Minor Annoyances (Vol 2)

[King Coconut]

23 minutes ago, Ronnie said:

the situation that you press the button but a gap appears before the lights activate, leaving drivers sitting at a red light afterwards whilst nobody crosses

The ruthlessly logical German solution is to wait for the green man at all costs. Even on an empty road in the middle of the night you press the button and wait. Often a car will turn up just as the lights go red. 

[SuperBacon]

Do you remember (WHOOOOOO REMEMBERS) the rumour that if you span the little nob (waheeeeeeeey) underneath the box quick enough you could change the lights manually?

[gmoney]

Even as someone who drives, if I've I'm a pedestrian I don't give a fuck about the convenience of drivers. Pedestrians > Cyclists > Drivers

[gmoney]

Just now, SuperBacon said:

Do you remember (WHOOOOOO REMEMBERS) the rumour that if you span the little nob (waheeeeeeeey) underneath the box quick enough you could change the lights manually?

Which reminds me of the other thing people seem to believe - if you flash your lights at an empty crossing with a red light it will change to green so you don't get stuck at a red for ages. Yeah, they invested in light sensor tech for traffic lights that can tell that a crossing is empty, but will only activate if flashed by headlights, to save you about 20 seconds. 

[SuperBacon]

8 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Which reminds me of the other thing people seem to believe - if you flash your lights at an empty crossing with a red light it will change to green so you don't get stuck at a red for ages. Yeah, they invested in light sensor tech for traffic lights that can tell that a crossing is empty, but will only activate if flashed by headlights, to save you about 20 seconds. 

I think I posted about this not that long ago in the TIL thread as I "witnessed" it on the way to and from 7 a side during the "covid years" and believed it. 

Edit: on temporary lights.

Edited June 2, 2025 by SuperBacon
Temp to perm is a good recruitment racket

[wordsfromlee]

17 minutes ago, gmoney said:

Which reminds me of the other thing people seem to believe - if you flash your lights at an empty crossing with a red light it will change to green so you don't get stuck at a red for ages. Yeah, they invested in light sensor tech for traffic lights that can tell that a crossing is empty, but will only activate if flashed by headlights, to save you about 20 seconds. 

It is definitely a thing, especially on temporary traffic lights in rural areas. 

[SuperBacon]

1 minute ago, wordsfromlee said:

It is definitely a thing, especially on temporary traffic lights in rural areas. 

 

12 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

 

Edit: on temporary lights.

[TheBurningRed]

Got a couple more but didn’t want to be just ranting the other day. Train etiquette when getting off. People trying to push their way on instead of letting people off. it’s an unwritten rule to let people off first. I literally shooed a woman back the other day.

It’s happening with getting on buses too. I’ve had people physically push past me to get on. I’ve now aquired a catchphrase “are we in a race? We’re all getting on”. Provided the bus is mostly empty. I had a bus stop enemy who kept doing it to me to the point I’ve started completely blocking her getting past me. She gets off at my stop and tries to beat me to the door but I always stand near it now to block her. She’s probably moaning about me on Mumsnet  

Cyclists on pavements. Both coming towards me and behind. Ringing their little bell for the latter. Expecting me to move. I now refuse whereas before I would let them past. This only applies to grown adults. I would always move for a child and a child with parents. I have to walk on a very narrow path on my way to work and the amount of cunts moaning at me because I won’t move. I’ve got the right of way. Get on the road.

[gmoney]

10 minutes ago, wordsfromlee said:

It is definitely a thing, especially on temporary traffic lights in rural areas. 

https://optraffic.com/blog/headlights-and-temporary-traffic-signals-myth/

I don't think it is. The idea that they would spend money on such a thing is the biggest hurdle for me. 

EDIT: That article is possibly AI generated, but if you can find anything in support of the claim, I'd be interested to read it. 

Edited June 2, 2025 by gmoney

[BomberPat]

1 hour ago, Ronnie said:

In my case it's because I dislike the idea of inconveniencing a string of other people (in this case, drivers) just so that I escape a little bit of inconvenience. I hang around for perhaps 20 seconds to see whether a natural gap will appear, at which point I'll zip through it. And if one doesn't seem likely, I then press the button, having tried not to cause inconvenience to several other people going about their day.

(And it avoids the situation that you press the button but a gap appears before the lights activate, leaving drivers sitting at a red light afterwards whilst nobody crosses.)

I'm the same if it's not a particularly busy crossing; there's plenty near me where you can always just leave it less than a minute and be able to get across without having to do anything. But when you've got a crowd of people all waiting at a busy road, you're just all inconveniencing each other far more than the traffic. To get hyper-local on it, the place I see it most often is the New Cross Road, which is generally just a social experiment in generating road rage, not somewhere you'll be able to nip across four lanes while it's quiet. Because it's right next to the university, for a while I wondered if it it was chiefly international students not knowing how things worked - which was my same theory when I first saw people forming single file queues at the pub - but I've seen it often enough and elsewhere that it's clearly more of a thing.

The additional road crossing thing for quieter roads where you can just nip across without waiting for the lights to change is that if there are parents with young kids waiting to cross, I will always wait for the lights to change properly before crossing.

[Carbomb]

4 hours ago, King Coconut said:

The ruthlessly logical German solution is to wait for the green man at all costs. Even on an empty road in the middle of the night you press the button and wait. Often a car will turn up just as the lights go red. 

In Japan as well. You can almost anticipate the mass, silent tutting that will occur if you even try to cross before the light has gone green. 

[wordsfromlee]

5 hours ago, gmoney said:

https://optraffic.com/blog/headlights-and-temporary-traffic-signals-myth/

I don't think it is. The idea that they would spend money on such a thing is the biggest hurdle for me. 

It’s just a simple light sensor. Some are radar motion sensor instead. They’re usually a little box that sit on top of the lights. On fixed traffic lights they’re used to optimise traffic flow during busier or quieter parts of the day. If it’s on a pedestrian crossing there’s usually one pointing at the crossing too. 

[DavidB6937]

Anything that's advertised as "viral". I don't give a fucking shit what it's done on TikTok.

[gmoney]

1 hour ago, wordsfromlee said:

It’s just a simple light sensor. Some are radar motion sensor instead. They’re usually a little box that sit on top of the lights. On fixed traffic lights they’re used to optimise traffic flow during busier or quieter parts of the day. If it’s on a pedestrian crossing there’s usually one pointing at the crossing too. 

Could you you point me to an article about them? 

[Chest Rockwell]

It exists, it doesn't help to flash your lights at them. They work through radar detection. So if you don't drive close enough to the lights or coast up to them slowly they are less likely to register you. It's called ADS. 

 

https://srl.co.uk/our-product/multiphase-ads/

 

Edited June 3, 2025 by Chest Rockwell