Night Flash

[jeffandnicole]

It's probably a separate discussion, but this raises the old question of what you do when it's 2:00 AM and you're at a red light and there's no other traffic around on any of the streets.

Turn right and then U-turn. 

There was one intersection near a bowling alley where I worked that had a loooooong red after 11pm or so.  I would do exactly this: Go up to the next parking lot, swing up on the curb apron to make a U-turn, and continue on my way.  One night a cop saw me do this and followed me for several miles (under the assumption that maybe I was drunk).  He finally stopped me.  When I told him why I did what I did, and with the cop well familiar with that light, and the cop could clearly see I still have my work uniform on from the bowling alley he was well familiar with - he basically told me to make it less obvious by pulling further into the parking lot then making the U-turn.

[1995hoo]

It's probably a separate discussion, but this raises the old question of what you do when it's 2:00 AM and you're at a red light and there's no other traffic around on any of the streets.

Turn right and then U-turn. 

That does NOT work if there is a sign present which says "no turn on red" or "no U-turn"

If you then do it anyway, it begs the question of why not just run the red light.

I used to treat some of the red lights in Durham, NC, as stop signs when it was very late at night. Some of those were in, as Bruce Springsteen put it, the part of town where when you hit a red light you don't stop. Well, I figured I'd better stop since I maintained my Virginia license plates, but I didn't want to linger in certain parts of town.

[Zeffy]

I've seen these signals flash late a night, which is probably good, considering traffic on 202/206 is much lighter than the day.

Interestingly enough though, these signal in Trenton are unique in the regard that the right-most signal for traffic continuing onto the Lower Trenton Bridge always flashes yellow, and that the signal on the left for traffic heading towards US 1 North always flashes red. I have never seen them operate like regular traffic signals.

[mrsman]

In this area, Montgomery County, Maryland, most of the lights go on flash from 1 AM - 5:30 AM.  The exceptions are at the intersections of two busy streets and if the geometry of the intersection makes a flash difficult.

So Georgia/University doesn't flash (major/major) Dennis/University doesn't flash (geometry), but Caddington/University (minor/major) does flash.

In my experience, almost all of them are flash red / flash yellow and very few are all-red flash.

Interestingly enough, I was surprised to see Connecticut/University on flash mode when I went on a very early flight a few years ago as this is a particularly tricky corner.  I hope they since changed it to all-night normal operation.

[TEG24601]

When I was living in Flint, MI, this was common with many signals, but certain high traffic signals, more than 4 directions, odd angles, and limited sight distance signals remained active, as did those on State Trunks.


I wish the signals here on Whidbey would do it.  As it sits right now our 5 signals on South Whidbey do not revert, which causes a lot of people to get frustrated and run the lights when there isn't any ferry traffic.  One would think that since the lights are sensored, they could detect ferry traffic and revert to 3-phase at those times, then switch to flashing mode otherwise after 10pm, or simply move to flashing mode during the 4 hours the ferries aren't running.

[tradephoric]

I just wish more corridors were designed so drivers wouldn't get stopped, period.  I don't care if a signal never flashes if the corridor progresses in such a way so the main platoon never gets stopped.  The only time i should expect to get stopped at a red light along a major corridor is if i just made a right turn from a side-street (or during rush hour when it takes multiple cycles to clear the intersection anyways).  The fact is, the majority of major corridors are incapable of providing good duel progression due to the spacing of the traffic signals.

[Bitmapped]

I'm not sure if it is a statewide thing, but a lot of Maryland SHA-maintained signals in western Maryland go into flash mode at night. WVDOH, ODOT, and PennDOT don't seem to do it, although some smaller towns still do in Ohio.

The village I grew up in Ohio had their two fixed timing signals go into flash mode at 10:00pm at night.

[empirestate]

In my part of Rochester, NY, it was common for signals to flash overnight; it occurs to me that I'm not sure whether they still do. I can understand the arguments against it, but of course that's a self-fulfilling argument, because the locations where those arguments apply are by definition not the right locations for night flash. It was never my observation that the Rochester locations were among those where it's an inappropriate choice.

Boy...what a roundabout way of saying: I think it's a good idea, except for those instances where it isn't, in which case it's a bad idea. (I'm not familiar with any locations where it's a bad idea, however.)

[DrSmith]

Connecticut does a lot of night flashing of signals, mainly from 10pm-6am, but some start later and end earlier.  But for areas where there are reasons not to flash (road size, geometry, etc) they remain in normal operation at all times.  The night flashing makes it easier, and I think when it is the norm in the area people would understand and be able to handle it. 

[Revive 755]

Missouri used to use flash mode at night, but has generally forbidden it due to the safety aspects.

Somewhat related question: Do you know of any signals that have (or had) a low-volume flashing period that wasn't primarily in the overnight hours?

Missouri still does for some signals near schools, but it seems to be on the decline:

* Route P at Affton High School near St. Louis (Streetview)

* MO 21 at Luthern South High School near St. Louis (Streetview)

*  Two signals for schools on MO 109 around Eureka (Streetview) (Streetview)

[NYhwyfan]

A few signals from my town used to have go to flash during the night; however with new signals replacing those it was decided to leave the signal operate normally. Loop detection overnight would allow the signal to detect a car anyways and with a low volume should change relatively quick anyways.