Unveiled: The car with a gadget that guarantees every traffic light will be green when you get there | Mail Online

How peculiar.

Sounds like a good idea.

But it does say "requires intelligent lights"

Most traffic lights here have only got sensors in the road.The amount of drivers i see coming up to traffic lights and they flash there main beam at them and think they will change what a bunch of *******.

sensor is only their to sense movement. how is a light flashing gonna work class.

Most traffic lights here have only got sensors in the road.The amount of drivers i see coming up to traffic lights and they flash there main beam at them and think they will change what a bunch of *******.

Please tell me you're kidding

Most traffic lights here have only got sensors in the road.The amount of drivers i see coming up to traffic lights and they flash there main beam at them and think they will change what a bunch of *******.

These days I agree.

However it certainly used to be the case that some lights would respond to light flashes.

I'm not going to try and work out how long ago.

However I remember my dad driving and on more than one occasion at night as we approached red lights he'd flash lights and the change was almost instant.

Now I'm almost 33 now and I'm guessing at the most I must have been around 10-12, so we are talking 20 years ago.

Alas my dad is no longer with us so I can't ask him about it.

But from what I remember either some lights used to have such sensors or it was just an amazing coincidence everytime I was out with him in the car at night

Very good idea IMHO. It reminds me of the policy I was told that the Portuguese used in cities instead of speed cameras. They fitted speed sensors on the approach to major traffic light junctions and they were programmed to go to red to stop any vehicles breaking the limit. Consequently incidences of speeding and related accidents and injuries fell. Of course, it wouldn't work in the UK as there's no money to be made in intelligently coercing people into good behavior ! I believe even the Portuguese authorities eventually caved in and changed to speed cameras due to the massive revenue streams it produces. Also, I used to apply a similar technique when driving into Leeds city centre. From the 1st set of lights at Westgate Point, if you stayed at about 20-22mph you always got through every subsequent set all the way through the CC. I used to laugh at the idiots in the outside lane blasting away from me at every green, only for me to cruise up alongside them at the next set and usually slightly pass them without stopping as they relaunched yet again. That's all changed now as the council make damn sure everything stops more and more in preparation for justifying our congestion charge in a few years. Can anyone spell 'social conditioning' ?

These days I agree.

However it certainly used to be the case that some lights would respond to light flashes.

I'm not going to try and work out how long ago.

However I remember my dad driving and on more than one occasion at night as we approached red lights he'd flash lights and the change was almost instant.

Now I'm almost 33 now and I'm guessing at the most I must have been around 10-12, so we are talking 20 years ago.

Alas my dad is no longer with us so I can't ask him about it.

But from what I remember either some lights used to have such sensors or it was just an amazing coincidence everytime I was out with him in the car at night

I'm 35 now and remember the same thing. It could be that my dad was having me on and it was a coincidence, but I was convinced as a child that it worked.

Also, I used to apply a similar technique when driving into Leeds city centre. From the 1st set of lights at Westgate Point, if you stayed at about 20-22mph you always got through every subsequent set all the way through the CC. I used to laugh at the idiots in the outside lane blasting away from me at every green, only for me to cruise up alongside them at the next set and usually slightly pass them without stopping as they relaunched yet again.

Oh actually you've just reminded me that I also have done a similar thing where I know the pattern of the lights and laughed at people eager to overtake etc when I know they'll reach a red light. One example that comes to mind includes heading from inner ring road up to Armley, the lights at Mike's Carpets are almost guaranteed to be on red when you get to them (by the time you get there from red lights at the Gyratory) so you benefit from sticking to the speed limit or even going a little slower.

Flashing lights will not work on most lights now, there are sensors in the road that sense the presence of your car by the changes it creates in the magnetic field of the sensor. And i believe when driving through cities traffic light sequencing is worked out on a speed of about 22mph.

i beleive it was mainly the temporay traffic lights this used to work on, as they dont have sensors in the road to go by. my dad told me they were on a timer unless they picked up your headlights coming towards them. by flashing the main bean it got the sensor to pick your car up earlier so they changed by the time you go there. it worked for some years on the temp ones they used near me

Oh actually you've just reminded me that I also have done a similar thing where I know the pattern of the lights and laughed at people eager to overtake etc when I know they'll reach a red light. One example that comes to mind includes heading from inner ring road up to Armley, the lights at Mike's Carpets are almost guaranteed to be on red when you get to them (by the time you get there from red lights at the Gyratory) so you benefit from sticking to the speed limit or even going a little slower.

