Fort Lauderdale: Sunrise Boulevard closed at tracks through Tue...

Bet they won't change the timing of any of the traffic lights to accomodate the changes.

Why are there almost no railroad overpasses in Florida? We had them in NC, with a much smaller tax base. At least they could build the crossings better so that would last a few years without damaging vehicles.

The Dot in this state is So dam stupid. 5 min red lights at left turn lanes and 15 sec left turn lane green lights. traffic is usually backed up not because of volume but because of the DOT!!

Regular red lights are 3-5 min's long however when your light turns green the one in front of it is red.

MANHATTAN HAD A BETTER TRAFFIC FLOW. WHO EVER DESIGNED THIS INFRASTURE DOWN HERE WAS A TOTAL IDIOT!!!!!

Greg Tamarac wrote:

The Dot in this state is So dam stupid. 5 min red lights at left turn lanes and 15 sec left turn lane green lights. traffic is usually backed up not because of volume but because of the DOT!!
Regular red lights are 3-5 min's long however when your light turns green the one in front of it is red.
MANHATTAN HAD A BETTER TRAFFIC FLOW. WHO EVER DESIGNED THIS INFRASTURE DOWN HERE WAS A TOTAL IDIOT!!!!!

Greg,

Broward County provides computer control of the big silver boxes you see controlling the traffic lights. Broward County sets the lights to the specifications required by the cities. Because we have a lot of small cities (30+ in Broward), the general goal is to impede the flow of non-resident traffic, and encourage them to take toll roads or interstate highways, and NOT to cut through their cities. The exceptions are near shopping malls and gambling facilities, impeding traffic here hurts business. You might notice in some cities the lights are set more favorably getting to the mall than leaving the mall (they already have your money). Late at night, when traffic is very light, the lights become especially frustrating to discourage "dangerous speeders", "drag racers", etc., basically boring them to death at 5 minute long red lights, one after another.

Another exception is rush hour. Isn't it odd that with heavy traffic, one can actually get from point A to point B in LESS time during rush hour. That's because that is the only time of day the Broward computers direct the big silver boxes to change the traffic lights correctly.

When traffic is light, six lane roads are considered a liability by many cities, who pretend to be doing road median cleaning, etc. each day, reducing them by one or two lanes (with cones and workers standing around) in each direction as soon as rush hour is over, and taking down the cones as the evening rush hour approaches.

The computer control of the traffic lights is very precise, at a given time of year at a certain hour, you could measure it with a stopwatch. Then, if the lights are all blown down by a hurricane, after they are put back up, you could come back with a stopwatch and find the light timing is exactly what is was before. So much for the "cheap equipment" theory.

The misconception is that the lights are designed to smoothly move traffic or for some reason are cheaply made and will one day be improved. It is an elaborate and expensive system, and it implements a very politically-driven agenda, and they are set EXACTLY the way the politicians and their nameless staff want them to be set.

In some cities, the red lights are used as a cheaper alternative to hiring additional police officers. If traffic is heavy, red light running becomes impossible, so traffic is brought down to a manageable average speed of 20 mph or less, and without expensive police intervention.

The push for red light cameras is to handle the situation where the city has little budget for traffic enforcement, the red lights are set to long cycles, and traffic is light (such as late at night). This self-regulating system breaks without heavy enough traffic to prevent red light running.

Try living and commuting in Las Vegas.