The algorithms set on new traffic lights in Thailand are really slow

[davidst01]

In situations where the local authorities improve a road and install a new traffic light, I find that the turnover of the lights from red to green, for example, is incredibly slow. Its common that all traffic is at a standstill for many seconds longer than it should be- with nothing happening. There's one particularly bad one I recently observed in a town in Issan thats on a main highway. At both intersections the light was red. We were waiting for it to go green and had to wait around 5 seconds for it to click over.

 

Do the idiots who set the algorithms actually observe the traffic before applying the settings or how does it work exactly?

 

 

 

[Carib]

You have my 5 second sympathy. It is hard to imagine the horror you are going through.

[cornishcarlos]

5 seconds !! You had to wait that long ?

I think its good.. Wait 5 secs and have less chance of getting T-boned by another impatient dick... 

Locals where I am know that its now a long wait so they just go as soon as the other light goes to red anyway :)

[nisakiman]

I don't see that having both directions on a red light for a few extra seconds is a major problem - it avoids the problem of close encounters with drivers who come flying through the lights just after they've turned red.

 

What I don't get about Thai traffic lights, particularly in Bangkok, is why they take so long to change. It's quite normal to sit at a red light for more than five minutes, during which time the traffic backs up several blocks and causes all sorts of gridlock problems at the intersections behind. In European cities, the lights cycle quite rapidly, which keeps the traffic flowing. It's quite common in Bangkok to be sitting at a red light with traffic jam-packed behind you for several blocks while looking at an almost deserted road ahead which should really be carrying some of that traffic, and would be if the lights cycled at shorter intervals. I'm sure that the long periods cars are held at the lights makes the traffic problems in the city much worse than they need to be.

[Lee4Life]

Who waits the extra five seconds? Unless it is an intersection that has a red-light camera everyone where we are just watches the other traffic lights and goes as soon as they turn red (or even before).

[Pungdo]

Here in Pattaya for as long as I have lived here there has been a 5 second delay between one direction going to Red and the other Green, as someone else said, it gives the red light runners time to clear out the intersection, even then it quite often isn't long enough.

[fullcave]

18 hours ago, davidst01 said:

Do the idiots who set the algorithms actually observe the traffic before applying the settings or how does it work exactly?

It doesn't. Even when there are no cars on the road much less under traffic. 

[VocalNeal]

I always thought you could tell if someone has lived here for a long time as they have traded their watch for a calendar. Now I find I need a stopwatch to be concerned about traffic lights. Maybe the OP lives in a town with only one traffic light?

 

That being said I do try to plan my routes based on left-hand turns and the number of traffic lights.

[impulse]

18 hours ago, nisakiman said:

I don't see that having both directions on a red light for a few extra seconds is a major problem - it avoids the problem of close encounters with drivers who come flying through the lights just after they've turned red.

 

What I don't get about Thai traffic lights, particularly in Bangkok, is why they take so long to change. It's quite normal to sit at a red light for more than five minutes, during which time the traffic backs up several blocks and causes all sorts of gridlock problems at the intersections behind. In European cities, the lights cycle quite rapidly, which keeps the traffic flowing. It's quite common in Bangkok to be sitting at a red light with traffic jam-packed behind you for several blocks while looking at an almost deserted road ahead which should really be carrying some of that traffic, and would be if the lights cycled at shorter intervals. I'm sure that the long periods cars are held at the lights makes the traffic problems in the city much worse than they need to be.

 

Lot of times, the cops in those little booths take over control.  You'd hope it's because they know something about the conditions that can't be programmed into the algorithm, but sometimes the opposite seems true.  On the other hand, I can't count the number of times the roads have been cleared for a VIP to pass- 3 intersections away...

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by impulse

[Card]

19 hours ago, Carib said:

You have my 5 second sympathy. It is hard to imagine the horror you are going through.

I am more concerned about the 0 secs allotted to pedestrian' crossing. Maybe that's supposed to happen in the 15 sec pause when the articulates take over and mow them down.

[Jonmarleesco]

Algorithms? This is LoS. Most of the time, the RTP manually control them. Whenever they switch to computerised operation, it's with a system long out of date. 

[Jonmarleesco]

19 hours ago, nisakiman said:

I don't see that having both directions on a red light for a few extra seconds is a major problem - it avoids the problem of close encounters with drivers who come flying through the lights just after they've turned red.

 

What I don't get about Thai traffic lights, particularly in Bangkok, is why they take so long to change. It's quite normal to sit at a red light for more than five minutes, during which time the traffic backs up several blocks and causes all sorts of gridlock problems at the intersections behind. In European cities, the lights cycle quite rapidly, which keeps the traffic flowing. It's quite common in Bangkok to be sitting at a red light with traffic jam-packed behind you for several blocks while looking at an almost deserted road ahead which should really be carrying some of that traffic, and would be if the lights cycled at shorter intervals. I'm sure that the long periods cars are held at the lights makes the traffic problems in the city much worse than they need to be.

