How do foreign traffic lights work?
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scynthius726
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How do foreign traffic lights work?
I was just wondering how foreign traffic lights work, do they use SCOOT or do they use the sensors that our traffic lights allegedly use? Do they ever rest on red or is that unnecessary due to their defaulting to flashing amber? Do they just run on pre-timed cycles?
Member of the out-of-touch, liberal, metropolitan, establishment elite. Apparently.
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sydneynick
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As sydneynick says, most Australian signals are actuated by sensors in the road. And generally default to the major road after no vehicles are detected for about 5 seconds. There are exceptions of course. One quiet evening in Hobart I pushed the ped buttons at an intersection (no cars on either road. The signals stayed green in the direction I selected until I pushed the button on the other street.
There are also some signals that are on a timer - not vehicle-actuated. But this is rare. I know of one in Dandenong (Melbourne) and suspect there may be a handful of others.
In Taiwan it would appear that all signals there are on a timer. Many have large red / green LED countdown displays showing how many seconds red or green is left. Often entire streets are linked together so that all signals in that street change at once. Traffic is usually so heavy there that actuated signals are pointless. At night many just flash.
Well, that's the two foreign countries that I'm familiar with.
Check my website for pics.
There are also some signals that are on a timer - not vehicle-actuated. But this is rare. I know of one in Dandenong (Melbourne) and suspect there may be a handful of others.
In Taiwan it would appear that all signals there are on a timer. Many have large red / green LED countdown displays showing how many seconds red or green is left. Often entire streets are linked together so that all signals in that street change at once. Traffic is usually so heavy there that actuated signals are pointless. At night many just flash.
Well, that's the two foreign countries that I'm familiar with.
Check my website for pics.
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sydneynick
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Australian traffic lights were mostly fixed-cycle when I arrived in 1962. Brisbane had a very advanced system of lights in Ann Street, which was then one-way north. They were radio-linked, and if you went up the street at 30 mph, they all changed green as you arrived.
In those days, some main roads in Melbourne suburbs had a square column mounted on one corner, about 3 ft square and 10 ft high, with a clock face on each side showing green, amber, and red segments and a hand indicating where the cycle was up to. If the green cycle was about to end, drivers could see this and speed up so as to arrive at the intersection just as the lights changed, and hit a vehicle coming out of the cross street.
Fixed-cycle lights were generally replaced by pressure pads on the road, and these in turn were replaced by induction loops.
All new traffic lights in NSW and Qld (and maybe elsewhere) are now LEDs, and they are gradually replacing the older lights.
Incidentally, we do not have a red-and-amber phase: the lights go straight from red to green.
In those days, some main roads in Melbourne suburbs had a square column mounted on one corner, about 3 ft square and 10 ft high, with a clock face on each side showing green, amber, and red segments and a hand indicating where the cycle was up to. If the green cycle was about to end, drivers could see this and speed up so as to arrive at the intersection just as the lights changed, and hit a vehicle coming out of the cross street.
Fixed-cycle lights were generally replaced by pressure pads on the road, and these in turn were replaced by induction loops.
All new traffic lights in NSW and Qld (and maybe elsewhere) are now LEDs, and they are gradually replacing the older lights.
Incidentally, we do not have a red-and-amber phase: the lights go straight from red to green.
I can always tell if politicians are lying. Their lips move.
Continuing with Australian traffic lights (others please feel free to tell us about other countries 
)....
The clock style signals were called Marshalites (despite them not actually being lights). The last of them were removed in the late 1970s. Some survive in preservation like this one in Chelsea. Not all of them had square masts.
Another is in the Melbourne Museum.
It seems that most, if not all Australian states originally did have the red and amber before green phase. But not anymore. As far as I know, Victoria was the last state to still have this. It began to be phased out as use of turn arrows became more commonplace in the 1980s.
You can actually still find a few intersections around Melbourne plus some older pedestrian crossings that have the red and amber before green phase.
The ones above are at the intersection in Dandenong that still use a fixed timer. There are others in the northern suburbs that I am aware of.
I actually have an electro-mechanical pedestrian crossing controller that is still set up to show red and amber before green too. At present connected to a LED traffic light an neon pedestrian signal.
All photos from my web site. Click www button below.
)....The clock style signals were called Marshalites (despite them not actually being lights). The last of them were removed in the late 1970s. Some survive in preservation like this one in Chelsea. Not all of them had square masts.
Another is in the Melbourne Museum.
It seems that most, if not all Australian states originally did have the red and amber before green phase. But not anymore. As far as I know, Victoria was the last state to still have this. It began to be phased out as use of turn arrows became more commonplace in the 1980s.
You can actually still find a few intersections around Melbourne plus some older pedestrian crossings that have the red and amber before green phase.
The ones above are at the intersection in Dandenong that still use a fixed timer. There are others in the northern suburbs that I am aware of.
I actually have an electro-mechanical pedestrian crossing controller that is still set up to show red and amber before green too. At present connected to a LED traffic light an neon pedestrian signal.
All photos from my web site. Click www button below.
These are a set of lights from Israel:
Traffic lights in Israel in almost every/every junction have these blue and white circles on top of them, indicating which turning lane the lights apply for. I find these circles very special, useful, and interesting. Can the be found elsewhere in the world??
Note: I will be taking more pictures of Israeli roads, signs, and othere roads-related items when I move back there in June.
Traffic lights in Israel in almost every/every junction have these blue and white circles on top of them, indicating which turning lane the lights apply for. I find these circles very special, useful, and interesting. Can the be found elsewhere in the world??
Note: I will be taking more pictures of Israeli roads, signs, and othere roads-related items when I move back there in June.
