I remember a Weekly Reader article in grade school. Some community had a traffic light with the red light counting down to when it turns green again. Never heard anything since, but it would be cool to have a countdown to green, and for that matter, red.

In the age of wireless internet it could go a step farther. When onboard nav systems come out, display the status of traffic lights you are approaching. I might have even found a desirable application for using cell phones in cars.

Of course, it would be phased in over years - too expensive otherwise. The biggest catch is there are probably not too many in the general population like us that would use such a system.

If they would at least have countdown traffic lights, that would be cool.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

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There is one traffic light on my commute that has a countdown to change from green to red, however, it is on WALK/DON'T WALK sign, so you have to look REALLY hard.

-Charlie...

TRULY.

That, along with GPS could give speed ranges conducive to timing green lights. One of my most trying conditions encountered in city driving is whether to hit the gas to try and make a green light in front of me. I know that every time I guess wrong, I lose 0.1 mpg on my tank.

R2-E2, 2G Prius.
Highway/City/Husband/Wife MPG: 56.5, as of 12/2005, 26K miles

Jac Nasser, Ford President: "We are planning to launch a hybrid version of
this car [P2000] within this year [1998]. We will also make FCEV available in
2004."

I doubt it would ever fly because it would allow people to time lights. In other words you could adjust your speed to hit the intersection at the exact time the light goes green. This would be a safety issue in that you could hit the intersection at the speed limit - if someone ran the red from the other side it could be bad.

Great idea though. I time the lights by looking for the yellow on the other direction.

What's wrong with timing of lights? I know that the lights along 19th Ave in San Francisco are timed and it's posted what they are timed at. I seem to recall that they are set slightly below the speed limit but my memory may be faulty. Bottom line - during "rush" hour, traffic flows smoothly because all the commuters know how to drive to stay with the lights, at other times, it can be a nightmare as "regular folk" don't pay as much attention and continue to race up to the red lights

Downtown Amarillo, Texas has their lights insync, too.

I realize this is a dream, since distracted and red light drivers way outnumber us focused drivers.


I notice a light near my home early in the morning turns green for only two seconds. Sometimes I see it turn yellow as I go thru it....

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

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"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

There is a HUGE difference between lights being timed for the orderly flow of traffic and drivers anticipating the changing of a light at an intersection. Lights that are timed to allow traffic to flow at a predetermined speed have a built-in safety factor so that the light on the crossing street may change a second or more before the other street shows green. This setup sequences from intersection to intersection so that as long as you are driving at the design speed, you should hit each intersection at the same approximate time in the light cycle. This creates a linear flow of traffic and also allows traffic to stop at intersections with more storage. This type of traffic signal timing design can also be used to force traffic to stop more often, controlling flow or reducing speed on a road.

What I was referring to is drivers having the ability to know exactly when the light will show green for them therefore having the ability to speed up (or slow down) in order to hit the intersection at the precise time they get the green indication. They would enter the intersection at speed and quite often would enter the intersection at exactly the same time as the clown who sped up to make it through at the end of the yellow indication. That is not good design.

There is a big difference between engineering for safety and good traffic management and engineering for convenience. Like I said earlier, I like the idea. However liking something and having it be safe are two different animals.

I know of at least one story of someone who got killed in that situation.

To me it's a variation of the reckless freeway driver weaving at least 20mph over the flow who thinks they know where everyone is going to be.

61.5mpg lifetime - 82mpg in recent months

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"fanatic" is what the lazy call the dedicated

Downtown Houston had its lights synced way back in the late '70s. You could look down any street for >10 blocks and watch all the lights change color within one second of each other!

As for countdown timers, I know of at least two walk/don't walk signals in the Disney World hotel area that have them.