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Post by silverdragon on Jul 27, 2017 9:33:35 GMT
I am guessing that in a busy city with lots of traffic camera's like Manchester, we have a system in the more crowded parts that can "Clear a lane" a little ahead of just the induction loops, they would just need to talk to control and get them a passage?. However... Its always known that Junctions are the worst places for accidents with emergency vehicles. In Driver Training for fast pursuit, all the drivers are told, if you crash at speed, its YOUR bloody fault, there is no "Free pass" for driving blue-and-two, so they are taught to slow the hell down and check each junction and not presume its clear for them. There is a whole world of difference between driving fast and getting there... any fool can hit the loud pedal, its what you do afterwards that matters?. trying to use the induction loop for an antenna for the preemption signal seems like doing things the hard way to me. especially when you could mount a directional antenna above the road surface and have it plugged into its own receiver. Good point, and yes that has been addressed in later designs, but when first used, the aerials needed "Back then" were the size of a tank whip.. putting them on top of lamp posts attracts conspiracy theorists?.. like moths to a flame?.. |
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Post by the light works on Jul 27, 2017 13:54:44 GMT
trying to use the induction loop for an antenna for the preemption signal seems like doing things the hard way to me. especially when you could mount a directional antenna above the road surface and have it plugged into its own receiver. Good point, and yes that has been addressed in later designs, but when first used, the aerials needed "Back then" were the size of a tank whip.. putting them on top of lamp posts attracts conspiracy theorists?.. like moths to a flame?.. free bonus. |
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Post by c64 on Aug 22, 2018 21:38:25 GMT
yes, on my way home today, I hit multiple sets of red lights, and I noticed a pattern. if I hit one light red, then there would be a gap in front of me, and the next light would turn red when that gap reached it. that made me wonder if, in the case of "demand" lights, which change depending on traffic conditions instead of a timer; (yes, I know in some towns, the traffic lights through town are timed such that if you drive at the speed limit, you will hit every light at the same point in its cycle - I'm not talking about those lights) in certain traffic conditions, the traffic pattern WILL cause the poor dumb bar-steward who gets caught at one red light, to get caught at every red light the rest of the way through town. may not be a show-worthy idea, but it was an interesting observation. (yes, digging out old corpses) About 15 years ago, a research facility had calculated how much fuel is wasted per year due to badly timed traffic lights in Cologne. I don't remember the figures, but it was impressively high. Confronted with this numbers, the major of Cologne had admitted that they do it on purpose to limit the number of cars inside the city and to annoy drivers so they tend to use public transport more often. |
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Post by the light works on Aug 23, 2018 1:44:10 GMT
yes, on my way home today, I hit multiple sets of red lights, and I noticed a pattern. if I hit one light red, then there would be a gap in front of me, and the next light would turn red when that gap reached it. that made me wonder if, in the case of "demand" lights, which change depending on traffic conditions instead of a timer; (yes, I know in some towns, the traffic lights through town are timed such that if you drive at the speed limit, you will hit every light at the same point in its cycle - I'm not talking about those lights) in certain traffic conditions, the traffic pattern WILL cause the poor dumb bar-steward who gets caught at one red light, to get caught at every red light the rest of the way through town. may not be a show-worthy idea, but it was an interesting observation. (yes, digging out old corpses) About 15 years ago, a research facility had calculated how much fuel is wasted per year due to badly timed traffic lights in Cologne. I don't remember the figures, but it was impressively high. Confronted with this numbers, the major of Cologne had admitted that they do it on purpose to limit the number of cars inside the city and to annoy drivers so they tend to use public transport more often. I have been known to say that if I was a lawmaker, I would make a law prohibiting anything on highway (one size down from a freeway/dual carriageway) that is placed for the purpose of impeding the flow of traffic. I would also make a rule that any parking configuration that requires a person to reverse in a traffic lane to enter or leave a parking space is defined as an attractive nuisance. (attractive nuisance is defined as something that encourages a person to do the stupid - it becomes relevant when you sue someone for encouraging you to do the stupid) I would also make a rule that any highway which develops traffic backups which last longer than one hour, once a week or more must develop a plan to increase traffic capacity, though the plan will not be required to be implemented until that location has the worst traffic backups addendum: I am defining a traffic backup as a circumstance resulting in bumper to bumper traffic traveling at less than half the normal traffic speed and are not caused by one slow driver. |
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