sign indicating a "green wave", and sometimes even accompanied by a sign with a live updated recommended speed to keep to the wave plus how many lights you can expect to be green if you do.
And yes, roundabouts. But one more that you didn't mention - stop having dead-straight roads. Being able to see for miles down the road does not help safety at all, and adding subtle bends makes them more safe. Maybe collab with NotJustBikes for video comparison? Even all the highways in NL are bent, and not because our land isn't flat enough.
How do you suppose REDUCING visibility is going to make anything safer?
@@b-chroniumproductions3177 People drive the speed that they "feel" is safe on a given road. The wider and straighter the road is, the more people tend to a higher average speed. Multi-lane roads tend to be faster, roads that "feel" wider tend to be faster. This is not so much a conscious thing, but a thing people do unconsciously. When a road - esp. one with a limit of 20mph or below - has a lot of visual detail to pay attention to, such as subtle curves, traffic isles for pedestrians and parking bays alternating sides, people will actually drive below 20mph because driving faster than that feels too risky.
I hope I live to see when we can have a smart traffic control system. A system that won't change the light for one or two cars when 10 are approaching. Or doesn't keep four directions standing still with many vehicles just so a lane with no traffic has a turn at green. Or even a system that can override the operator and apply the brakes through the existing precollision systems a lot of cars have. Basically a system with an A.I. that acts like an air traffic controller, knows the inbound traffic volume and adjusts to move the most through. Oddly though I think the oldest technology, round abouts are our best choice.
The dutch certainly have smart traffic cameras, but without a doubt roundabouts are the best way to go in most cases
Still waiting for smart traffic junctions. Everything smart, but the traffic
It's like you read my mind...
Èdmonton, Alberta, Canada has a large number of round abouts. However, when traffic volumes increased above a certain level, some had traffic signals installed to control access. Some were removed altogether and replaced with conventional intersections.
I live in WI, but grew up in MN. MN have installed flashing lights for some intersections where you have to slow from 60+mph to a stop for a red light. I find it amazingly helpful in every way! I'm not sure it would work in every intersection, but I find it a ridiculously helpful! Whether I am towing a huge trailer, or just want to shut off my cruise control early in my commuter car...it gives me a great heads up. I wish they would do that here in WI. Great video!
I've definitely almost fell for that as well, when two light intersections are very close or beside eachother. Dark out and icy roads, nobody was out on the road, but I paid attention to the further light by mistake. I caught myself last second but was very close to cruising through and not even realizing.
Human brain not so great at judging distant light sources, or distinguishing multiple intersections in the dark.
I struggle with close lights all the time when I'm in the city. I'm accustomed to suburban driving and not expecting a light at nearly every intersection. You get used to looking farther ahead and have to remind yourself to adjust.
For me, the most common cause of me running or almost running traffic lights is when they change traffic light patterns (phase order, or the way the light operates in general). I think there should be a "new signal pattern" signs for people driving their daily, routine, internalized routes. These are the only times I've unintentionally or almost unintentionally ran traffic lights.
I ran a red light once a few years ago. I'd gotten use to this pattern every night driving home where I could easily see what color light cross traffic had. It was a smart light, the type that senses you coming, gives cross traffic gets yellows and then reds, and then a moment after cross traffic goes red, you get a green (so long as there are no opposing protected left turns, and plus there's a little dot on the back of their traffic light so you can see what color they have).
After years of this, one night, cross traffic got yellows and then reds (and the opposing protected left turn was still red) but my light stayed red anyway, and so I unintentionally ran it, even though all other directions were still red. They switched the light so that they force traffic to stop for a moment for the red light to turn green. (maybe it also had something to do with the new police station built nearby, maybe they were using the light for traffic calming?)
I've almost also ran traffic lights when they changed the order of the phases. I get used to noticing the order the light feeds the intersection, the 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4, and then one day, it suddenly turns to 1 3 2 4 with no warning! So I think I'm next, I see the light change, I press the gas without thinking, and then crap I'm still red, it changed for a different direction.
I'm surprised there are no signs or regulations for signal changes. WHY!? Don't you think they should put up a sign when they change light patterns that we've unintentionally internalized over the years?
I think it's silly that they put up "new traffic pattern" signs for clearly visible changes to the road, but they don't put ups a "new signal pattern" for something that you have no clue they changed until it's too late. They could put the sign up for a day or two until people who have interalized their driving routes notice the signs and prepare for stopping.
