The Evil Eyebrow

This Week in Traffic: 9 February 2007

Written by

Bill Ruhsam

in

Information Overload

Traffic congestion information hotline may cause more congestion, according to an advocacy group.

Riotous Fun

In Dubai they paint cars. In the western european tradition, Americans break stuff.

Signal Back Door?

Someone claims that certain signal hardware can be forced to change phase by activating the pedestrian pushbutton in a specific manner. I’ll have to try it out and see. Thanks to Kristin for sending this to me. Hi Kristin!

Wearing a Helmet is Dangerous

Apparently drivers won’t respect a bicyclist as much if they are wearing a helmet.

Come Back Later

If you’re a public service employee who doesn’t want to work, just make up your own civil service rules.

Comments

3 responses to “This Week in Traffic: 9 February 2007”

  1. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    I’m totally on the signal back door next time I’m biking in East Lansing. There’s a light that has an obscenely long cross-street green.

    And I’m of the opinion that helmets should be sold with integrated lighting in them as standard – kind of like the obnoxious flashers on the tops of school buses.

  2. Bill Avatar
    Bill

    If your evil cross street is crossing a large main street, the signal is long becuase you have to have enough time for pedestrians to walk the whole way across, assuming there is a dedicated ped phase.

  3. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    No dedicated ped phase… the street with the long thru light is 4 lanes + inside left turn only lanes. The ped signal is actually quite short – on my bike, I’m fully crossed about halfway through the Don’t Walk cycle.

    I do, however, love the dedicated signals for the multi-use path. Unless someone just used them to stop traffic, they INSTANTLY turn the light (with a caution cycle of course).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts