In this video, we look at a situation that developed when my viewer was leaving a car park behind a police vehicle. Were these lights broken, or were there things that the motorists could’ve done to help the lights change?
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Hi everyone my viewers just been parked in this car park and they’re following the police car out to the exit this video is not to point fingers but actually to educate people a little bit more on how traffic lights work and I’m also going to ask my viewers to add any
Extra useful information in the comments if you can help out this information about how traffic light sensors work is going to Aid your planning and anticipation in your daily driving most sets of traffic lights in the UK have sensors on and this AIDS traffic flow there’s often a time in element to most
Sets of traffic lights but if there’s no traffic coming from a particular direction there’s no point the lights being on green so they’ll often change to red and let the traffic from the other directions go that’s why when driving home at night if you stick to the main roads your lights are generally
Going to be on green because there’s little coming from the side roads there’s a gap in the traffic coming from the left and that’s why it’s release the traffic from the car park but the traffic is still queuing to the right hand side I think it’s the this lack of
Movement coming from the car park which has confused the traffic light system the sensor which can be seen on the top of the left traffic light has sensed that there’s been some movement and then nothing no vehicles have approached and stopped at the lights since the lights
Changed onto red so as far as the systems concerned there’s no one from this direction the sensors aren’t always going to be like we see on top of the light to the left a large proportion of the time they’re actually magnetic sensors which are laid into grooves
Cutting into the tarmac on the approach two sets of lights and they work in a similar way they pick up on traffic movement so now because the system’s confused it thinks no one’s coming from the car park why would it change the main road lights it’s just going to
Leave them on green and that’s exactly what goes on eventually the lights should cycle unless they are properly broke which may very well be the case here but I actually don’t think so this time to cycle can vary greatly in my experience you’ll some times have to
Wait 2 or 3 minutes or even longer depending on the business of the road that you’re exiting from another thing which may evaded the situation if one of the pedestrians that’s walked across had to press the button but they obviously don’t because there’s nothing moving even the driver of the police cars
Realizing something’s not quite right my viewer could have also done something to Aid this situation I’m not sure whether there was anyone behind but they could have probably reversed up and then approached the traffic lights again and that may very well have triggered the sensor into sensing them obviously
Encouraging the lights into cycling this standoff goes on for virtually another full minute before the police driver decides to do something well it has been nearly three and a half minutes since the lights changed onto red that may very well work sometimes but moving your car in my opinion has a
Better chance of triggering the sensors I think that sensor up there isn’t detecting the traffic yeah I think that sensor up there’s not seeing the traffic for some reason cuz they don’t go unless it can see the traffic on this side yeah either that’s broken or it can’t see the
Carus for some reason which is AIT weird yeah yeah cheers I think that information’s correct but I also think they rely on movement to actually pick up on the traffic if any of my viewers work in traffic Management Systems an explanation would be appreciated so T yeah yeah yeah that sounds
Good yeah I do think there is on this one but it’s hard to tell exactly what was said but I think we’ve got a few people coming over to help this also takes another full minute before we’re ready for action so in total it’s been a full seven
Minutes since the lights first change onto red so again I’d like to call on my viewers if you are an expert in this field is this a possibility will traffic lights potentially stay on red for this time or are they broke the police use the blue lights to stop the traffic from
The left hand side and allow the people out the car park what would you have done if you were caught in a similar situation and you didn’t have a police officer in front that could use their exemption interesting one this thank you keep safe everyone I’ll see you soon
40 Comments
My mate once told me if you approach traffic lights on say a cross junction and the lights are red, flash your main beam at them roughly 40-50 feet before and they will turn green. I'm sure it works but no every time.
From rule 176 of the highway code : If the traffic lights are not working, treat the situation as you would an unmarked junction and proceed with great care.
wow
I've walked on the sensors at night on the side road close to my home, I even pointed torchlight to mimmick oncoming traffic, guess what, it turned green 😂😂😂
Christ, just reverse man!!!
reverse it slowly to one car behind distance and drive forward slightly and slowly to the line…… after 2 mins if nothing happening then resever more even backward probably to 2 cars length and drive forward slightly and slowly again
I roll back & forth when they do this, you don't have to move much as long as you're in view of the sensor.
Flash your lights with full beam?
I used to have big problems with this when I worked shifts and rode and motor-bike to work, through town at night. I could sometimes trigger the lights by weaving across the road on the approach, to ride along the diagonal wires under the road. Another solution was to step off my bike and walk across the road pushing my bike. Sometimes I would very carefully inch out and cross on a red if it was all clear. I was never sure what the police would prefer me to do.
As a cyclist, when it's red you are actually allowed to go but only if you are a cyclist
I was in this situation before and I remember drivers behind was swearing at me because it didn’t want to move as the light was red for a few minutes , but few minutes later the other driver get on the pavement to overtake me but he didn’t know there is was undercover police car who stopped that guy and next few seconds the light has changed to the green except for the other driver who was stopped by the police
Good job police
That's in my home town…. Midsomer Norton
Your 100% right in everything you said. 13 years in the industry
My town uses underground strips to detect vehicles, unfortunately these particular ones don't work with motorcycles… I have had to ride through red lights multiple times when its late at night and there is no other traffic around to trigger the sensors behind me.
