does flashing traffic lights work?

[rotters]

just driven home from work and noticed a fellow in front of me flashing the traffic lights and they seemed to change, dont know if its coincidence or just their timing. so any proof this works or anyone out there to dispell this evil rumour?




rotters

 

[moss]

Ive heard it worked with temp traffic lights, not sure how true it is. I once saw an unmarked cop car do it and they did change though.

 

[willd58]

It works on some temporary ones, im not sure about anything else.

 

[Domo]

I don't think so - the sensor detects your car and not your lights.

 

[great advice]

I don't think so - the sensor detects your car and not your lights.

It does it by detecting the heat off your engine, if it doesnt pick up on it flashing your lights can work. Never seen it done myself but read about it on passionford.com Its only the temp ones IIRC. There;s another way of them doing it too, they have wires going across the road and it picks up when you drive over them. the same cables are also used to log traffic flow data before they errect permanent lights so they can get the timings corrent without having to go through a trial and error process.

 

[Clarkey]

they use IR sensors, so yes its possible giving it some main beam action could trigger it.

 

[pinkaardvark]

This used to work for me on some fixed site ones, not tried it in a long time though. The engine heat thing doesn't make sense though as the system was designed to make light switching faster at night when traffic was reduced ie to prevent you sitting on red when there's no one coming the other way. But the sensors were only ever fitted to selected sites so it doesn't work for all of them.

 

[bingham67]

I find positive thought works better stay green stay green

But ive never tried flashing traffic lights to be honest one to try though

 

[MrSix]

I'm gonna try this on my way to sixth form this morning - might even film it...await results

 

[Mat]

I find patience works. They all change every time

 

[Melon]

Traffic lights do change when you flash them but not all of them work. It depends if the traffic lights change as the see on coming traffic or if they are just on a timed sequence. I know quite a few of the traffic lights in my local area that do change when I flash them.

 

[Draeger]

I always find applying the handbrake usually does the trick.

As soon as you have done that and put the car into neutral, the lights seem to change.

 

[Big Spender]

it works on a few permanent ones for me

 

[agw_01]

While playing with a Fiesta a year ago, we got up to some temporary traffic lights which were on red.

I noticed that he flashed his lights a few times, and low and behold the lights changed.

Made me grin a little.

 

[Oracle]

The number of traffic lights that still operate this system are reducing greatly in the UK. They used to have Passive IR sensors on top of the light which would detect a car(s) as they approached. Others (in built up areas) are purely time based and alter according to rush hour traffic on a specific program, and then there are the ones that sense a car as they roll over a pressure grid in the road just before the lights (rectangular in shape).

For the IR ones to work with mad flashing, this can only be done at night time.

 

[bramski]

It only works on traffic lights with the grey sensor boxes on top of them.

 

[Deleted member 11679]

Works for me on several in Nottingham, particularly Wollaton/Bramcote/Beeston/Strelley/Hucknall end.