Traffic Lights

skivenov

Anticipate better, if they show signs of being that slow, be ready to duck around them on amber.

scotsbob

aardvaak wrote: »

Why are some people so slow at moving away at traffic lights?

Because they are car sitters not car drivers.

They are in a nice comfy chair, listening to the radio, in a daydream, oblivious to what is going on around them, anticipation and awareness non existent.

The car driver is aware of what is going on, anticipating the change of lights, in gear if one of the first three cars at the lights, otherwise clutch and handbrake covered.

In a place like Italy, or better still Morocco, if you are not away sharpish there is a barrage of horns behind you to wake you up.

Lum

I'm ok with people being a bit slow, my pet peeve at the moment is this set of lights

During the day it has a right turn filter arrow, and a solid green circle for straight ahead, not a straight ahead arrow.

People will sit there behind the stop line when the solid green circle is lit up, and wait for the filter.

At night the filter is deactivated, so they then sit waiting for it anyway, then it goes straight to red. On the next cycle they'll pull forward barely enough to get the rear of their car over the stop line when you can get three cars in that junction. That's two cycles of the lights wasted thanks to these nuggets. You can see by the wear on the road that nobody bothers to make efficient use of the space.

Of course, it's a right turn into a Tesco, so not like it's an unused little side road with hardly any traffic.

Wonder if it's legit to just assume they're broken down and go around them?

OriolaW

It's not a great deal of time that one has to wait

alleycat`

Possibly that on newer cars they have a "stop/start" system that only restarts the engine when they depress the clutch?

Some people know and anticipate lights based on the cycles as they drive them daily.

Other people just wait until it goes green and then actually start to go through their setting off process.

Mirrors, Handbrake, etc.

Other people like to sit with their foot on the brake or ride the clutch so they can fly off the light

That can be equally annoying when you are sat behind them.

spacey2012

Those that crawl towards the next set thinking they are "timing it" so only 3 cars at tops get through.
You want to make them write down 500 times.
There is a loop in the road you thick nugget at the next set that wont change until you drive over it, you have timed nothing"

MEM62

I now pull away from lights (and other junctions) just a little slower than I used to - why? Because my new Honda Civic has a stop-start system whereby the engine cuts out when the car in stationery and re-starts are you engage first gear. The delay is only a fraction of a second but, as we all know, that might as well be half an hour to all the cars behind you.

neilmcl

alleycat` wrote: »

Possibly that on newer cars they have a "stop/start" system that only restarts the engine when they depress the clutch?

I have stop/start and can still get away from the lights just as quick as anyone else. There's plenty of time between the red and green light for you to depress the clutch and get into gear.

alleycat`

neilmcl wrote: »

I have stop/start and can still get away from the lights just as quick as anyone else. There's plenty of time between the red and green light for you to depress the clutch and get into gear.

So do i.
I also concur you can get away almost as quickly as before.
It helps , especially, if you know the lights.
I'm hypothesising it would add even more delay to certain drivers.

Strider590

Lum wrote: »

I'm ok with people being a bit slow, my pet peeve at the moment is this set of lights

During the day it has a right turn filter arrow, and a solid green circle for straight ahead, not a straight ahead arrow.

People will sit there behind the stop line when the solid green circle is lit up, and wait for the filter.

At night the filter is deactivated, so they then sit waiting for it anyway, then it goes straight to red. On the next cycle they'll pull forward barely enough to get the rear of their car over the stop line when you can get three cars in that junction. That's two cycles of the lights wasted thanks to these nuggets. You can see by the wear on the road that nobody bothers to make efficient use of the space.

Of course, it's a right turn into a Tesco, so not like it's an unused little side road with hardly any traffic.

Wonder if it's legit to just assume they're broken down and go around them?

I totally get this, what they also don't realise is that the filter lane light is triggered by the induction loop just past the stop line. So even in heavy traffic is they don't pull past the line, the lights will not change in their favour.

I've also had people behind use their horn when i've gone before the filter lane light came on..... Probably the same people you mentioned.