Ranting about Yellow Traffic Lights

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Model T Ford Forum: Forum 2012: Ranting about Yellow Traffic Lights
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Coiro on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:40 am:

Man, I hate yellow traffic lights. Everyone knows a green light means go and a red light means stop, but in the entire history of automotive endeavor, nobody had ever figured out what the heck you're supposed to do when a green light turns yellow. Of course, it's less of a problem when I'm driving a modern car because it can easily maintain the 45-mph speed for which the traffic lights are timed, and its 4-wheel, anti-lock disc-brakes can stop on a dime and give you nine cents change, but when I'm driving my slow Model T with its feeble brakes, man, it gets to feel awfully sporting.

Jericho Turnpike is the main boulevard in my neck of the woods. It's got two lanes on each side of the double yellow line, which is good because I don't have to pull over to let faster traffic go by. Jericho is also bad because the yellow traffic lights are perfectly timed to cause me to either charge through the intersection in uncertain hopes of beating out the red light, or jam on the brakes hard enough to overheat the transmission drum, come to a shuddering, semi-skidding stop and hope the guy behind me isn't following too close.

I've found that 40 mph is just about fast enough to keep up with traffic on the boulevard, but it's not healthy for a Model T to sustain for any length of time—and at that speed, it takes an awful lot of time and space to get the car stopped. Not really practical.
At 35 mph, the car is a lot happier, but the timing of yellow traffic lights is still a challenge. Other cars go whooshing by and I get a few tailgaters.
At 30 mph, the brakes work very well and I can easily get the car stopped in the time and space the yellow traffic light allows, but at that speed, I get seriously dedicated tailgaters and if one of them is following too closely when I have to hit the brakes for that stupid yellow light, or misjudges when he finally decides to pass, things could get a little clenchy.

Stop signs are ever so much better than traffic lights.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:54 am:

Fortunately Summit Street, the main drag here, has the perfect speed limit of 30 mph except for downtown where it's 20 mph. But I often use one of the parallel streets because even though they're only two lanes, they also have stop signs and less traffic. Can you find a less popular alternate route?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George Button III (Chip), Lake Clear, NY on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:56 am:

Bob, I have a good solution. Come up here! We don't have many traffic lights at all! Only when you go to the "Big City" (Plattsburgh) Ha ha ha..Chip


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jim Thode Chehalis Washington on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:58 am:

Roundabouts are better then stop signs or stoplights. Everyone goes through at there own speed.
Jim


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Craig Anderson, central Wisconsin on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:09 am:

The yellow light is to allow time to clear the intersection.......not to signal a race to get through before the light turns red.
But the one behind you might have entirely different notions as to how negotiate a yellow light so I share your trepidation.
I don't have traffic lights to deal with locally but even when I am in the nearest city I still hug the shoulder regardless so, primarily WOMEN, can get past me.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By John Semprez-Templeton, CA on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:11 am:

Yikes, Bob I feel your pain. Here in Templeton we have two lights and it can become daunting during our rush minute each day.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George_Cherry Hill NJ on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:12 am:

Bob,

Silly guy...

With these new photo cops it means that if you even think it might turn yellow, and make the last minute commitment based on green, but flips yellow as you cross the entry line...and it is a 4 lane cross...you get a free picture of your T in the mail yours to keep, but you need to send them about 80 bucks for the form they send below it :-):-)

My local situation is that most of the time, the guy behind me apparently never minds getting a picture of his car in the mail, so if you slow up just enough and don't get rearended in the process, they somehow can't figure out what my license plate says and I get to enjoy the LED light show at the same time.

Don't know about you, but around me this is becoming big business...some outfit 'contracts' with 'the locals', then takes 50% of the take, and for that they are even willing to put up light standards where they are not sometimes...whatver happened to the guy on the cycle hiding behind the billboard.

