Ok, you nerdy kids, here is a math problem

it’s a 1kyu answer. how complete do you want it be? :stuck_out_tongue:

This timing would appear to be arbitrary and based on absolutely no quantitative models whatsoever, just “eeehhhhhhh two times feels right.”

1 Like

Not only that, if the driving time between the two lights is 1 minute, do you set

  • red = 3 minutes, green = 1 minute, or
  • red = 10003 minutes, green = 10001 minute
  • or something inbetween?
3 Likes

Real world solutions encountered in my country:
a) Have humans on either end waving people through. If they cannot see from end to end they coordinate either by radio submitters or simple timers.
b) Do nothing other than possibly making some temporary expansions from the other side of the road so if two cars are coming from different directions, one of them can sidetrack slightly off road. Since this is a forest road it might not have enough traffic to merit solution a.

Last week our amazing municipality cut BOTH sides of the road and had to make a full diversion of the traffic, but they only bothered having warning signs from ONE side … so, half the traffic was going the other way and the other half was consistently going the usual way, getting stuck and going back to find alternate routes of their own imagination. If you were not local, your best bet would have been waiting for a local to get stuck as well and follow them. If doesn’t get more “real” than that I guess. :rofl:

Apart from that @jlt 's solution is perfectly timed and I have nothing to add to it, but if I ever see it actually implemented here I will consider it as a miracle equal to half the Aegean turning to gold or something :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes

Well, it depends. This was in Arkansas, one of the top pro gun states in US, so you want to set the red light as short as possibly, because when people run out of patience and run into the mid of road with each other, they are going to shoot their way out. You don’t want to see that. :grinning:

OK so I found the correct algorithm. Put camera at both streetlights that detect face expressions. If people at the red light are significantly angrier than people on the other side, then change colors.

2 Likes

I was going to reply something like this, but I see it was already posted by another nerdy kid.

5 Likes