Traffic light timing in Philadelphia

You're not alone. Some cities over here have deliberately set their lights to do this! Apparantly it is proven to discourage car use and move people onto public transport. What they don't say is that buses and cabs that make up this public transport also get delayed.

I would recommend you write your letter and hope you get things changed. My home had some of its lights set this way but were changed to normal when there was a change of political party.

 

If we had any traffic lights I would share your pain. We have two flashers; do those count?

There *is* one real traffic light at the south end of the county. What's the best way to time a single traffic light?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Tom

 

I have the same problem on a road I use a lot here. It is a major through-route, but the lights aren't timed at all - so if I'm driving home very late at night with no cross-traffic whatsoever, I can get great mileage. Otherwise, I get crap. It's a 40mph zone where most people do 50, and the lights are spaced the perfect distance to kill mileage.

The best I can do is roll through a few late red lights, and go easy on the acceleration until I'm sure I can make the next light. I often take my foot off the gas long before the next light if I know it's a long one and has just turned yellow - other drivers often don't get it and pass me in the next lane, then they see me glide past them at 10-15mph just as they are about to get started again from a full stop.

If your mayor / councilors care about the environment, they should be prompted to do a study of how much gas could be saved (and pollution reduced) by timing the lights for through traffic - it's pretty surprising how much, but makes sense when you realize ALL vehicles lose efficiency in stop&go.

I once lived in a city/town which had done this, and while it feels a little annoying to be forced to drive exactly the speed limit (that's how they calculate the timing), it was really nice to drive through strings of lights that were all green.

 

For the OP ... PennDOT.

 

Probably not the best recommendation. Let me give you a little senario: A cross-traffic car is approaching the intersection, slowing down so they don't have to stop for the red light, as the light changes they cruise on through on the green. You T-bone them. Both cars are totaled plus, a third car is also totaled because you were going very fast and threw the car you hit out of their lane and into oncoming traffic.

Does this sound like I know the details a little too well? Probably because I am still dealing with the hospital bills from the x-rays my family had to have because some lady thought she could just roll through the red light. I will be forever vigilant on looking for this type of driver when I approach an intersection. In fact I get nervous when a car is approaching at too fast a speed and I have a green light.

This is a happy story because no one was killed. Not everyone is as lucky.

Soooooooooo not worth the few seconds you save.

 

Just to put this back into my original context: I said "a few", not all. It really depends on what I can see coming - if I can clearly see everything, and nobody is coming, and I'm close to the light (i.e.: the light is "late", as I said), I will usually choose to go through rather than stomp the brakes (and possibly be rear-ended). When in doubt, I'll take the regen energy instead. Much of the time, the through traffic is being forced to stop due to a single cross-traffic car triggering the light - they're not timed (as I said).

This is an area I know well, the speed zone (as I said) is 40mph and the yellow-to-red interval is timed accordingly. It's 5 lanes wide (2 each direction plus a turning lane), so it's pretty easy to see why the light is changing. Sometimes the light changes because someone stopped and turned right, so there's nobody there at all.

Regardless of whether the light is in my favor or not, my eyes are on a swivel - as you rightly pointed out, it's just as easy to be the recipient of a t-boning...

 

I didn't mean to come across too strongly or to indicate that you were an unsafe driver. I was just looking to warn those who may or may not be checking the intersection for the unseen car before going through.
I've come to realize the biggest risk I will probably ever take in life is getting into a car. Crazy since I do it nearly every day. Ahhhh, now I sound like a cliche. Oops Sorry

 

So very true - and a little paranoia does pay off in this case.

 

To the OP, do you typically drive the same routes at the same times of the day? Because in many cases (at least theoretically in my head), it might be nearly impossible to time lights for both directions simultaneously. E.g, if traffic going east is optimized, then traffic going west has to deal with awful timing. This would be highly dependent upon speed limit and average distance between lights, but I could imagine that it happens all the time.

In the evenings, I have to drive toward downtown, while most people are driving out of downtown and into the suburbs. And I've noticed that the lights often hate me, probably because they're optimized for the larger number of evening commuters. C'est la vie.

But maybe your situation is different. I wouldn't put it past government agencies to produce inefficient systems.

 

Run for Mayor. Promise snow removal & traffic light timing.

 

As an ex-downtown Philadelphian (7th and Walnut), I would suggest City Council and the Mayor's office, along with the local political party leaders, as possibly more useful than the Congressional delegation on this sort of issue.
It's possible there is a deliberate slowdown. It's also possible there are rivalries between the folks who want N-S to be the travel direction that is preferred by stoplight timing vs. E-W. It's also (barely) possible that no one has really worked on this problem, but I doubt that.

For those unfamiliar with Phila., it's not like Manhattan, where the N-S avenues are wide and "fast" while EW streets are not.

 

Hey Nooash,

Can I know what mpg you're getting in Philly and whats your total average....It seems I have the same problem here in NYC...To many lights and to many cars on your nice person ! Love seeing my car getting 50 Mpg + on the highway...But I cringe at 35 MPG City !...Wonder what they really mean 51 city ! ?

 

I'm not in CC often enough to say with certainty, but my anecdotal experience is that it's hit and miss. Sometimes you'll have to stop at every block.. other times you can go 5-6 blocks or circle-circle on the Parkway. I don't think they're purposefully timed to stop traffic.

The correct department to contact is Streets.

CS Streets

 

To add to Grumpy's post, it was only in April 2009 that the government actually stopped discouraging councils from having sensor-linked series of green lights to improve traffic flow.