Red light, green light

As I stood on a street corner today in the deceptively strong January sunlight waiting for the light to change while absolutely no cars went by I had the oddest thought: why are traffic lights still on timed cycles?

We live in the golden era of infrared sensing technology. Your TV remote, your “keyless entry” on your car, the doors at the supermarket that open automatically when you step up, these things all use infrared technology to get a signal from one device to another. So why is it, then, that traffic lights are still running on an archaic system of timing that requires the periodic measurement of traffic flow and according adjustment to said programing? Why not a system of sensors that allows the lights to cycle dynamically giving the green where there is traffic and the red where there is none?

I know, I’m not urban engineer, but the thing of it is, I got to jaywalk across the street and go on to the post office while all those cars had to sit and watch the metaphorical tumbleweeds go by.

Just a random thought in brought to you by a cold January breeze.