12-10-2015, 01:54 PM
(12-10-2015, 12:02 PM)chutten Wrote:(12-09-2015, 12:20 PM)MidTowner Wrote: To the advocates of the "green wave": I know this is illogical, but traffic does not move at 50km/h just because the lights are timed that way. Drivers see a wide open road, and drive accordingly, even if it means they later meet a red light they otherwise wouldn't have had to.
If it's wide open, then the Green Wave isn't needed. Racing ahead? Sure, whatever. Makes no difference to the cars in front or behind because there aren't any of them.
It's when congestion reaches a certain point that the Green Wave is needed and can shine. From that density of vehicles you only need a couple of people who know about it and a liberal dose of herd instinct to have a traffic volume travelling at the designed speed.
The "green wave" as implemented doesn't work on Bridgeport and Erb not because green waves don't work but...
1. It's not publicised. Only traffic gurus would know that a green wave is in effect and thus drive accordingly. Because it's not publicised most drivers speed ahead and then get frustrated by the inevitable red lights they encounter. The 3 or so parallel lanes of one-way traffic further contributes to this. Unfortunately Bridgeport and Erb are too busy and too wide to undergo a road diet that might calm traffic down in a more subtle, natural way.
2. Then as I pointed out before (and Canard repeated) there are several exceptions to the green wave at certain side streets. So a single car that arrives at one of those side streets can disrupt the green wave for a dozen or more cars on the main thoroughfare. Once you stop at a red light at one of those side streets you're almost guaranteed another red light at the next green wave-enabled cross street. As I observed before it must have taken a special kind of idiot at city hall to come up with that implementation.
3. It also makes no sense to have an official speed limit of 50km/hr on Bridgeport and Erb. I can understand the argument that since almost everyone drives faster than the posted limit on wide one-way streets a low posted limit will tend to slow people down to what they might do if the limit was higher. But 50 is so low that, speaking as someone who tries to follow it in order to catch a green wave, I can say that it requires exceptional determination and self-discipline to maintain it. Perhaps the limit should be raised to 60km/hr with good signage to indicate that a pure "green wave" is in effect and that as a result speeding is futile.
P.S. Although I'm against radar automated speed traps in principle, perhaps this is one situation where they're warranted. If people won't slow down when there's no benefit in speeding then perhaps they need to be slowed down by the threat of certain monetary and legal penalties.