That's OK...in China every light put up in the last 6 years is photo cop, even out in nowhere...nice thing, Chinese GPS tells you it is coming, and reminds you what the speed limit through it is. Flipside is you get nailed, your bill shows up on your cellphone by 10AM next day.....lol. No problem in China, even street bums have cells as entry plan is but maybe 5 bucks a month...incoming calls are always free.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Coiro on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:17 am:

Steve, I'm going to get a map of the local area and see if it's possible to work out an alternate rat-maze route to where I'm going.

George, back when I was a musician, I played the Catskill resorts and absolutely loved the bucolic surroundings. And I certainly envy your country roads. Unfortunately, my wife despises snow, so moving upstate doesn't look like an option.

Jim, We don't have too many traffic circles in my neck of the woods. Those we do have are in areas of heavier traffic and tend to further increase the congestion. But, when it comes to piloting a brass-era car, anything is better than trying to anticipate traffic light changes.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Coiro on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:27 am:

George,
I hate the photo-enforced traffic lights more than just about anything about driving. Lockheed-Martin is the wonderful company that worked out the 50/50 deal with local government and found a way to bypass a citizen's right to face his accuser in court. I wish the ACLU would quit representing bigots who get offended at the mere sight of religious symbols and get to work on this kind of injustice, instead.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:32 am:

"You might be driving a Model T if.."
"You slow down for green lights, because you know they might turn before you get there."

Calif has some rational laws in this regard:
If you are already in the intersection when it turns red, you are legal.

Lights on 45 mph limit streets have a five second yellow.

The robo-cops have been kicked out of most cities, because they don't improve safety, just anger the taxpayers. The robocops even cheated by shortening the yellow, etc.

rdr


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:48 am:

Bob C,
You mean they actually time lights so you could get a green if you could maintain the computed speed???
San Francisco has many of their lights timed or sequenced. I do not know of another place in Califunny that does. And I have driven most of it.

Even Grass Valley has two roundabouts. I would really like them, except for one thing. Who was it that ever had the idea that Califunny drivers that aren't intelligent enough to understand a four-way stop sign would ever be able to figure out how to drive through a roundabout??? It doesn't matter. If there are five cars ahead of you, at least one of them will mess it up because he/she/they are brainless.

Now I have ranted.
Thank you.
Drive carefully (please), and enjoy, W2


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Harold Schwendeman - Sumner,WA on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 02:05 am:

One of my sons and I spent some time in England a year ago last May. The English are very big on roundabouts, and my cousins who live in Yorkshire claim that one of the best features of their roundabouts is the protection that they offer against any threat of foreign invasion!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Paul Nicholson on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 03:04 am:

They have even started putting in roundabouts here in good ol' Wisconsin. There are quite a few in the Dells area, where most of the people are visitors and don't know where they are going anyway. One of the local body shops made the comment that they were the best thing that has happened to their business! In Richland Center they were going to install two of them and the local businesses started a petition and was able to get enough signatures to stop them!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By George_Cherry Hill NJ on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 03:52 am:

Actually, one of the last big time vestiges of the 'circle' or the 'roundabout' was NJ...and over the last 5 years they have been getting rid of them at record pace in the interest of 'safety'.

Unlike the UK where they are everywhere...and work...even if a few obscure ones are no bigger than a VW hubcap at the center of a regular intersection that is without signal lights yet painted accordingly...NJ couldn't make them work the same way...the difference? Driver courtesy and respect.....

In UK, the guy coming at you ON the roundabout has the RIGHT OF WAY and is well respected...NJ had somehow adopted a 'first come, first served' mentality, that evolved into 'if I pretend to not see you, then you had better see me!' and hence the problem.

Maybe hard to conceptualize, but I spent years in UK and somehow with this 'already on' approach, there is always a self cleansing 'hole' that just keeps going around and around the roundabout in slow but fair motion as nobody does 360's.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Garnet on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 06:34 am:

Around here, driving thru a yellow is a ticketable offense. Only the green means 'proceed when safe to do so.'

Garnet


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bud Holzschuh - Panama City, FL on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 08:38 am:

George

I've spent some time in the UK and agree roundabouts are the way to go. Here in Panama City they are actually putting in NEW roundabouts.

