Help settle a debate (driving related)

[Shugardrawers]

My Dh has agreed to let the Dis settle this one for us. Whenever he's at a stoplight he will roll the car back and forth (if there isn't anyone behind us). He insists that the sensor will think there are several cars waiting thus changing the light to green sooner. I say he's full of it. Once the sensor realizes just one car is there it will cycle through. It's not going to make you wait for 6 more cars to line up behind you before changing and it's not going to speed up the cycle. I find this rolling thing very annoying. Coming out of our apartment complex parking lot there is a stoplight and it's on an incline. So every time we go somewhere I'm subjected to his rolling the car back and forth and back and forth and back and forth......Please tell me he's wrong!

 

[LindsayDunn228]

Can't answer your question but that would drive me nuts!!!!!!! Is he THAT impatient??!!

 

[stinkerbelle]

i think the 'sensor' thing is a big fat myth...i think all lights are on timed cycles...regardless of traffic patterns.

and I HATE rollers! I'm sorry...once I was sitting in a very long line at a tollbooth, and the chick in front of me kept rolling her jetta...I kept pushing harder and harder on my break cause I felt like it was me rolling towards her (yeah - weird)...I had to honk at her like 3 times because she kept coming so close to hitting my front end.

 

[hiwaygal]

Your DH is wrong!

I design intersections for a living (in Hampton! ) and what he is doing is essentially useless.

Loop detectors in the roadway use electromagnetic impulses to detect vehicles at the intersection. Motorcycles sometimes have a hard time being detected because of their relatively small size.

The problem with loop detectors is they are rather fragile, it doesn't take much to make them "loopy"!

More and more cities in this area are going to video detection since it is far easier to maintain.

And then there are intersections that have no "detection" at all and rely solely on the timing programmed into it at the controller cabinet.

 

[puffkin]

I was always under the impression that the sensor would read for just one car and therefore start the cycle once it reads that. So, I don't think rolling back and forth would make much of a difference. Now, sometimes you don't always hit the sensor the first time, so it may help with that.

If the light was truly designed to change once so many cars were stopped, then the sensor would have to be back pretty far. How else would it know if one car or 10 cars are in line? So, I don't think rolling would help in this situation either, unless you went back several car lengths.

 

[barkley]

if he's only rolling back and forth say one car width how would it make a difference? if the sensor truly worked off a set number of cars there would need to be sensors going back on the street for that number of cars (since only one car could occupy the sensor site at a given time).

we have some lights in our area that operate on sensor but they are largly the ones that are for roads rarely used that cross major roads (so the sensor detects that one car is there and may cause the light to change more quickly than the normal interval it's schedualed to-we have some set up to change only every 15 minutes because of low usage).

 

[mickeyboat]

I think your DH is wrong, too. I have always thought that the sensor is so far before you get to the light, that rolling just a little bit would make no difference at all. How would your DH even know where the sensor is to determine how far back he would have to roll to "trip" it again.

Denae

 

[caitycaity]

some of the lights where we live are sensor and not timed, but rolling back doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

[hiwaygal]

I think your DH is wrong, too. I have always thought that the sensor is so far before you get to the light, that rolling just a little bit would make no difference at all. How would your DH even know where the sensor is to determine how far back he would have to roll to "trip" it again.

Denae

typically, one set of detectors is put into the pavement about 500' in advance of the intersection (provided there isn't another signal in between), and then there is an additional one at the signal/intersection. So it detects a vehicle that is approaching, as well as one that is at the intersection.

Loop detectors are very easy to see...just look for the rectangular "patches" of asphalt at the intersection...I'll see if I can find a pic too.

 

[Ziva]

Your right, he's wrong.

 

[Shugardrawers]

Your DH is wrong!

I design intersections for a living (in Hampton! ) and what he is doing is essentially useless.

Loop detectors in the roadway use electromagnetic impulses to detect vehicles at the intersection. Motorcycles sometimes have a hard time being detected because of their relatively small size.

The problem with loop detectors is they are rather fragile, it doesn't take much to make them "loopy"!

More and more cities in this area are going to video detection since it is far easier to maintain.

And then there are intersections that have no "detection" at all and rely solely on the timing programmed into it at the controller cabinet.

So I can blame you for the traffic around here??
I knew you guys would come through for me. He's making me sea sick with all the rolling. I can't wait to show him this thread tonight!!

 

[mommaU4]

I'll say he's wrong.
Not because I know one way or the other, but to make you feel better.

 

[hiwaygal]

So I can blame you for the traffic around here??

NO!!! That would be VDOT's problem!!!

 

[kbkids]

Definitely wrong.

 

[ECU Pirates]

The only difference that he could possibly make would be that the stop light control may think that there were more cars waiting to turn, and thus increasing the amount of green time in his direction, but it will not make the light change any sooner.

 

[cardaway]

some of the lights where we live are sensor and not timed, but rolling back doesn't seem to make a difference.

Same here, but actually going back a couple car lengths and then coming back to the light does make a difference. Really the only thing you can do if you're worried about which lights have cameras looking for people who run the light.

 

[LoraJ]

I doubt rolling back and forth would do anything.
Most of the sensors around here are for left turn signals. With those, they don't seem to trigger unless you go right up to the white line.

 

[mickeyfan2]

I vote to stop the rolling. The sensor does not make you wait for an others.

 

[malibuconlee]

I've definitely been at at stop light on a motorcycle and had to get off the back to go push the crosswalk button when we failed to set off the detector and no one pulled up behind us.

 

[brerrabbit]

I have a friend that owns a company in Texas that installs the things. Down here you can tell where the sensor is because they use a concrete saw to cut a rectangle in the left turn lane, then fill in the saw cut with a tar like substance. Once the pressure switch is activated the light will cycle. Even if there is no car on it.(like a car drove across, activated the switch and then went straight)