since when does the Insight have a frame?
I assumed he meant the (uni)body.
which Insight does davidm have?
It’s a 2010 Insight EX.
Topper
so the body and structure are mostly steel.
For the purpose at hand - spacing out cars so they don’t try to enter the freeway all in a bunch - yes. Better in the sense of more reliable and equally as effective. Clearly, as the OP shows, sensor-based systems are not very reliable, and cause unnecessary hold-ups when the sensor fails to trigger.
As I said, I am fairly sure the on-ramp lights in the L.A. area do work on a timer, and they work fine. They are not on all day, of course, only when traffic on the freeway is heavy. Possibly the timed light system is put into operation by some sort of sensor system on the freeway itself (but my guess would be that it is actually switched on according to time of day and knowledge and observation of traffic patterns).
Which should trigger an induction loop, right?
Just to follow up on this, if anyone’s interested: The ramp signals haven’t been on again until recently. Over the last week or two they were on several times in the morning. They worked correctly for me every time.
So I guess whatever the problem was has been solved. Either they changed something or I overcame whatever stupidity was afflicting me and stopped in the right spot this time.
The sensors at the onramp lights do NOT cycle green/red when there is no traffic waiting. This, and the rest of what I have to say, is based on observation, and not from a specific cite, but I can try to find one if you want.
The lights are on timers so that they are only operating during certain hours of the day, generally rush hours. Once they are turned on, they are either steady green (based on traffic flow as measured by sensors on the freeway itself), or, if traffic is heavy enough, they stay red until a car is sensed on the onramp.
I think maybe they had to reverse the polarity of the flux capacitor in the sensor loop buffer. Glad to hear to worked for you.
Flux capacitor? I guess I better make sure not to go down that ramp at 88 MPH, or maybe I should and have an adventure! Hmm…
I can see one advantage for a sensor based ramp meter setup. Some vehicles will take longer to accelerate than others, and take up more roadway. If the system’s smart enough, it could detect the larger vehicle, and give it a longer green cycle, waiting for it to clear the lane before letting the other lane go.
The ramp I’m talking about is single lane. It’s purpose is to space out the vehicles entering the traffic flow.
Cameras don’t equal speed trap. They’re also used in place of metal detectors for traffic signal triggers. They probably look for changes in a grid pattern and interpret it as an object that is moving or has moved to the front of the intersection. They should allow for programming that recognizes different traffic patterns and adjust the lights accordingly.
In your case, it’s one car, one green light. It’s probably a metal detector. It’s an interesting conjecture to consider that the magnetic field thrown by a hybrid motor would mess with the signal but that implies it’s running. Is this an automatic transmission that will hold the car on a hill or does the engine shut off requiring you to brake?
Well as long as your car isn’t producing three point twenty one Giga Watts of power you should be fine :).