Is a Progress Bar on a Traffic Light a Good Idea?

Pedestrian crossings with timers exist in Singapore. They are tremendously helpful for 2 reasons :
a) To help pedestrians judge if they can make it across
b) To alleviate the impatience of anyone waiting.

Sometimes all we need is to know how long more something will take to alleviate our impatience. We don’t always need it to be faster.

It’s not a great idea to shut off the engine of a car all the time. The crankshaft is supported by a journal bearing, which relies on a thin layer of lubricant to support it. When you start the engine, there is no lubricant and momentarily there is metal on metal contact. When engineers design the crankshaft and bearings, they allow a certain amount of wear based on how often they expect the engine to be started. So they’ll specify 10 000 starts over the life of the car or whatever.

Starting and shutting your engine all the time will reduce the lifespan of it.

Same with Delhi/Mumbai. Many major traffic lights have countdown timers. In a way it does help as the motorists can turn off their vehicles when the waiting time is large.
However, the last 5 seconds before the light turns green resemble the start of a NASCAR race

One of the first things I was taught as a driver was that shutting off & turning on the engine was a waste of fuel; even if you’re idling for a short span, you use less fuel than you would if you started the engine.

Otherwise it’s a good idea for the sociological factor. I appreciate the crosswalk countdowns I see here, as they’re also like a communication to drivers that they can turn right soon.

Eh, sounds like an interesting idea. It sure would come in handy w/ a few of the intersections here where the light seems to take FOREVER to change.

In Europe the amber middle light briefly comes on before the light turns green. This gives drivers opportunity to put their manual transmission cars in gear or power up again, as required. A much simpler solution.

As others have already mentioned, countdown timers are common on traffic lights in heaps of countries already. I can add Thailand and China to the list.

I think the biggest benefits are that people don’t rush to make a light (if it’s visible and near zero) and pedestrians can gauge whether they can cross 6 lanes of traffic within the limited time period.

I swear, Americans always go for the complicated approach to something so simple.

Do like Mexico and remove the yellow light from all traffic lights. Then just flash the red or green when they are about to change.

Probably save about a billion watts a year.

Don’t know if it would be useful here in the UK. I live in a city and drive daily, what I see is a lot of drivers setting off just before the lights change to green, as they are watching the other set of lights change from green to red. This causes a lot of near misses as the last car passes the junction.

I am guessing it would only increase the amount of people setting off in the last few seconds before the change.

some trafic lights here in thenetherlands either have a cound down bar or a number that shows the seconds. As far as i know there not there for turning engines off and save feul, but to reduce the number of (bikes mostly) people that run te red lights. Its kinda silly to run a red light if you only have to wait 10 seconds

Anyone else feel like they’re just trying to sell us a pile of crap by claiming it would save the environment? Yes, a timer will relieve anxiety, but lets just leave it at that. Isn’t it a worthy cause? Must we also claim people can turn off their engines too? That is just a BS claim that they are using to get the funding. Really, how long are the traffic lights that you’re sitting in front of? Idling at stop lights isn’t even the issue. It is idling in bumper to bumper traffic, and the truck drivers who need to keep their cabins on for heat. They idle for 8 hours, not 30 seconds.

How about using roundabouts or rotaries? For certain traffic flow rates, they can be quite efficient. Adds a little excitement to the drive as well.

Here in Pittsburgh, some pedestrian crossings have timers, and I find it really helpful. I’d imagine that timers on traffic lights would be similarly helpful.

In Boston we have what they call delayed green. This means that people who get a red as they are approaching know the others won’t get a green for a few seconds so it is still okay to speed through. If the people getting the green knew the green was coming they would probably go early knowing they had a few seconds after the red. I guess the pedestrians would just have to wait for the dust to clear before proceeding.

Not something new. Here in Brazil i know of at least one city with a 5 stage red and green lights, with time countdown for pedestrians.

why not get rid of all petrol cars and make electric cars the only thing allowed on the road. ?

if the law is made it will happen, just like seat belts, air bags etc.

iwashere – because electric cars are not the best choice for many people. For instance, with our cars now, I can make it to my parents in 6.5 hours or my in-laws in 4.5 hours (due to distance, not traffic). If I had to use an electric car, these day-long trips would take an extra day or two as I would have to stop for many hours to recharge the batteries at least once or twice.

Hybrids might work better, but most of them are too small.

Why not create something that will really save gas!!!??? Timed stoplights are stupid. How about smart-stop-lights??? Something that has an eye and can see down the road and change if there are no cars coming from the cross sectioned streets. How much gas is really wasted during non-busy times with timed stoplights when you have to stop for absolutely NO reason???

They have walk light timers pretty much all over the Canadian city that i live in. You can read the time remaining from about a block away and I use them to gauge whether or not I’ll be able to make the light or if I should slow down and be ready to stop. It also makes waiting for the light to change a little less irritating, I think.