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Comment by at1as | Hacker News Reader

> This is a major problem at an intersection near me that I used to have to drive through frequently. Two intersections, only about 500 feet between them

In San Francisco (as well as other cities I've lived in) they put police in the middle of intersections during rush hour to guide traffic (i.e., stop cars before they drive into an intersection that they'll get stuck in the middle of). Seems woefully inefficient

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When traffic is really heavy humans are better than machines at getting traffic through. However they cost a lot of money and so are only rarely worth the cost.

It might be more about drivers respecting the signals than about the efficiency at which the signals are handed out. Plenty of people will try to squeeze into a yellow light even if they might get stuck on the intersection if the road is backed up but they are less likely to do so with a police officer watching them.

There is that, but also the police can see that the road will backup and stop traffic before that happens. They let someone who is going to a non-backed up road go instead. They also can see a road is backing up and give that high priority if there is a place for the cars to go.

The traffic cops greatly improve throughput.

Imagine how much gas would be saved if the city spent a little effort on the traffic lights.

How much gas would be saved by turning half of each 4-lane stroad into a bike lane! :)

There are many bike lanes where I live, all installed in the last few years.

The bike traffic remains 1% of the car traffic, and 0% when it's cold/rainy.

Oh man, so much to be said about those two short, crass sentences... x)

The cyclists also tend to wander out of the bike lane into the car lane, without looking, and I've had many try drafting off of my bumper.

> The cyclists also tend to wander out of the bike lane into the car lane

This sentence alone tells me that it's not a bike lane. A painted line is not a bike lane.

Walter I'm seriously fighting the urge to write a wall of text in response. Why the knee-jerk reaction and the hyperboles? It's not interesting conversation...

You could also save some electricity by turning off your computer and never turning it back on.

It's not really saving gas if your alternative doesn't achieve even remotely the same thing.

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