Lillian had an accident yesterday in Las Vegas. She is okay but her car was t-boned and may be totaled.
The guy in the pickup truck who hit her ran a red light. He was taking a risk and pushing the amber. Why? Partly because traffic engineers have been making signals longer and longer to increase traffic flow. It takes time to clear an intersection every time a light changes so by changing the light less frequently there is more flow time. That sounds good. But an individual driver faced with an amber signal is more likely to go for it if he is faced with a five minute wait at a traffic signal. Whereas if he only faces a three minute wait he will be more likely to wait and not push the light. Hence less accidents.
As usual I don’t know the answer. But I think we should be having a public discussion about the trend to longer signals and the consequences. Does increased traffic flow cause increased traffic accidents? Should we accept it?
One more thing( Columbo style)
What is the color between red and green?
- Orange
- Yellow
- Amber
- Other
Post your answer.
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It’s yellow in Ohio
poor Lilly. I am glad she is ok. Some people are just in too much of a hurry. What a time to be without a car!!
Um Dad, nice point but he didn’t “push the amber”. The light had been red for them for a while and he just wasn’t paying attention. In fact he had just come from the eye doctor and had his eyes dialated (sp)?. Perhaps you can write on that.