I've had the same issue and came close to running reds. I can usually look ahead and see the opposing signal light from the side and can tell if I have to slow down or not. Most people probably don't bother with learning the signal order though so it's probably not something even worth announcing. In fact, it would probably confuse some drivers!
The solution to this is to go when your light is actually green, not when you think it will be green.
I’ve seen some of my local jurisdictions use even portable changeable message signs to show change in intersection control. Otherwise the “New Traffic Pattern Ahead” Warning Sign (MUTCD Sign Designation: W23-2) can be specified in contract documents or local jurisdiction’s traffic control plans
Demand change if you see it not happen again at another location.
@@Gamebuster1990 for those of us with any sort of momentum, it saves time, fuel, momentum, and traffic, if you can adjust preemptively to the signals. Slowing for a red is a lot more significant than slowing for a not yet green, if your light will change in eight seconds but you’ll get there in five, you slow down a bit, but you won’t have to stop. And stopping, and worse, restarting, is one of the concepts that the gross majority of motorists have yet to comprehend. Anticipating signal changes can greatly reduce jams if you don’t have to stop, or can get into gear and get moving just a hair quicker.
@@jaysmith1408 cope
I never really thought about the filter idea for second close traffic lights. However in Lakeland Florida where I used to live we have an intersection that get quite complex with two lights one directly after the other (about 20 - 30 feet) and the second light has a filter that makes it hard too see from the second light. As you approach it the light becomes more visible but has a distinct matte appearance.
I assume this is the filter you referred to in the video and it makes that first light/ intersection significantly more safe.
I wonder how this impacts drivers in a higher seating position like in large trucks.
(by truck, I mean what a trucker drives to haul freight, not what every man and their dog drive cos it's in fashion)
it's probably a good idea to have alternatives that avoid the problem altogether as well that don't even involve traffic lights. Public transit, roundabouts, maybe even getting rid of stop lights in a lot of cases so people always have to be extra careful.
That's a good description, ' dilemma zone '.
Many years ago, living in Victoria BC, I could tell which vehicles were out of towners by the way they were zigzaging through the traffic. One moment they're in front of me and the next, behind me. Just keep a steady pace.
1:05 "The goal of a red-light camera is not to catch people running red lights. It's to reduce or eliminate the number of people running red lights."
LOL. The companies putting these things up have very much the opposite goal. And the governments contracting with them may start out with those lofty intentions, but when the income stream starts rolling in, they become addicted and it's then all about money. The fact that many cities shorten their yellow light times after installing red light cameras is pretty solid proof that income is the goal.
Let's not also forget another huge issue (at least in my city), there are too many stoplights too close together, often for "intersections" that aren't busy enough (such as neighborhood exits) or crossings that shouldn't even be there. It can be solved by adding a roundabout or just removing the stop light altogether
This is a problem in Detroit. The red lights were put in when the ppopulation was 4 times larger than now. Little side streets have 🚦 that aren't necessary.
This is a problem with stroads. The fix without adding a light at the intersection is to make right and left-hand turn lanes, increasing the width of the road.
It also doesn't help that the lights are seemingly perfectly desynchronized. If you miss one green light you're screwed. But if you run one light then you can make the next 3 or 4 lights at least. Otherwise you're just sitting there at a red light at an intersection to an empty parking lot watching all those lights ahead of you stay green with no one going through them and then immediately turn red just as you start going. I live this nightmare everyday.
@@Hooptedoodle In the cities near me, the main roads crossing a freeway have that issue in certain directions at certain times of day.
In the morning, the lights are synchronized to feed traffic _to_ the freeway; in the late afternoon, the synchronization reverses to feed traffic _away from_ the freeway. All other times of day, the lights run independently on their local sensors.
It's a real pain if you're going against the programmed flow, but it _significantly_ improves movement of the majority of traffic. Now the biggest problem is that there just aren't enough freeway entrances and exits for the commuter population - and they've been working on that: extending roads across the freeway, with new ramps; widening, extending, and rerouting existing ramps; adding turn lanes to _enter_ the ramps; etc..
The next-largest, and probably intractable, problem is a combination of having few places to add freeway access that are both _useful_ and _achievable,_ and not being able to add secondary arterials (paralleling the freeway) to feed the accesses that they _can_ build.