The best ones are when you come out of Leeds on the M621 and take the Ring Road exit by B&Q to turn right along the RR. When the lights change, gun it, BIG STYLE and if you're good you'll get through the 2nd set of light, and the next ones by the Porsche dealers. Slightly too slow and you're farahooked

Also, when looping around the Dawsons Corner roundabout to go down into the Asda (Owlcotes), again, gun it like your last shag depends on it and you'll get all the way around without stopping. Any hold up at all and again you'll be stuck at a red. :P

Also, when looping around the Dawsons Corner roundabout to go down into the Asda (Owlcotes), again, gun it like your last shag depends on it and you'll get all the way around without stopping. Any hold up at all and again you'll be stuck at a red. :P

I always get stuck there at the last set of lights for the exit towards Asda

mmmmmmmmmmmm....

So its not actually changing the lighst to green, just suggesting you slow down rather than coming to a complete stop

Steve

mmmmmmmmmmmm....

So its not actually changing the lighst to green, just suggesting you slow down rather than coming to a complete stop

Steve

Yup, nice smooth progressive driving with good awareness of what's ahead and intelligent anticipation to allow for unhindered progress, automated and sold to dummies who drive Audi's and can't work it out for themselves.

However I remember my dad driving and on more than one occasion at night as we approached red lights he'd flash lights and the change was almost instant.

Now I'm almost 33 now and I'm guessing at the most I must have been around 10-12, so we are talking 20 years ago.

Alas my dad is no longer with us so I can't ask him about it.

But from what I remember either some lights used to have such sensors or it was just an amazing coincidence everytime I was out with him in the car at night

It could have been phasing. My dear departed dad demonstrated on the A4123 many years ago. Hit the first set in the green phase, then travel just below the limit, hit them all on green. This was when i was about 8-10, I'm 38 now.

These days, the phasing in many major cities is deliberately out so that the lights cause as much inconvenience and congestion as possible so that in a few years time the artificially exaggerated problem can be magically solved with a very profitable congestion charge. Cynical ? Me ? Ask Ken Livingstone how he managed it !

Boltons the same they want to introduce a congestion charge for driving around/through the the town centre.

Some of the light sequences I'm sure are reporgrammed just to go red you even if no-ones at the other junction.

Have Manchester introduced a congestion charge? or is just being planned? :confused:

Apparantly most of the busses have these built in so that as they approached/get stuck in traffic the lights will changed to try and aid the bus to get through quicker!

Flashing lights will not work on most lights now, there are sensors in the road that sense the presence of your car by the changes it creates in the magnetic field of the sensor. And i believe when driving through cities traffic light sequencing is worked out on a speed of about 22mph.

I don't think it ever did... At least according to Snopes.

Oh yeh. Forgot to mention about things i've seen in Turkey and Germany.

They are timers that as you approach the lights they count down to when the lights are going to change so that you know exactly when the lights are going to change.

They work very well as all the traffic knows just when the lights are going to change and they all go at the same/right speed for the lights!

Some of the light sequences I'm sure are reporgrammed just to go red you even if no-ones at the other junction.

Happens to me all the time - the road from an industrial estate near me stops the main road traffic for no reason during the night even though there are sensors in both roads.

truly annoying having to wait at the lights to allow nothing to come off the industrial estate before being allowed to carry on.

More wear on the car, more pollution by having to pull off from a standstill unnessisarily and more noise for the local people living in the area.

Have Manchester introduced a congestion charge? or is just being planned? :confused:

Google results say late 2012 for Manc, expect Leeds to be a few years after maybe. Although it has taken Leeds almost 50 years since the opening of the M1 to get that anywhere near finished. I remember it being terminated with piles of rubble and cones all throughout my childhood in the 70's and 80's

I can't see where in Leeds the boundaries would be for congestion charging. I doubt they'd get away with charging for use of the inner ring road/armley gyratory/m621. Or is that perhaps all wishful thinking

I seem to recall talk of £2 to go within the outer RR and a further £3 to go inside the inner RR.