Just back from a couple of weeks spent in Malaysia. Did some driving in Penang. An interesting experience dodging the mopeds/buses/lorries/monkeys.
On some of the traffic lights they have a countdown telling you how many seconds until they change. So you sit at a red light and a red counter says how many seconds until the change to green. Approaching a green light a green counter says how many seconds until they turn red.
Good idea? Bad idea?
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I've also been to Penang and KL - all these countdowns lead to is all the mopeds which line up at the front of teh queue performing a mass racing style start to get to the left of the road before the faster cars catch up - this start happens while the counter is on anything from 5 seonds before it turns green!
Dublin and Valencia have similar countdowns on pedestrian crossings. In Valencia you get 20 seconds to cross 6 lanes!
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Cool
Anything that gives manual drivers a much needed wake-up call is fine by me.
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Great idea, great fun on the bike, 5 seconds to go 8000 revs, drop the clutch as it gets to zero, 60mph 3.5 secs later, perhaps pop a wheely on the way.
Also coming up to lights, 200 yards to go, 5 secs on the clock can I make it, yes, no ,yes , no, yeeeees!!!!
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They have the same in Curitiba in Brasil.
I found it encouraged people waiting for a green light to anticipate the change and people approaching the lights to tyry to beat the change - it lead to quite a lot of collisions in the middle !
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"They have the same in Curitiba in Brasil. I found it encouraged people waiting for a green light to anticipate the change and people approaching the lights to try to beat the change - it lead to quite a lot of collisions in the middle !"
Is that why French (and German, Belgian, Dutch?)traffic lights go straight from red to green with no countdown or amber "warning" of change?
Phil
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