Re:The rise of the pointless job
by ouid on Friday May 04, 2018 @07:23PM
(#16999239)
Those signs say stop on the other side and are used in conjuction with someone on the other end of the construction holding up the opposite sign so that a single lane can be used to handle traffic in two directions. That job would need to be automated with a traffic light.
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In Germany, no-one is holding stop/slow signs at any construction site. This job is universally done by portable traffic lights.
In Germany, people respect traffic lights even when there's no one there to enforce your good behavior.
Re:The rise of the pointless job
by marcosdumay on Friday May 04, 2018 @07:33PM
(#16999282)
A smart traffic light that can count how any cars enter and exit the zone. It's perfectly possible to automate, but it may not be the best ROI around.
They are common in Sweden for slower roads and streets. I’m quite certain they don’t count the cars, instead just leaving enough time even for slow cars to pass through.
That also breaks down when they need to fully stop traffic from both sides so a equipment can be moved. How do you tell the automated lights to stop everything automatically when those instances are irregular.
You press a button. I’m not joking either, they have a way to program them quickly for exactly this reason. Set them on a cycle, or turn them to manual.
The system would also need to detect which direction the traffic was going. In morning rush hour, outbound would be much heaver than inbound (of your neighborhood) so it would typically be unidirectional.
I've seen such lights in remote construction sites on road trips. They do exist.