I’ll add my confession to running a red light, Rob. A couple of years ago, I was driving home on a windy hillside road in the late evening and I was coming up to where I needed to make a left turn. I saw one of those lights to the left designed to be seen around the curve and thought it was a left-turn signal, or I just wasn’t paying attention, I’m not sure which. Either way, I made the left and didn’t notice the light at the signal had turned red by the time I got there and I got more flashes than a celebrity at a Hollywood premiere. It cost me over $800 in fines and fees, plus attendance at an online traffic school starting Erik Estrada (yep, he still fits into his uniform from “ChiPs”.) 😔
Well it could have cost someone their life instead so GOOD
DISCO COPS! 😄
ua-cam.com/video/D5-bD372v5s/v-deo.html
That's EASILY worth $800 (kidding)
American here wanting all the traffic circles. All of this extra money and maintenance and engineering where a circle can do a better job for the cheap.
Thank you so much for making this video! I moved to Philadelphia from NYC last December and I recognized the infrastructure here (in Philly) is really really bad, and extremely dangerous. I’ve been curious on how improvements are made, and what goes into a safe and productive driving experience vs. what makes it so bad. Thank you for this! Sincerely 🙏
If you want to improve safety, you need to reduce traffic, reduce the number of lanes, reduce speed. Reduce complexity.
Hard facts. Just look at the Nordic countries where road fatalities are less than 20% of the American, related to pr capita.
I've got a suggestion... Have you considered reviewing some of the signal systems in other countries like Japan? Even the ones that have an actual timer for you to know when the light is changing. Then compare them to the systems here in the US? 🤔
Or the UK where the stop lights go red -> amber -> green as well
Like smart systems that are growing in number here in the U.S.? We have over 300,000 traffic lights. Whatever we do is going to take time.
Timothy C ours just stay red in all directions for that time, and then (at least here) nobody jumps off the starting line, just in case someone is driving a BMW cross-ways.
@@DontScareTheFish Red-Amber phases are stupid. I am glad we don't have those in the U.S.
Australia has a solid white line leading up to the traffic signal stop line to show the safe stopping distance a vehicle should be able to break in if the light turns yellow. If you are beyond the line's beginning point you can go through the amber. Before the start of this line, you should have sufficient time/distance for a safe stop. We also have warnring amber flashing signals for roads 80km/h and over. Fatigue, inattention, speeding (deliberate) and inhibiting substances are the big 4 of intersection crashes.
I love red light cameras. I have a really responsive and fast car. If the light turns yellow I either floor it or slam on the brakes unless im at a comfortable distance. Thus making the intersection more dangerous. Luckily my town installs these all over for more income.
Slamming on your brakes constantly means that you'll have to replace the brake system components more frequently than you might expect. I'm not sure which costs more; a brake job or a couple of red light tickets.
Instant click on Road Guy's video, no matter the time 😉
same here.
+The reflective tape I have found useful at night for that exact reason.
There are several stop lights in our small town and even they are easy to overlook if not illuminated at all.
Also Roundabouts get people to slow down more than a yellow light.. lol
I recall seeing some lights in Canada where the green light started blinking just before it turned yellow - to reduce the panic stopping you might get. Seems like a good idea.
Rob why are you uploading a new video at 3am?
Haha watching it now In bed, appreciate it!
ua-cam.com/video/1vs55Z7t7bk/v-deo.html
In Austria, we have a blinking green light. That means that the green light blinks 4 times at 1Hz (ish, never measured it) before turning yellow, giving you a couple seconds of warning and a way to estimate when it will change (if you saw when it started blinking, of course). It also gets your attention and gets you focussed on the signal. This is so effective that most people stop at yellow already, and there are few hard braking incidents. You have ample time to decide to either step on it or stop. The same goes for pedestrian signals, and you know that you need to hurry when it starts blinking.
This is so convenient that I miss it whenever I'm driving in other countries, and feel guilty for "running the yellow light". This would be a good thing to implement in the US, especially in the light of your overreliance on traffic signals.
They do this in Mexico and other countries too. I'm not sure why we haven't caught onto that.
saw this in Austria too, was a bit confused at the start, but I think it helps a lot
I live in a country with blinking green lights. Here even running a yellow light will get you a ticket. From my experience a blinking green offers zero benefits. I do not stare at the traffic light constantly when driving. I check the traffic light repeatedly as I approach it but I look at the road to avoid driving off road and crashing into the car in front. When the green turns yellow, the position of the lights change. That is immediately noticable without having to stare at the light instead of the street where you drive. Blinking greens are a hazard and driving through a yellow light should be allowed.
