I was pulled over today.

[zamler]

How can a countdown timer possibly make things less safe? I can adjust as needed so if at all possible I avoid going through a yellow light. I'm not going to speed up or slow down drastically, and I don't need to. This suggests it does help
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/t...iver-responses

[Wormius]

I think most people would be tempted to speed up to beat the red light. I anticipate it would result in a lot of road raging.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by zamler

How can a countdown timer possibly make things less safe?

It doesn't. If you use the pedestrian timer when you are driving an automobile, the pedestrian timer not consistently indicating the end of the green phase would indeed be annoying because that timer is for pedestrians and not automobiles.

That article, like the one posted earlier, also cites the reason why countdown timers for vehicles are far less feasible in the US/Canada; the bottom line is that severely hampering our fully actuated signals by way of countdown timers would reduce the efficiency of our road network to a degree that would never be acceptable. Yeah, I have no interest in spending far more time sitting at intersections waiting as 5 second gap outs are extended to 15-20 seconds so that drivers can get a countdown because they're scared of the dilemma zone.

[Geraldsh]

So- the RCMP phoned my wife one day(mid-afternoon), identified himself and asked if she knew where the car was.
“My husband has it.
“Know where he went?
“Down to the river, gold panning.
“Ok, we found the car parked in the bush by the river. Didn’t see any one around.
“He’ll come home when he’s hungry
“Ok, have a nice day

We appreciated the call.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by powderjunkie

Disagree, countdowns can be used very effectively most of the time. They give you an opportunity to judge whether you should:

1. speed up a little bit to put you past the dilemma zone and know you're certain to get through on green

or

2. coast because you know it's impossible that you'll make the intersection by 0, so why waste gas and brakes on a [probably] futile endeavour?

Of course the problem comes on scenario 3 where the light stays green, and now you're back on the gas as you enter the dilemma zone. It would be nice if there was some standard of say minimum 5 seconds more green after 0 if 0 doesn't mean yellow. I think it's pretty rare that it's like 2-3 more seconds, but I feel like that's happened to me a few times and is very annoying.

The problem is people in the option 2 scenario chose to coast in when if they had continued at speed would have safely made it through the intersection after entering the dilemma zone. Thr timing of the yellow and Red/Red phase has already allowed for people going through the intersection on yellow.

I agree in the no chance scenario or speed up scenario it could help. However I think the practical application is that people slow down early rather than entering the intersection on yellow. This reduces through put.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by zamler

How can a countdown timer possibly make things less safe? I can adjust as needed so if at all possible I avoid going through a yellow light. I'm not going to speed up or slow down drastically, and I don't need to. This suggests it does help
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/t...iver-responses

I didn’t say less safe. I said less throughput.

Though your article does highlight an interesting effect that might make up for the loss of throughput. It identified that people start accelerating faster from red so that might help. It also might lead to more collisions from red light runners.

If you look at that article it says that it increased the likelihood that a driver in the dilemma zone would stop. I contend that this doesn’t actually improve safety as the light timing already addresses the dilemma zone.

The other problem from a design side is in down town areas where you want to have dedicated green time for right turns. So you want the pedestrian signal to stop pedestrians but allow traffic.

[rohara66]

Originally Posted by Geraldsh

So- the RCMP phoned my wife one day(mid-afternoon), identified himself and asked if she knew where the car was.
“My husband has it.
“Know where he went?
“Down to the river, gold panning.
“Ok, we found the car parked in the bush by the river. Didn’t see any one around.
“He’ll come home when he’s hungry
“Ok, have a nice day

We appreciated the call.

Now that's a reasonable call that an officer should make to the registered vehicle owner.

[Acey]

Originally Posted by GGG

It also might lead to more collisions from red light runners.

It'd be "lights out and away we go" at any intersection with a countdown for red. Drivers start moving about a second quicker, studies say... wouldn't take long for the all-red time to be upped by a second to negate the advantage.

Originally Posted by GGG

The other problem from a design side is in down town areas where you want to have dedicated green time for right turns. So you want the pedestrian signal to stop pedestrians but allow traffic.

Of note is that many jurisdictions from a cost-benefit perspective see very utility to significant dilemma zone mitigation measures in urban areas with lower speed limits. 60 kph is generally the threshold.

A better solution is something like this, where the traffic signal gets smarter and tries to snipe a perfect moment to changeover by monitoring the speed of each vehicle approaching so that nobody gets caught.

Spoiler!

[Cortez]

Originally Posted by Geraldsh

So- the RCMP phoned my wife one day(mid-afternoon), identified himself and asked if she knew where the car was.
“My husband has it.
“Know where he went?
“Down to the river, gold panning.
“Ok, we found the car parked in the bush by the river. Didn’t see any one around.
“He’ll come home when he’s hungry
“Ok, have a nice day

We appreciated the call.

We just gonna gloss over this?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Cortez

We just gonna gloss over this?

I'd like to hear about the gold panning adventures also.

[TheIronMaiden]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I'd like to hear about the gold panning adventures also.

[Fuzz]

Isn't that just code for "Drinking beer by the river in peace and quiet"?

[Titan2]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Isn't that just code for "Drinking beer by the river in peace and quiet"?

Aren't most things?

[OutOfTheCube]

Wife made the right move, never talk to a cop if you don't know what's going on and/or don't have a lawyer present.

Anything you say can and will be used against you. Over the phone too.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by Cortez

We just gonna gloss over this?

Nothing weird about panning for gold.

It’s not like he was living in the car down by the river.

[btimbit]

Sure when btimbit gets called by the police its 'weird' and 'bizarre' but when it's geraldish it makes perfect sense

[Wormius]

It sounds like fun. I inherited a nice Garrett metal detector, but I am hesitant to go out with it cause of the stigma of metal detecting.

[zamler]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

Wife made the right move, never talk to a cop if you don't know what's going on and/or don't have a lawyer present.

Anything you say can and will be used against you. Over the phone too.

Marge: I thought you said the law was powerless.
Chief Wiggum: Yeah, powerless to *help* you, not punish you.

[Geraldsh]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

I'd like to hear about the gold panning adventures also.

I just do it for the adventure, wandering aimlessly along any stream I encounter. Thirty years of this hobby and I have accumulated about $10.00 worth of gold dust. Met some interesting people and seen some wildlife.

[FlamesAddiction]

This reminds me of the time in Lethbridge when I got pulled over and ticketed for going through an amber light during a snow storm. It was really icy and I wasn't driving fast, the light turned yellow and I started to skid a little so I just proceeded through at a pretty slow pace. It was like 5 AM and no one else on the road, but they pulled me over and ticketed me for it. I fought it at the court house and I still had to pay it, but no points were taken off my license. I didn't think it was a reasonable ticket, but it was the law I guess. You can be ticketed for going through an amber light even if you need to.

I've been pulled over for some other dumb things in the past. In Thunder Bay, I was driving some people home late after work, and again during a snow storm, and I got pulled over and ticketed for driving in the middle of the street. There were huge snow banks on both sides of the road and so much snow on the ground, it was hard to see where the road even was.

Another time, I was driving through Alberta and was pulled over near Strathmore and had my car searched because they said someone reported that I was transporting drugs. I really don't know where that one came from. I was a teenager at the time, my mother had just passed away and I was moving to BC to live with my older sister. I stopped in Strathmore to get a coffee and accidently spilled it at the cashier, and they were upset about it. The only thing that I can think of is that they thought I was strung out or something and called the police, because it was about 5 minutes later that the police were waiting for me up the highway. Then when they searched my things, they were questioning me about why I had so many women's belongings, and I had a break down. Then they just hopped in their car and drove away.