randya

https://www.ted.com/talks/gary_lauder...ake_turns.html

serra

Interesting, I'm not sure how many people would actually stop and let cars on the side go in his example if the main road was about 40 or so mph. Perhaps a better but more expensive solution would be a digital stop sign. It would stay blank when no cars were waiting to get on the main road, and light up as a stop sign when a car was trying to turn on.

mconlonx

4 way stop sign -- people already seem to take turns at such. Traffic circles work well, too.

ItsJustMe

I think what you're describing is a stoplight with sensors. Almost all stoplights are like that these days. They could be programmed to switch to flashing red when someone was at the side road, and that's equivalent to a 4 way stop, where people take turns.

B. Carfree

Except that the sensors are at the intersection, so you have to stop before the light can go to green. Unless you live in a city like Eugene, OR, where very few of the sensors are tuned to detect bikes, even the left turn lane sensors. The city staff have taken the position that if they tune them for bikes they will sometimes detect a motor vehicle in an adjacent lane, which could cause oncoming traffic to wait for a left turn arrow that no one is there for. Far better to have cyclists wait for a car going their way in order to get a legal way out of the intersection.

The Human Car

I never got why different traffic dispersion times trump traffic safety or complete streets. In rush hour where light timing is the most critical there are cars everywhere so false positives are not a problem. Non-rush hour everyone can get through the light even if with an "erroneous" turning phase, so what's the big deal?

ItsJustMe

It's probably for the same reason that a driver can get in a rage when a bicycle causes them to slow down for 5 seconds, but they will sit stopped behind someone trying to turn left for a minute or more and not think twice about it. The mindset is that cars can cause backups without problem, but bicycles should never even enter into the consciousness of a car driver.

ghettocruiser

Not here.

We play chicken. It's what's for dinner.

cudak888 

Sign is too ambiguous for any motorist to pay it proper heed.

Motorist sign interpretations:

"Share the Road" = "Get off of it and let me through."
"Take turns" = "It's my turn!"

-Kurt

noisebeam

Why is it that some locations the inductive sensors work great for detecting bicycles with no adjacent lane issue and others are so poor.
Likely different technology, but also perhaps different guidelines for tuning the sensors.

SCROUDS

Lane sensors are old tech. Over here, they've been installing lane monitoring cameras for this sort of thing.

What about the roundabout? If an intersection is sufficiently busy to require right of way control on the superior road, a roundabout would keep all traffic moving, making people take turns through the roundabout. Its also faster then a stop sign on the superior road, and traffic will slow down more when there are cars entering from the inferior road. And the footprint of a mini roundabout with one lane fits neatly inside a regular intersection, perfect for 2 lane roads.

Also safe for VC bicycles, and as long as the sidewalks are offset so that people aren't walking in the roundabout lane, also safe for peds too.

Doohickie

I think it would be a disaster to start using those. And really, they are no different from Yield signs, which mean to yield to other traffic but you don't have to stop. How is that any different from this? It isn't.

The Human Car

IMHO The people that make coments that you can't adjust these things are: 1] never tried to adjust one to actully see if it can work or not and 2] are under the mistaken belief that they work differently then what they do. Which is to say the adjustment is more like a squelch on a radio, it should be set just high enough to remove backgrond noise and not so high only those broadcasting right next to you come through.

noisebeam

I have assumed the same, but don't have any knowledge. I would like to learn more about the guidelines, methods, tools, etc. used to adjust them.

I have on a few occasional seen them placed in thru bike lanes with the sweet spot (actually line) marked - example right here. In these cases they appear to be quadrupole type. Interestingly these sensors are adjusted and do work for bicycles and there are traffic lanes to the left and right of these sensors which are closer to the bike lane inductive sensor than two adjacent lanes would normally be and there does not seem to be a cross talk issue. This leads me to believe there is quite a margin to set a sensor so it works for bicycles but does not get triggered by adjacent lanes.

makovnik

That sign makes me want an ice cream cone.

KD5NRH

You've never seen Americans on a roundabout, have you? (In fairness, a large part of the problem comes from the idiots designing the things over here, but still...)

68venable

haha Ive seen americans on them, its entertaining!