'I don't see that having both directions on a red light for a few extra seconds is a major problem - it avoids the problem of close encounters with drivers who come flying through the lights just after they've turned red.'

 

Just after they've turned red. You must be encountering Thais with patience, if not any measurable common sense. They all too often pass through long after a change, then proceed to block the junction to traffic from one side or the other, usually with some cop sitting in his booth looking on.

[ICECOOL]

Do the idiots who set the algorithms actually observe the traffic before applying the settings?

 

Um no. 

Nor do they have any common sense where they put them. 3 sets on the HH "bypass" case in point. retarded.

 

Edited January 4, 2018 by ICECOOL
more comment

[jerojero]

Algorithms, manual control? Doesn't matter, as there is simply too many vehicles for the design and number of streets!

Sent from my [device_name] using http://Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[tifino]

10 minutes ago, jerojero said:

Algorithms, manual control? Doesn't matter, as there is simply too many vehicles for the design and number of streets!

Sent from my [device_name] using http://Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

... and, that they never stop on the red anyway

 

 

Intersection-creep is always going to be a problem, until they start following the rule of:

Don't begin to enter an Intersection, that you cannot immediately Exit from (at the other side)

[Ulic]

It is still not enough. So many people keep running through the red light

as if it were still green for them. Lights are only a suggestion in Thailand.

A red light runner camera would pay for itself in a couple of days in Pattaya.

[Oxx]

I'm more irked by the incredibly long cycles of the lights.  It's pretty common in Bangkok to have the lights on red for 3 or 4 minutes - often followed by just 20 seconds of green.

[Grusa]

In my experience, the only time the traffic flow really smoothly is when the traffic lights fail completely. When they switched on the tls on the railway line in Pattaya, the traffic gridlocked completely in all directions, and including rail traffic! they have not been used in years.

At busy times on that road, at certain junctions,  there is often gridlock and it takes two competent and communicating policemen at each to tls. keep them flowing. These resources are however in short supply.

In UK, tls have traffic sensors, and are linked, so that traffic is managed in a joined-up algorithm. I have never seen such a system here.

I was once told...I don't know if it was true.... that there is only one man in Thailand, a Dutchman, who is capable of programming sequential lights.

Another major cause of congestion is the reliance on U-turns, especially for trucks and buses. Often at TLs right turns are banned,at peak times, forcing traffic to turn left and U-turn, thus increasing the congestion.

Factor in Thai impatience and total ignorance of lane discipline, so that four-way lights have to be sequenced so only one direction can be green at any one time...even if there is no substantial amount of traffic....no wonder the country is gridlocked.

[tryasimight]

5 hours ago, Grusa said:

In my experience, the only time the traffic flow really smoothly is when the traffic lights fail completely. When they switched on the tls on the railway line in Pattaya, the traffic gridlocked completely in all directions, and including rail traffic! they have not been used in years.

At busy times on that road, at certain junctions,  there is often gridlock and it takes two competent and communicating policemen at each to tls. keep them flowing. These resources are however in short supply.

In UK, tls have traffic sensors, and are linked, so that traffic is managed in a joined-up algorithm. I have never seen such a system here.

I was once told...I don't know if it was true.... that there is only one man in Thailand, a Dutchman, who is capable of programming sequential lights.

Another major cause of congestion is the reliance on U-turns, especially for trucks and buses. Often at TLs right turns are banned,at peak times, forcing traffic to turn left and U-turn, thus increasing the congestion.

Factor in Thai impatience and total ignorance of lane discipline, so that four-way lights have to be sequenced so only one direction can be green at any one time...even if there is no substantial amount of traffic....no wonder the country is gridlocked.

What you were told is BS........a Dutchman....really??

Programming a PLC is not that difficult whether it be ladder logic, structured text, function blocks or sequential ...high school kids can do it. 

Understanding and analysing traffic flow is a completely different matter.

 

All in all Bangkok doesn't do a bad job.  

[dpdp]

Don't be stupid, why waiting at any traffic light ? The fine is so cheap, I never wait anywhere.

 

 

[bluesofa]

The pause from lights in one direction turning to red to the next direction turning to green is three seconds.

 

I know because I take my son to school every day and out of boredom I count how long the lights are green on each different direction, along with the pause.

Yes, I should have been an accountant I hear you say, but it's something to do.

 

Also, the last time I went to renew my driving licence and had to watch the compulsory video, I noticed the narrator mentioned that same three-second pause.