Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

lutzcody t1_iyagraw wrote

I’m guessing it’s mostly that way to slow people down from speeding

25

thebloodofthematador t1_iyaxd2c wrote

I get that, but when they're that badly timed, you HUGELY increase the likelihood of people blocking intersections and missing lights because of short distances between.

Thinking specifically of the light at Penn and Centre and the lights around Target. Just so, so badly timed.

27

Major_Bother8416 t1_iyb8ul0 wrote

Those specific lights are a part of a CMU and Google AI project. It’s a much harder problem to solve than you’d think. They’ve done it a lot of different ways over the years but that intersection is likely to be a disaster until they change the roads.

7

universeofdesign t1_iybjki4 wrote

I dont think Google had anything to do with it, it was CMU robotics, CMU's Traffic21, City of Pittsburgh, and East Liberty Development joint project. CMU also made the tech for transit signal priority to work on the future BRT corridors, and has been ready to go from PRT and CMU for many years while DOMI drags its feet.

The problem in East Lib is, as you alluded and another commenter mentioned, every road going through that area seems a main road. The roads would need to be significantly redesigned far beyond just changing the signaling to have any real improvement. There's no reason why Negley and Highland have about the same automobile traffic hierarchy, and same for Baum, Center, and Penn. Penn is a state owned road, Negley and Highland are city owned, not sure about the others. PennDOT is notoriously awful at working with localities to make the local situation better. They just care about "level of service" on their own roads, and pretty much nothing else. Maybe, if I give them some benefit, they care a little about deaths, but not enough to challenge the almighty LOS gods.

6

jxd132407 t1_iyblg1t wrote

That may be the intent, but traffic lights don't actually slow speeding. To the contrary, drivers feel the need to speed up because missing the light adds so much delay.

6

Gnarlsaurus_Sketch t1_iybnuwm wrote

Badly designed and inefficient lights encourage both speeding and road rage.

1

Dagglin t1_iydbwvf wrote

It increases speeding imo. If you just finally got green and the light ahead of you turns yellow, the inclination to gun it rather than sitting another three minutes is very strong

5

AO9000 t1_iydtbzd wrote

Interesting point. You think they would set it up so the light is red if you're speeding, but if you're doing the speed limit, it turns green just in time.

0