Traffic light related. Is it possible...?

Question

To set traffic lights to turn red/green at different times depending on the time of day?

So that say from 7-9am one lane's traffic lights are green and all the others are red. But after 9am its how it usually is (a big pain in the *** which causes major traffic in the morning)

Answer 1

Yes traffic lights can be set to act differently and different times and some can even be 'controlled' from a traffic centre. Annoying I know

Answer 2

Some towns have linked lights where if you travel at the speed limit on the major road you will not be stopped by traffic entering from side roads as the lights are synchronised to allow the traffic entering only when there is a sufficient gap.
Although in major cities the lights can be controlled by the local cctv centre to alleviate congestion.

Answer 3

Yes some are decided by the amount of traffic that passes over detectors in the road surface. If there are no cars waiting on a side road to turn on to the main roads, the signal will stay red and allow the traffic on the main road to keep going.

Answer 4

Yes, indeed. There's one set that I have the pleasure of dealing with daily which has a substantially different bias during the rush hours than at other times, and there's another set which clearly isn't set up that way - you can sit for an age at 3 am watching the lights merrily cycle their way around (7 sets) until they get round to you, with absolutely no other traffic around.

Answer 5

Yes, traffic lights change differently at different times of day, it's all done by computer.
BTW, rumour has it that some councils in London delibarately set their lights up to CAUSE gridlock as a means to implementing the congestion charge, which once introduced, they simply reprogrammed the lights the way they should have been all along so they could say, "Look, no congestion! It's a success!"
Watch for it happening in your town!!

Answer 6

its cos you get more traffic flow in the morning.