Would it help if traffic lights had visible countdown timers?

The “pedestrian light” does in my city. Counts down from ten to – - – when it is not safe to cross.

Only helpful on the Green. Some places on highways have a flashing yellow prior to the traffic light indicating that the green is about to change to yellow hence giving you an advance notice to slow down or gun it!

Yellow means to clear the intersection anyway.

Countdown on the red to change to green would be asking for trouble with people jumping the GO!

Countdown counters are quite common in China and I liked them. You can relax more knowing when the lights will change.

Yes, and there are some, especially on Walk signals.

There are also some half-measures with a similar idea. In Vancouver, the signals have yellow and blinking yellow, for example, which is really helpful on the roads they have there with long streets with a left lane that waits to turn left, but isn’t a dedicated turn lane.

The ones that count down from yellow to red are very common where I live. Sometimes they start at 20, sometimes 10.

And when the light does turn green, you can turn left if there’s a yellow left arrow blinking and it’s clear. It blinks through the whole green light time. So helpful in avoiding traffic build-ups.

In Europe and parts of the middle east, traffic lights go red-orange for a second or two before turning green. I like that.

If there were such things, people would speed up to beat the lights. Accidents would increase.

No. Back home our lights didn’t even have the yellow light when I was a kid. People still stopped on red and moved on green with no problem. The yellow serves as a warning. The idea proposed here is quite stupid.

You realize that there are invisible timers in all of the various traffic management equipment. They are usually mounted in those 4’x4’ silver boxes mounted near a traffic light.

The timers used to be small rotating disks that would trigger one circuit or another. But mechanical stuff tends to wear out over time. Most today are solid state (digital) timers and many are connected to the internet and a central controller.

They’re not visible to you and me, but they are there, working.

A green to yellow timer would not be helpful. A red to green timer might result in more accients A yellow to red timer is used a lot for walk/don’t walk signs.

Countdown timers are great. I’ve lived the past 16 years with countdown timers in Chicago & Milwaukee. I appreciate them as a driver. Even more so as a bicyclist, I think they reduce the number of cars running red lights.

In the UK the light sequence is red (do not cross), red/yellow (get ready to go), green (go, if safe), yellow (stop, if safe), back to red. You aren’t expected to do an emergency stop for a yellow light. That works well enough without the need for countdowns.

I have no idea how they might benefit or harm traffic, but it is interesting to me how some countries choose to use them. They seem to be all over Kazakhstan, for example. In Kazakhstan, the timer is sometimes located within the yellow light itself, and it seems to count down for both red and green lights.