@@lukasmax6984 You are not supposed to stare at the lights. I can easily notice the blinking out of the corner of my eye, except in rare circumstances. The blinking is very noticeable and it rather draws one's attention to the signal, more so than the change to yellow. I follow the blinking (and count along) with my peripheral vision, I have no idea how you arrive at the idea that you need to stare at it.
Driving through yellow IS allowed. I don't believe that this can get you a ticket (but you do have one excuse less for running the red light because you "saw the yellow too late").
Traffic engineers in my city could learn a thing or two from this.
Same here - in New York City. We've all heard how yellows are set too short and bang, you get the ticket. I wish there was a minimum time for yellows no matter the intersection. At least when I see the countdown timer version of the walk/don't walk signal, I know when it's going to hit the yellow. And here in New York City they just announced that the speed cameras are going to be in effect 24/7. But do they tell us where they are? Or paint the poles they're on with a blaze orange color scheme? Or even give us a heads-up sign, say 1/4 mile from the actual camera? NO! x 3. It's all a money grab by the city.
Unfortunately for smaller jurisdictions, they cannot afford dedicated “traffic engineers” but general civil engineers (as City Engineers or Public Works Directors, for example) who knows a bit about everything/specialized in something else. Often consultants would be contracted to help these jurisdictions in official capacities for them. The loss of institutional knowledge from personnel change is a downside to these arrangements, but it is what smaller jurisdictions can afford without funding/staffing and potential pension issues.
I remember when I was stationed at Fort Bliss, TX, that all the intersections in El Paso that had stoplights had solid white lane lines that basically told drivers, if you are in the solid white lane line zone when the light turns yellow, keep going, otherwise stop. Ingenious little trick.
The isthmus of Madison WI has excellent signal coordination. I love watching drivers who don’t realize it go 35/40mph in the 25 and have to stop at each light while I’m on cruise control set to 25 almost running each red light and somehow it magically turns green when I’m just about to cross the threshold. They have it set to change with different amounts of traffic around different times of day so it’s not always coordinated.
Intersections within 100 feet of each other are just signs of city planning failure
In the case I posted from Redlands, CA- it's not an intersection, per se. An old railroad parallels Redlands Blvd., which the region is turning into a new light-rail line called "The Arrow." To make the railroad crossing safer, engineers added a new signal 150 feet from the existing one.
As for Portland- yeah, that's another matter!
It always seemed to me that red light cameras were more about revenue generation than safety. Thanks for the video.
That's why we voted to make them illegal in Texas. It was never about public safety. I looked it up and they did allow exceptions. Four towns still use the cameras. I remember going voting about five years ago and someone was gathering signatures for a petition to get that on the ballot.
Having the lights on the far end of the intersection also makes it a lot more difficult to judge whether or not you can make the yellow light. Often times the stop lines painted on the road surface are worn out. In Europe traffic lights tend to be on the near side of the intersection. A bit less comfortable when you're first in line, but I suspect it is a lot safer because it's much more obvious where exactly you have to stop.
That's what I was hoping for when he moved to "as the Europeans have been screaming for the last 10 minutes". If you want people to see a stoplight, forget about fancy high vis reflective backplates. Standardized stoplight placement is what makes people find and understand stoplights, because the stoplight is always exactly where the driver expects it to be. And the one placement that works in all kinds of situations is to put them where the cars are supposed to stop.
Wisconsin traffic signals have low-mounted lights on the near side of the intersection, and high-mounted signals on the far side. But Minnesota has all of the signals on the far side of the intersection. I moved from WI to MN over 30 years ago, and I'm still not entirely used to it.
Philly red light can’t have a “shortened” yellow light, apparently so they can make more money. The city, police and camera company share the ticket profits. Pennsylvania has some of those lights where you have to be so close before you can see what color the light is. And some of those lights, you are already in the middle of the intersection before you can see it! Signs displaying a traffic signal, should have the cross street printed below it.
