Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

CARLEtheCamry t1_iybuoxr wrote

Reply to comment by w0jty in Why are traffic lights in Pittsburgh timed so poorly? by rickyrichboy

I haven't noticed it lights around here, but I'm from Erie and my Dad is a civil engineer.

When I was a new driver, we had some family thing, and we both drove separately. We took 12th St home. It's like the most stoplights per mile of a 2-lane road, ever. I, being heavy on the gas at that point would accelerate quickly up to 40 (in a 35). My Dad did the slow Dad acceleration up to 35.

He ended up beating me home because he had momentum to get ahead of me right before it turned into one lane.

Once he was done gloating, he explained how the lights on 12th are timed to a specific speed to give you all greens if you do the posted speed limit, like that's the math it's based on. And also I'm a dumbass for wasting gas driving like that, it's bad for the car overall, etc.

Anyway the next time I drove on that road my father's voice came to me, like Yoda visiting Luke... *do the speed limit /u/CARLEtheCamry *. And driving down that road with the lights all turning green in front of me, like they were escorting me and it was pretty cool.

12th wasn't a pain in the ass - my driving was. No need to avoid it anymore.

That's not to say the timing on the lights isn't bad. But I bet some of the issues being discussed in this thread may have been caused by a little aggressive driving.

Lol now I want to know who's responsible for programming the lights by me.

7

w0jty t1_iycxbs7 wrote

Ha. I was also raised by a civil engineer and was constantly taught “lessons” growing up.

Still have lots of family in road construction, and the insights and frustrations they share are too innumerable to communicate to the general public. It’s really frustrating that everyone assumes people are doing their life’s work trying to make things more difficult for someone else.

4