[HN Gopher] Shining a light on the traffic signals of Sydney
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Shining a light on the traffic signals of Sydney
Author : jakecopp
Score : 27 points
Date : 2023-07-10 22:07 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (jakecoppinger.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (jakecoppinger.com)
| getwiththeprog wrote:
| "As a result of these decisions, this results in the Sydney CBD
| effectively operating as a fixed time system during peak - that
| is, the phase lengths are very similar to the expected, pre-
| programmed length."
|
| Does this mean that for pedestrian walk times to be increased,
| there must necessarily be a reduction of cars within Sydney city?
|
| It is funny that the 'adaptive' system is flooded so it becomes a
| fixed system. The City of Sydney is going to have to recognise
| that to increase economic activity in the city there will have to
| be a reduction of cars to allow more persons access to this
| important economic space.
|
| Another big point I think is the idea of a wave of green lights
| so cyclists do not have to stop every block. Could a 'wave' idea
| also be used for cars to progress quicker - or will it just slow
| down other cars further?
|
| This is a really great analysis and wonderful blog post - keep up
| the great work.
| cdogl wrote:
| FWIW City of Sydney has ample space for pedestrians and along
| with state governments has done a lot to reduce car traffic,
| including largely repurposing the central road running down it
| (George St) for light rail and pedestrians. There are also many
| large pedestrian only "malls".
| dylan604 wrote:
| I've seen the wave idea implemented, and if you can actually
| drive the speed limit they are quite nice. However with the
| inconsiderate types out there blocking lanes and other
| examples, it's not always easy to catch. Also, the speed limits
| tend to be a bit faster than a bike will be going.
| JohnFen wrote:
| > I've seen the wave idea implemented, and if you can
| actually drive the speed limit they are quite nice.
|
| A bunch of the streets in my city do this, and it's awesome.
| Particularly when there's another car that doesn't know about
| it, so they're constantly speeding to next red light, where
| my relatively sedate pace gets me constant green lights, and
| I smile as I repeatedly pass the speeder that is trying to
| accelerate from a complete stop.
| dylan604 wrote:
| There's only 2 streets that i know of that were designed
| this way, but like i mentioned, the streets are usually too
| encumbered to actually get it to work. I haven't been
| downtown since pre-covid to know if they are even
| attempting to still do it.
| nomel wrote:
| Quite a few streets in my city do this, but only if you
| drive 10mph over the speed limit.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| Yeah chicago works like this if you go 10 over and blast
| every yellow. Not sure if that's just civil engineering
| realism or what.
| madeofpalk wrote:
| In case you're not aware, and im not sure about the "economic
| outcome", but The City of Sydney pedestrianised the main street
| through the city about 6 years ago when they also installed
| light rail, and it looks like they're extending it even
| further. https://community.sydneycivil.com/george-street-south-
| pedest...
| 8n4vidtmkvmk wrote:
| I've seen waves implemented on some streets in Canada (for
| cars). I don't know how you make it work in both directions
| though. Maybe you just do it in the direction with more
| traffic.
| JohnFen wrote:
| In my (US) city, they do this timing only on one-way streets.
| jakecopp wrote:
| Why do pedestrians in Sydney wait so long at traffic lights? I
| tried to find out the answer to this simple question and wrote a
| blog post of my findings - keen to hear your thoughts!
|
| I cover and share previously unpublished maps of signal timings,
| ODbL crowdsourced data from a open source website I built, how it
| costs $200 to buy data on a single intersection from the state
| government, details on signal programming in a proprietary plain
| text format, comparisons with best practice in Copenhagen and
| elsewhere, and what's in store for the future of traffic signals
| in Australia.
|
| Sydney is an important study location as it is the birthplace and
| development location of the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic
| System (abbreviated SCATS).
|
| Our government sells the system commercially to 30 countries and
| 200 cities around the world. We are quite literally exporting our
| biases. Countries that use Australia's traffic light system
| include New Zealand, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Amman,
| Tehran, Dublin, Rzeszow, Gdynia, Central New Jersey, and in part
| of Metro Atlanta. [1]
|
| [1]:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Coordinated_Adaptive_Tr...
| WarOnPrivacy wrote:
| > Why do pedestrians in Sydney wait so long at traffic lights?
|
| They don't immediately cross when they get a walk signal?
| jakecopp wrote:
| They do - however it may be multiple minutes before they get
| a green walk signal unfortunately.
| golemiprague wrote:
| [dead]
| quantified wrote:
| Excessive wait times with no danger is exactly why many of us on
| foot or bike will cross on a red light.
| 8n4vidtmkvmk wrote:
| Figures this out pretty quick in Europe too. The locals don't
| wait. There's lots of times when there's clearly no cars
| coming.
|
| California also doesn't have jaywalking fines anymore I think,
| so... Yeah I'm just going to cross where/when I think it's
| safe. Which is also often NOT when it's green because cars be
| crazy.
| myself248 wrote:
| I had never heard the term "scramble crossing" so I looked it up,
| and found this gem, from the former traffic commissioner of NYC:
|
| "As things stood now, a downtown shopper needed a four-leaf
| clover, a voodoo charm, and a St. Christopher's medal to make it
| in one piece from one curbstone to the other. As far as I was
| concerned -- a traffic engineer with Methodist leanings -- I
| didn't think that the Almighty should be bothered with problems
| which we, ourselves, were capable of solving."
| abraae wrote:
| Also known as a "Barnes dance" crossing (in NZ at least)
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