There's an interstate spur that turns into a regular state highway in milwaukee, 794, which recently took some advice from this video. There's a 3 way intersection with Oklahoma Avenue that has some very funky traffic lights on what is otherwise an interstate highway. Southbound, there's a red green left turn arrow, but the right lane has a perpetually green forward pointing arrow. So people turning left sit parked right next to cars swerving past them going 65mph. Northbound is a full traffic light around a blind curve on a 55mph road that only just recently installed a warning sign for the traffic light. Before you used to come around the corner and have around 2000 feet to determine if you could make the light or not
11:40 That turbo-roundabout looks a bit odd, it can still be better by putting a physical barrier between the lanes so traffic has to choose in advance if it wants to go for instance only left or straight /to the right.
There are turbine roundabouts in Europe. Each lane before the roundabout leads to specific direction. Drivers are not supposed to change lanes on the roundabout. Barriers are not needed, solid lines are enough.
I like the barrier idea. Good signage well before the intersection is also important and sometimes here in Washington State, you MUST change lanes one way or the other (yep, cross each other) IN the roundabout to prevent a forced right turn and go to the lane you need.
The strangest thing about that roundabout is that all lanes on the approach from the bottom have right arrows. Are people not allowed to turn left on that roundabout? (Compare to the approach from the left, where the left of the 2 lanes has a left arrow).
The rightmost lane at the bottom is basically a normal slip lane, except that it has to join the road going right very early, to keep the distraction of that process away from the rail crossing.
@@Pystro Yeah, that's obviously painted incorrectly. That's what I'm talking about regarding confusion in these if not properly signed. If this was the first time someone used this roundabout, they would rightly be confused. From the areal view, and with time to study it, we can see once you enter the roundabout, it shows a left arrow. If the idea is that you must always enter the roundabout toward the right (as it always is in USA), then the left approach is signed backward. Since we always enter toward the right, those arrows on the bottom approach are redundant.
@@mr65136 Massachusetts also has a lot of older rotaries that act like UK roundabouts: you're required to yield/give way upon entering otherwise you can fly in and fly out. I thought old NJ traffic circles assigned the incoming traffic the right-of-way which can gridlock the circle.
Every single place showcased in this video looks absolutely awful to be at, especially if you're not in a car. Condolences to Rob for having to go film in places like this.
….it’s a main road
For your "dilema zone" I dont know about US but Canada the lines on the road help decide whether you can stop or go on a yellow....provided youre doing the speed limit. Lines are dotted all down the road, then using math they start a solid line where in that zone your car isnt going to stop with a sudden yellow and its safe to proceed. But if youre not in that small space and light goes yellow you have plenty of room to stop. Theres also a 3 second delay from 1 direction to the other for red light runners. When my city installed 3 red light cameras they nab about 200 a week collectively, kinda wish they were multiuse though, stop cars from stopping in crosswalks and fine them when they do. Its an all too common issue with right turns on red allowed.
It depends on region and state in the United States, as it always does. So I can only judge for my state and the states I've driven through, which is mostly the midwest (sorry Florida drivers, but your roads and driving is shit). For most Midwest states, the point to brake is where the solid lines for your lane start when coming to an intersection, and if you don't have them, then oh well. However, we've been adopting the roundabout more often than redesigning our traffic signals. Best examples are Missouri and Michigan when it comes to roundabouts. We do have delays where the traffic next to go have to wait for the intersection to clear before the crossing traffic turns green. But the use of cameras for tickets are a mere gimmick, for I see multiple people running red lights in St. Louis even with the traffic cameras that blatantly flash their red and blue lights to mimic police enforcement, but do not do shit in reality, as drivers will look both ways on a red light and see if traffic is clear to run the red light. Wisconsin implements traffic the best in my opinion, but I have yet to visit and drive in each state.
I'd also like to point out that a yellow light should never be any shorter than 5 seconds. Almost all states require the yellow light to be no shorter than 3 seconds. When you add the national highway traffic safety administration requirement to work in a 2 second reaction time for those drivers with the least ability to react, you have a 5-second light at minimum.
I was in the UK in 2009. They had started to install traffic signals at roundabouts because if there was a busy road intersecting with a less-busy road, cars from the less-busy road would have to sit for a significant amount of time because the cars from the busy road kept coming into the roundabout leaving no openings.
We have multilane roundabouts in DK with traffic signals too. The roundabout still forces you to slow down, making serious accidents less likely.
The traffic lights at roundabouts are often timed usage. ie they come on during the rush hour or busy times and then when the traffic subsides the lights switch off completely and it functions as a normal roundabout.
0:48 you actually scared me