Do you have this type of traffic light where you live?

[Pinnacle-Project]

I'm in Phoenix right now. They have something here I have never seen before.

During busy times of the day, the on ramps to the freeway have traffic lights that quickly switch between green and red. As you start up the ramp, you must stop briefly and then you can proceed. What is the point of this? In order to safely merge into freeway traffic by the end of the on ramp, you should be going pretty much the same speed as the freeway traffic. Since they force people on the ramp to stop about 1/4 of the way up the ramp, a person must accelerate quickly in order to make it up to speed by the time they are at the end of the ramp. During non-busy times of day, the traffic lights are turned off.

I wish I could take a picture of this but I am traveling alone so I probably should not take a picture while driving. I guess you all get the idea of what I am saying.

[Larommi]

I'm in Phoenix right now. They have something here I have never seen before.

During busy times of the day, the on ramps to the freeway have traffic lights that quickly switch between green and red. As you start up the ramp, you must stop briefly and then you can proceed. What is the point of this? In order to safely merge into freeway traffic by the end of the on ramp, you should be going pretty much the same speed as the freeway traffic. Since they force people on the ramp to stop about 1/4 of the way up the ramp, a person must accelerate quickly in order to make it up to speed by the time they are at the end of the ramp. During non-busy times of day, the traffic lights are turned off.

I wish I could take a picture of this but I am traveling alone so I probably should not take a picture while driving. I guess you all get the idea of what I am saying.

They have ramp metering in the Twin Cities. It is supposed to even the flow of traffic onto the freeway so that traffic on the freeway stays even and flows better. they are actually pretty common.

I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramp_meter will explain it better

[slgrieb]

They have ramp metering in the Twin Cities. It is supposed to even the flow of traffic onto the freeway so that traffic on the freeway stays even and flows better. they are actually pretty common.

I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramp_meter will explain it better

Back when I lived in Northern Virginia, I saw them a lot, and they were becoming increasingly common. But even Amarillo has only about 200,000 residents, so you don't even find ramp meters on I-40.

[Pinnacle-Project]

I think http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramp_meter will explain it better

It seems like I would have seen them by now considering how many cities use them but this is the first time I have seen them.

[slgrieb]

It seems like I would have seen them by now considering how many cities use them but this is the first time I have seen them.

For what it's worth, I couldn't tell that they accomplished anything. Traffic in the D.C. area is so congested, that you are just being metered to get in a miles long line of non-moving vehicles. Larommi's Wikipedia article mentions systems that were installed and later removed, in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, but I never saw them in use there. Perhaps Texas drivers just kept shooting them out

[emr]

They have them on the ring in Amsterdam, not everywhere but they are becoming more common.

[Webhead]

Oh man, I just assumed metering lights were normal everywhere. We've had them here for the last couple decades. They are pretty much standard at every on/off ramp on the freeway. I'm surprised that they aren't so common in other places. Learn something new everyday.

[Gazzak]

We've had lights metering traffic onto certain motorways at certain times of day at the busiest spots. Does it make any difference? Absolutely not. A complete waste of time.

[Overdrv]

We don't need them in Canada everyone is so polite and always lets you in <------- This is complete and utter bullshit

[Webhead]

We don't need them in Canada everyone is so polite and always lets you in <------- This is complete and utter bullshit

Or you could've ended that line with, " #sarcasm "