so i just drove throught the strip of Rolling Road between Bradock and Old Keen Mill and i saw something weird happen. basically, i was driving along (at 1:40am) and one of the stoplights turns red as i near it. i looked at all the other signals and they were all red. no cars turned, no green arrows, just all red as i sat there for a solid 7 seconds. then my light turns green and i continue. i have never seen this behavior before at any light, especially the ones that say "Speeding causes light to turn red" as i know those are infact bullshit. however, i would like to point out that i was going ~38MPH, under the 40MPH limit. ive gone through that light MANY times and i know it works on sensors, not timing. this case was bizarre. im begining to think that perhaps there was a cop controlling the light and trying to catch people that run the light. if so, i think that's entrapment. in anycase, i know that light is right by the copstation. so... anyone know what the deal is?


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

When I used to sneak out at around then, the lights on west ox would just turn green and red by themselves- and when there were no cars. I think they're just programmed to turn red/green by themselves.

the fire department sometimes takes control of that intersection when they are going to or coming back from a call. I seriously doubt a cop was controlling an intersection at that time.

When I used to sneak out at around then, the lights on west ox would just turn green and red by themselves- and when there were no cars. I think they're just programmed to turn red/green by themselves.

Tina, your observation of the obvious is stunning yet ridiculous.

I'm pretty sure it was a stoplight unicorn just messing with you. They're so silly and it's well documented that they'll stop taunting if you throw cupcakes at them. I know. I didn't believe it when I first heard it too.

.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2011 10:42PM by LanEvo.

§ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm pretty sure it was a stoplight unicorn just
> messing with you. They're so silly and it's well
> documented that they'll stop taunting if you throw
> cupcakes at them. I know. I didn't believe it
> when I first heard it too.


if the unicorns dont mess with me, the cupcakes will. damn those tasty little bastards!


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

lol. that wasn't me.

Yeah, I've noticed a couple of lights like that around Fairfax.

This is an old post, I realize, but this might be useful information for someone:

At night, after about 10:00pm, most VDOT traffic signals are programmed to change instantly when the sensor for a lane that has a red light, or for the left turn lane (one where you can yield on green), detects a vehicle and the sensors for the lanes that have a green don't detect a vehicle.

Sometimes these sensors, for whatever reason, trip when there is no vehicle around. That's probably what happened.

I think VDOT should have a time delay (10 seconds or so) on the left turn lanes at night because I think it's pretty dumb that I can make a left turn on green at 1am and have the light change.

99% of the time, by the time the left turn arrow comes on, I've already completed my left turn and someone stopped for a light that didn't need to change.

One other thing I should mention--if the sensor stops detecting a vehicle before the green comes on, it'll skip the green phase and the light will never turn green.

I had that happen once when I pulled up too far over a sensor (this was late at night). The light instantly turned yellow for the opposing traffic, then red, and then back to green again without ever giving me a green signal. I had to back up a bit to trigger the sensor again. This time, as I recall, it waited about 20 seconds to give me the green again.

It was Gravis, so it must have been a police department plot to interfere with his travel. All police are out to get him, just read his posts.

Just another example of "The Man" trying to hold Gravis back...

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence (in this case, VDOT incompetence).

Although I do wonder if the fact that you have to drive at least 55MPH through the part of 28 that's posted at 45MPH (by I66 and 29) in order to make it through all of the lights while they're still green (heading north in the mornings) is really just incompetence.

Especially with the really heavy enforcement that Fairfax PD is doing there...

Nahh, that's probably just clock drift.

Are you referring to the stoplight at the intersection by the McDonald's & the Merchants Tire place? If so, you're right on with that. It happened to me at about 10:52 in the evening. As far as the person who was referring to the fire house controlling the intersection, I believe that one is located near the West Springfield post office!

If you ever notice traffic signal problems (like this or other problems), just call 703-383-VDOT and tell them what happened and where.

It seems that they have no idea when a traffic signal starts screwing up till someone complains about it.

watcher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was Gravis, so it must have been a police
> department plot to interfere with his travel. All
> police are out to get him, just read his posts.

Hemsk Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just another example of "The Man" trying to hold
> Gravis back...

"just because i think they're out to get me doesnt mean they're not" - GTA3


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

brianl703 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If you ever notice traffic signal problems (like
> this or other problems), just call 703-383-VDOT
> and tell them what happened and where.
>
> It seems that they have no idea when a traffic
> signal starts screwing up till someone complains
> about it.

I guess the alternative is to hire three full time VDOT employees, for each stoplight in the state, to cover 8-hours shifts of staring at each stoplight to make sure everything is okay.

As a matter of fact, VDOT has a dedicated data line to every signal controller (that they're responsible for, which excludes any that are in cities) in Northern Virginia.

They spent lots of tax dollars putting these data lines in, and even more tax dollars creating a "Smart Traffic Control Center" for these data lines to connect to, which is staffed full-time with VDOT employees. And they have software by PB Farradyne (called MIST) to monitor it all.

Given all of that, I certainly don't understand why they can't be a little more proactive about detecting problems. I'm told it's because the software doesn't have that capability, which is a pretty poor excuse IMHO.

Sometimes late at night, when the roads are completely empty, I'll pull up to a light that's red and then just as I come to the white line, I see the lights change to yellow, almost as if the traffic lights knew that I came to the intersection.

It happens a lot actually. I think maybe it's a coincidence, but i don't know. Maybe their is a magical fairy that makes the light change at the exact instance I pull up to the interection

There's a magic fairy that lives under the road. His name is Loop Detector. When he senses the metal in your vehicle through his magical powers known as the principles of inductance, he sends a signal to the traffic signal controller telling it that a car is there. The little men that live inside the traffic controller know that it's late at night, so there's little traffic, so they can change the light right away.

many need to be retimed