Stop light systems are a very valuable part of the transportation infrastructure. Most people obey them without question, and it ends up working out pretty well. However, this can sometimes throw a monkey wrench into things when an exception arises and some drivers forget to shift into the mode of actually thinking while they’re driving.
They’ve been doing some work on Victoria Ave. here lately, and this morning all but the left turn lane was closed going up the hill at the intersection with Foothill Rd., causing quite a large line to back up from everyone going up Victoria having to funnel into one lane.
The problem was that since the light patterns are triggered by cars going over the magnetic sensors, and the right turn and straight lanes were both closed, only the left turn light was going in the rotation. I noticed several people at various points in the line who were waiting to go either straight or right stopped at the intersection, waiting for a normal green light or right arrow, which were never going to come. Eventually they were urged to go on the next left arrow by enough people honking at them.
Common sense would dictate that in that situation, you could go ahead and go right or straight on the left arrow, as long as there were no cars opposite you also turning left, but it was funny to see how long that took to occur to some people.
9 Comments
the camera would keep me from going through.
So you suggest they run the red light with how fast people go on foothill, I don’t get it.
Maybe a rant about the construction crew should be in order instead.
No, like I said above, there is no danger in going straight on a left turn light. The only possible problem would be if someone directly opposite of you were turning left on their left turn arrow, which you can easily see.
The people in the cross traffic would by definition have a red light if you have a left turn arrow, so it’s no problem.
I’m not going to go test it or anything, but I’m also pretty sure that a traffic camera would not be triggered by someone going through the left turn lane on a green arrow and then shifting to going straight once they enter the intersection. The logic involved in these things is pretty simple, and will not snap a photo of a car which has entered the intersection in a valid manner, even if they do something invalid after that point.
I did realize, however, after talking to Martha about it (and from the comments here) that the whole situation probably isn’t that obvious as I was making it out to be.
not at all.
No, because I was not sure who else would be going on the left arrow until the cycle went through once and I realized I wasn’t going to get my own light, nor would I be killed going on the left one.
plus, there’s a typical solution to these sorts of situations: the blinky red light. when ol’ blinky red doesn’t appear, we assume we’ll get to go in turn. you’re just smarter than the rest of us.
Yeah, that makes sense. I’m actually kind of glad they didn’t do the blinking red thing, though, since that really slows everything down since every car has to stop, and I think it’s an all-or-nothing thing (all four directions).
It would be nice, though, if they could easily program exceptions for situations like this. In this case, it would be good if they could switch to the left + straight pattern (for one side at a time, alternating to one side then the other like the intersection down the street), rather than the left + left (both sides) then straight + straight, since that one was never getting triggered in this case.
Now that I’ve typed that, I’m debating whether I should go back and delete it, because talking about / thinking about various traffic light patterns make me sound like a real nerd. Oh, well.
with all the stuff on this blog, you’re afraid that thinking about traffic lights makes you sound like a nerd?
Yeah, “oops honey, now the secret it out.” hee hee