Longest timed drive without hitting a red light?

[tradephoric]

How long have you driven without hitting a red light?  The rules are you have to average at least 1 traffic signal per mile and maintain 5 mph of the posted speed limit.  Here's a 48 minute 20 second drive (at 4x speed) down Woodward Avenue while driving through 109 consecutive green lights.

[Max Rockatansky]

Yes, on Telegraph (US 24) also in Detroit.  The way the surface street network is designed is among the best out there. 

[tradephoric]

I think it's possible to drive an hour along Telegraph Road without hitting a red light.  The design and the light timings are just that good.  Here's a slightly longer drive down Woodward hitting 124 consecutive green lights over 53 minutes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb2R2fPB1nE

[kphoger]

Gee, I wondered who started this topic, and where his example would be...

[/not]

[Scott5114]

I got two consecutive greens in Norman once.

Maybe.

It could have been a dream, now that I think about it.

[Flint1979]

How long have you driven without hitting a red light?  The rules are you have to average at least 1 traffic signal per mile and maintain 5 mph of the posted speed limit.  Here's a 48 minute 20 second drive (at 4x speed) down Woodward Avenue while driving through 109 consecutive green lights.

Yeah that's my record. Woodward from Square Lake to somewhere in Detroit I can't remember the exact intersection. I didn't stop once and was doing 5 over the speed limit.

[SkyPesos]

Probably 5 minutes for me. Getting consecutive greens is hard here.

[tradephoric]

Gee, I wondered who started this topic, and where his example would be...

[/not]

It just feels like a world record (and not a world record on how many times someone posts about the same topic on a web forum  ).

[1995hoo]

The longest one that comes to mind for me was one day when my wife and I were commuting to downtown DC, we went through Old Town Alexandria using the right-lane HOV-2 lane on Route 1 and we somehow got every light as a green light all the way from the Beltway to the north end of Crystal City where the road becomes controlled-access. That's never happened to me before or since. I don't remember when it was, but I'm sure it must have been the day before a holiday weekend with lighter commute traffic. It wouldn't have been the week between Christmas and New Year's because the traffic is so light that week that we took I-395 instead. I've made it all the way through Old Town Alexandria on the green wave more than once, but never all the way up through Potomac Yard and Crystal City as well. (Even hitting the green wave can be difficult because you need to hit it just right. If you're second on line at a red light approaching the twinned one-way streets in Old Town, odds are you won't catch the green wave because the guy in front of you will be too slow off the line, and you need to pace your speed perfectly because if you go the speed limit, you don't catch the green wave, but if you go 5 mph over, you'll be going just a little too fast.)

For those unfamiliar, here is a map. It's only four and a half miles, but during the morning rush hour it can easily take half an hour or more due to a couple of long red lights.

I don't remember how long it took to make that drive the day we hit all the lights, but I believe we were at Memorial Bridge less than 20 minutes after exiting the Beltway.

[Flint1979]

Yes, on Telegraph (US 24) also in Detroit.  The way the surface street network is designed is among the best out there.

Yeah Telegraph is another one where you can hit a green wave of lights for awhile.

[Rothman]

Heh.  Just remembered my family was driving around Paradise Valley, AZ years ago and we hit a string of green lights (can't remember the road).

My father explained that rich people don't like red lights.

[tradephoric]

Green wave is possible on Central Avenue in Albuquerque. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaB_JyiE9eU

[tradephoric]

Heh.  Just remembered my family was driving around Paradise Valley, AZ years ago and we hit a string of green lights (can't remember the road).

My father explained that rich people don't like red lights.

That's right.  In this "woke" culture even traffic signals are systemically racist.

[Rothman]

Heh.  Just remembered my family was driving around Paradise Valley, AZ years ago and we hit a string of green lights (can't remember the road).

My father explained that rich people don't like red lights.

That's right.  In this "woke" culture even traffic signals are systemically racist.

"You're enjoying your day, everything's going your way, then along comes..."

[kphoger]

623 miles, approximately 11 hours.

Every pit stop along the way was at an exit with stop signs, not stoplights.

Oh, wait, didn't read the OP closely enough.

[tradephoric]

A 26 minute long drive of a taxi driver cruising through 236 consecutive green lights in Manhattan.  The drive was along one-way streets but still pretty impressive that all those lights were timed so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY37qT2G-cU

[bing101]

Heh.  Just remembered my family was driving around Paradise Valley, AZ years ago and we hit a string of green lights (can't remember the road).

My father explained that rich people don't like red lights.

That's right.  In this "woke" culture even traffic signals are systemically racist.

Geez! Ok back to the OP  I been on Folsom Blvd in Sacramento for 10 minutes and had to deal with a red light 3 times during the drive.

[Max Rockatansky]

Heh.  Just remembered my family was driving around Paradise Valley, AZ years ago and we hit a string of green lights (can't remember the road).

My father explained that rich people don't like red lights.

That's right.  In this "woke" culture even traffic signals are systemically racist.

"You're enjoying your day, everything's going your way, then along comes..."

What brought all this on? 

If it was Paradise Valley it was likely Tatum Boulevard or Lincoln Drive.  I commuted on both for years, they aren't all that smooth of light transitions. 

[mrsman]

A 26 minute long drive of a taxi driver cruising through 236 consecutive green lights in Manhattan.  The drive was along one-way streets but still pretty impressive that all those lights were timed so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY37qT2G-cU

While the green lights were consecutive, the driver did not drive straight down one street.  The driver on one section is driving down 5th Ave and then at 11:40, the driver makes a right on Washington Square North and then another right on 6th Ave.  So the driver is staying on one ways, but essentially going back the way he came.

Still nice to see.

The longest one-ways in NYC are 1st and 2nd Avenues, and similar feats can be done from Houston to 125th routinely in a straight line without interruption, so long as you do it at 2 in the morning.

[tigerwings]

Yes, on Telegraph (US 24) also in Detroit.  The way the surface street network is designed is among the best out there.

Years ago on my daily drive on Telegraph from Flat Rock to Michigan Ave I always hit a red light north of Van Born in Dearborn Heights.

[Flint1979]

You said it in the OP. Woodward was the first street I thought of when I saw this question. I've driven from Detroit to Pontiac before without hitting a red light.

EDIT: Now I realize this is an old post that I have already posted in.

[Flint1979]

A 26 minute long drive of a taxi driver cruising through 236 consecutive green lights in Manhattan.  The drive was along one-way streets but still pretty impressive that all those lights were timed so well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY37qT2G-cU

While the green lights were consecutive, the driver did not drive straight down one street.  The driver on one section is driving down 5th Ave and then at 11:40, the driver makes a right on Washington Square North and then another right on 6th Ave.  So the driver is staying on one ways, but essentially going back the way he came.

Still nice to see.

The longest one-ways in NYC are 1st and 2nd Avenues, and similar feats can be done from Houston to 125th routinely in a straight line without interruption, so long as you do it at 2 in the morning.

Every time I see the name Houston I think of pronouncing it like the city in Texas instead of how it's really pronounced in NYC.