Hard to believe for us backward good ole boys.

The hubcap sized ones you mention were especially neat because if no one else is around, you zip over the top of them like they weren't there. Saves gas, time and brake linings.

But as you say everyone has to abide by the rules for them to work!

Cheers
schuh


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Steve Jelf, Parkerfield KS on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 09:27 am:

I'm so old I still call them traffic circles. I was familiar with two when I was a wee tyke in the forties. One was at PCH & Lakewood in east Long Beach. The other was at old US 99 & Chester Avenue in Bakersfield. Later they built a bridge over that one to speed things up. We have one two miles from here that was installed about three years ago to replace an intersection that had stop signs. There were a lot of bad wrecks at that corner, but none since the traffic circle went in.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Frank Harris from Long Beach & Big Bear on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 10:42 am:

Here in Long Beach, CA they put in red light cameras and clip the yellow lights to under two seconds and they made a lot of money for the city. People started slamming on the brakes on the yellow and we had a lot of rear end collisions. Some lawyers found out what the city was doing and made them remove the cameras. Not only make the yellow lights longer they made them remove the cameras because it was entrapment. Yes, they made them remove the cameras. There is justice after all.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Charlie B actually in Toms River N.J. on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 10:55 am:

Circles or roundabouts are definitely going away in N.J. I only know of 2 left further west on Route 70. The one in Brick was removed years ago and is now a photo-cop intersection. Apparently the equipment is leased by the town and has to show a profit. Part of which is paid back to the camera company.On a recent radio show it was mentioned that the yellow's were shortened to make the equipment pay. Legislators are trying to have them removed. Fat chance. Bob if you go to the Miller Ridge Inn have a duck dinner for me.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Terry Horlick in Penn Valley, CA on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 11:22 am:

Wayne said:Even Grass Valley has two roundabouts. I would really like them except for one thing. Who was it that ever had the idea that Califunny drivers that aren't intelligent enough to understand a four-way stop sign would ever be able to figure out how to drive through a roundabout??? It doesn't matter. If there are five cars ahead of you at least one of them will mess it up because he/she/they are brainless.


Wayne, wasn't I the other driver ahead of you? My office is between the two roundabouts. The first went in about 10 years ago. I lead an HCCA tour through that one. No problem handling a gaggle of pre-16 cars going round 'n' round. Once they had trained the drivers on that one (yes that was the intention) they put in the other in place of a 4-way stop which was always backed up. Now we have a roundabout (with a bypass right turn lane) which is always backed up at the same times the stop sign was.

In the 1970's I lived in St. Louis which had a big ol' two lane roundabout. I could never figure out what that left lane was for... maybe Dick Lodge can explain that one for me.

TH


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Dick Lodge - St Louis MO on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 11:38 am:

Terry, do you remember where it was? It doesn't ring a bell. (I left STL in 1968 and didn't get back until 1977.)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bernard Paulsen, San Buenaventura, Calif on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 11:49 am:

Easy.
You drive at the very speed that will allow you to stop safely when the light turns yellow. The tailgaters issue is taken care of with agreed value insurance which should be high enough to replace your car plus have a few thousand dollars in punitive damages. The tailgater will have a talk with a criminal judge -- assuming your neck hurts after he bumped into your car -- and will be punished so severely that he wishes his dad had used a condom while riding the bus to work.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Erik Johnson on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:08 pm:

RE: left lane on two-lane roundabout

Two lane roundabouts are popping up here in the Twin Cities. There's one a few blocks away from me at a busy intersection.

Rules for driving in a two lane roundabout are the same as a four lane two-way street: if you are in the right lane of the roundabout you may proceed straight through or turn right. If you are in the left lane, you may proceed straight through or turn left. See the sign below.

The biggest problem that I have personally witnessed is confused little old men and women who want to turn left and go against traffic by driving clockwise in the roundabout. I have seen this happen twice.

