Quote:
Originally Posted by k911sc
milt got a ticket... i work with traffic engineers and they are forever interjecting their wishes into a job... cost time and money often enough to piss one off.
T$
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milt did not get a ticket.
My question had nothing to do with timed lights from one intersection to the next, nor did it have anything to do with long vs. short left turn lanes.
One side goes with the green light for straight traffic, while the other side waits. Then, the other side's straight traffic goes green. The "other side's" left turners have to wait until near the end of the green light to proceed. It's staggered from N to S, or E to W, depending. That's the situation I'm asking about.
The reason I object is they way I negotiate my way through the city it to take the first available light, be it a left, or straight (or a right vs straight). Seldom am I going only straight; it usually takes couple of turns (or many) to get to any destination. What I am saying is I turn at any opportunity that will save me from sitting at a red light.
If I can't read how the damn intersection works, I might be sitting in a left turn lane when I could have gone straight and been on down the road. What really pisses me off is that some intersections seem to work differently at different times of the day. I get caught thinking I know which light is going to change first and I'm stuck at a red.
Ever arrived in a left turn lane that is vacant just a little too late to get a green light? Then, you have to sit through all the N/S traffic as well as the E/W traffic before you go. Damn, that's annoying. There's so much traffic in So Cal, most of the time you get out of a lane you're in once you've chosen.
I'm just trying to save a few minutes. And yes, I do look ahead as far as I can see the lights to try to read what's going to happen. And yes, I laugh my ass off at all the jackrabbits that can't see a few hundred feet, rush up to the intersection and slam on the brakes. Some times when I'm just lagging behind, timing the lights, I will drive at an even speed right up their ass as they are accelerating off the the next light. The closer I get to hitting them at an even speed, the better the game.
Or better yet, cruising on by in the other lane as they come off the line, ready to burn another gallon.
Nothing but dim wits out there. The engineers aren't helping, or are they?
PS, our city was all timed in the 60's. It's largely a big grid of right angles, so it was reasonably plausible. Then, they added all this crap here and there and you can't go 2 consecutive green lights to frequently. All stop and go, stop and go. What a waste. They say they are going to synchronize all the lights once again. With computers, I this is doable with special light changes for emergency vehicles (all red).
Let's git 'er dun.