I used to wait 10 mins, trying all sorts to trigger them, these days I know its never going to trigger so I only wait a few minutes to see if a car arrives behind me to trigger them.
It sucks because im a stickler for the rules but I cant sit there for 8 hours until the morning traffic arrives…
If the police car had just reversed a few feet and turned his blues on, the lights would quickly go red on the other lanes, then they would have switched to green on the car park exit (if the sensor was working correctly) as lights flashing at 14-17 hz trigger UK traffic signals for emergency vehicles.
If the police car had just reversed a few feet and turned his blues on, the lights would quickly go red on the other lanes, then they would have switched to green on the car park exit (if the sensor was working correctly) as lights flashing at 14-17 hz trigger UK traffic signals for emergency vehicles.
They detect your presence after which green means go, yellow means go a bit quicker and red means only another 6 cars allowed past the line.
The sensors need to be smarter. Imagine late at night. You are the only car on the road, and light goes to red. So annoying.
Hi ashley hope you see this. What is the law concerning broken lights that wont change or temporary lights at road works, how long should you wait before just going ?
Always preferred the sensors in on the roads then the one's on top. Specially times like this.
Time's ive driven early hours or late in the evening & if you keep your speed right. The lights work in your favour & by the time you're thinking of stopping. They change to green.
But im not irish, and not have the leprechaun luck, they stay on red most of the time if i dont time it right 🤦♂️lol
This has happened a few times to me and each time, I just drove through checking carefully nothing was coming.
I'd simply creep forward and treat it as a give way
fucking bull shit traffic light on even no one come soon as i approached light changed from green to red and nonother cars or in other side
I work at Headway Traffic Management and I'm fully qualified in all traffic lights, the simple answer is.
On top of the traffic lights is a radar vehicle activation which detects movement, if no movement then the lights will stay red giving the main road green as a priority.
In this situation I would of reserved back if I could and drove up to the lights to activate the radar or driven up to the police car, in this video tho the radar seems to be abit dodgy or just simply dirty as dirt can affect the sensor.
Theses vehicle activation radars are on all Temporary Lights which I personally put on the road for the last 6 years now, I'm glad that the council are putting these radars on Permanent lights now BUT…the council need to clean them to avoid this problem but they don't.
Hope this helps 👍
The amount of traffic lights with sensors that I've gone through on red through poor sensors on my motorcycle is ridiculous.
Naughty cop, keeping his foot on the brake and not applying the parking brake!
There are 2 traffic lights on Tee roads near me that inexplicably turn red against the main road traffic for no reason when as there is NO other traffic around. Seems to me one of them MAY be to slow down traffic in a small village as it is red extremely briefly, but other one might be cross-wired as it often takes a car approaching on side road, for it to turn green for main road traffic.
I know these lights never had a issue with them
Well trained citizens. 😂
Why's the police car sitting with his brake lights on at the traffic lights?
Near where i live there is a traffic light that goes to red as you approach it but then a split second later goes back to green causing you to go down to first gear for no reason. Then on another day the same traffic light stays on red until someone comes the other way. Sometimes i've been sat for 5 full minutes.
I worked for a company called "Lux " for quite a few years and I fairly sue that those detectors were invented by the company . It sends out a cone shaped beam which detects oncoming traffic and lets a control panel know an that then waits a while before changing the red to green after turning the green to red.
Yes they would stay on red until the sensor detects traffic coming towards it
That's why you don't cross the first solid line and enter the pedestrian crossing zone unless it's green, officer.
I encounter this all the time as a cyclist even when there's no traffic at all in either direction. I've had to move onto the pavement to cut across quiet junctions because of it.
Are you gonna make videos of different sensors, lights, and my favourite the red light camera. How does it work? I was driving my car yesterday slowly due to traffic. My front axle just rolled through the white line with the sensors but I think my rear axle went through in red. However the camera didn't flash. So how does it know when to flash ? Is there a time interval between changing red and camera go live?
So, did the police officer switch the car off before he got out and went for a walk?
I'd have given up waiting eventually and proceeded through the red light with caution. What else are you meant to do if you genuinely believe the lights are malfunctioning?
I am a motorcyclist and this always happens to me at lights near my house, I typically just end up running them as there is no alternative when the roads are dead.
There is a junction near me that suffers from this problem. Reversing and going forwards again seems to solve the problem.
Glad I found this again, Happened outside Asda in Stafford. Someone blocked the exit route on the Box Junction and the lights cycled twice and then got stuck as nothing was moving and the sensors must have decided there was no need to change. The roads in Stafford were chock-o-block again due to an accident on the M6. Decided that when said car had moved out the way to pull forward slowly on Red and when it was safe to proceed off, the car behind followed too. Hopefully that got the lights going again. Box Junctions are there for a reason, no real excuse getting caught on one unless there's exceptional circumstances.