1


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:29 pm:

I wonder if the Terrible Texters drive straight through roundabouts the way they do stop signals?


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Bob Coiro on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:35 pm:

Bernard, of course you've hit the nail squarely on the head.

With no modern safety equipment other than safety glass, and with such a marked predisposition to tipping over that the issue of seatbelts actually generates controversy, it's clear that there are certain physical hazards necessarily associated with the operation of our ancient iron. Ain't no escaping that simple fact—except that drivers of wooden spoke-era cars have established one hell of an enviable safety record! Our modest insurance premiums are proof of that.

Along with skydivers, motorcyclists and husbands who readily admit to their wives that a certain dress makes them look fat, we've elected to live with certain physical risks. And in the case of one such yours truly, who happens to be the proud owner of a couple of metallic spinal implants... well, you get what I'm saying: Anything I can do to increase the odds in my favor is worth consideration. And I agree with Bernard that step-1 would be to keep the vehicle within the limits of its own controllable envelope.

And no, Hun. You look just fine in that dress.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jerry Ostbye on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 12:46 pm:

I am not a fan at all about round abouts. They are to get around in when pulling a trailer usually and are confusing at times.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Fred Dimock, Newfields NH, USA on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 01:07 pm:

I used to love traffic circles - especially the ones at the two end of Bourne bridge over the Cape Cod Canal.

I used to hang the rear end of my 41 Ford coups out in a power slide for two rounds at each end of the bridge on the way and back from work at Ho Jo's.
Hard on the tires but Great FUN!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By William L Vanderburg on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 03:30 pm:

I think NJ allows 1 second for every ten miles of speed. So a yellow light on a 35 MPH road would be three and a half seconds.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Paul Allen Vitko on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 04:01 pm:

Astoria put a four lane round about in several years back on a very bad intersection where 202 and 101 met. For the first two weeks it was a fender bender a day but now its a big relief with few problems.
I went through a two lane one in Nevada during Amazon folks coming off work that was a hunk of crap
Wind and rain will often shut down power around here, its no problem with a round about.
I like them! Four lane that is.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Fred Dimock, Newfields NH, USA on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 04:15 pm:

Speaking of highway design disasters - they put a California intersection in at rt 101 and 108 in Stratham NH.

We Easterners can't figure out where we are supposed to go so we don't pay attention to any of the signs or signals. :-)

Seriously - it was mayhem at first - The locals finally figured it out but when someone from Maine shows up everything comes to a stop.
When someone from Mass tries it they usually end up going the wrong way -
Oh, Going the wrong way is a common occurance for someone from Mass. :-)


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Mack Cole ---- Earth on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 06:36 pm:

I put the signs up for the first traffic circle in Div 10 in about 2003 or 04.
Dang what a confuseing mess.They had to be anglbed right so they could be seen by the right folks.
Those photo cams,all out around here.Caused alot of rear end collsions and I think the company got caught shortening the yellow.
Crooked.
Yellow means floor it and git thru before it turns red!:>)
Or in the case of a T,Lay the ears back!


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Wayne Sheldon, Grass Valley, CA on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 10:03 pm:

Unless they quietly changed it (which I wouldn't put past our wonderful lawmakers), California state vehicle code (law) says that as long as your front tire crosses the "limit line" before the yellow light ends, it is your "right of way" to continue to go through the intersection.
Several jurisdictions in the state have been proven to have been cheating on the cameras and can no longer mail out the tickets. I don't recall the details, but several articles have been in our paper about it.
Manage thy auto-conveyance with all due prudence, and enjoy, W2


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Aaron Griffey, Hayward Ca. on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 10:27 pm:

There is a traffic circle on my street 3 blocks away.
I like it because now I never, almost never, have to stop at that intersection.
I just wish everyone knew that people already in the traffic circle have the right-of way.


Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Ricks - Surf City on Monday, June 04, 2012 - 11:02 pm:

Calif has gone one step further in safety: after the light turns red, there is a delay bfore the other light turns green. That gives the squeakers time to clear the intersection.


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