Bypassing traffic lights?

  • Thread starter Thread starter GTO_VR4
  • 19 comments
  • 748 views
GTO_VR4

GTO_VR4

Messages
1,107
United States
Earth
The other day, i was at a super busy intersection, and noticed to the far right of me, an accident..

ambulance, firetrucks , and police were scattered throughout the area, I notice the lights would change for ****..then i remember something about strobe lights and traffic lights a friend had told me, looked at the ambulance and the driver forgot to turn off his strobes..causing that road to stay green at all times..

so i thought to myself, if i get a strobe light, and modify it on the bumper of my car with a switch, would it work? or does the ambulance\firetrucks have it flash in a different sequence?


what do you think?
 
Traffic lights don't read strobes AFAIK. Most likely what happened is that they were parked over the magnetic coil in the street that rads the presence of vehicles and thus marks that street as bearing heavy traffic, and keeping the light green to clear it out.

Besides, anyone bedsides authorized emergency/service vehicles using strobes while the vehicle is on a public roadway is open to a ticket.
 
Yeah, only those lights with the dewhickies on top that flash the white lights have the sensors. Most other ones have sensors in the asphault to trip the lights. That reminds me of one time....

Our city decides, since hey, we have the worst roads in the state, Bloomington's going to redo one of its busiest roads! So they have all off their equipment on an intersection, well, off to the side and cones around it. It's parked there, some huge truck waiting for the endloader to fill it up with junk. Meanwhile, that dumptruck, as well as the endloader and all of the construction equipment becomes responsible for the 2+ mile backup in the city. Not smooth, especially when more than half of the students going to my HS use that road during rush hour. Luckily, however, my brother and I know our way to bypass just about any section of that road:D
 
Emergency services can alter the traffic sequence - especially at intersections close to their base of operations.

As previously mentioned, some traffic lights have sensors on the top which will react to a flashing light, but usually just main headlight beam is enough to trigger it.

The major intersections are all controlled by pre-programmed sequences, and are immune to 'external' influence.
 
I have a friend that is a LT. in a local fire dept. He told me that their trucks are equipped with a radio transmitter that makes any taffic light within a half mile change to where they have the green light.

The trafffic light has little sensors pointing in all four directions, that only pick up singals coming from that direction. In turn, the fire truck only sends the singal in a forward motion. (I think it is somewhere on top of the cab.) I have seen it work, and it is very effictive. Sometimes though, half a mile is not enough time to get the light changed! They sometimes get there right before it turns.
 
emergency vehicles in many cities are now using devices called optocoms.optocoms are a system of sensors on traffic lights that detect a pattern of flashes from vehicle-mounted strobe lights.thats why the road the accident was located had it green all the time..

im gonna build me one, get me a larger capacitor and slap it in a strobe light..and probably hide it in my bumper somewhere with a switch..of coarse ill only use it when I get out of work, which is real late at night..:D
 
Originally posted by GTO_VR4


im gonna build me one, get me a larger capacitor and slap it in a strobe light..and probably hide it in my bumper somewhere with a switch..of coarse ill only use it when I get out of work, which is real late at night..:D
Click to expand...

If this works, you will rock! People will love to drive next to you.
 
Originally posted by Klostrophobic
You can't wait 30 seconds at a light?
Click to expand...

What lights do you know are only 30 seconds? Most of the ones around here are 1 minute min., usually around 2. Dang my city for its inefficientness!
 
The one down our street is seriously about 5 minutes.
 
At a busy intersection lights can stay red for an average of about two minutes. Sometimes I'll sit at a light while it turns green and red again two or three times before I get to go.

That's why we all need V8's.

I Love watching guys in their Mutangs and Z28's (oh and Civics)racing from light to light. It makes a a lot of sense to burn as much gas as possible between traffic lights and increase the wear and tear on your vehicle twofold just so you can get to the next light first.
 
Originally posted by milefile
At a busy intersection lights can stay red for an average of about two minutes. Sometimes I'll sit at a light while it turns green and red again two or three times before I get to go.

That's why we all need V8's.

I Love watching guys in their Mutangs and Z28's (oh and Civics)racing from light to light. It makes a a lot of sense to burn as much gas as possible between traffic lights and increase the wear and tear on your vehicle twofold just so you can get to the next light first.
Click to expand...

hehe, oh... I only have a 93 dodge caravan! I might get the 93 intrepid though, if the caravan doesn't last 4 months, oh wait, 3, yeah, that's right...
 

Latest Posts

Back