Okay, let's re-cap. The problem with magnetometers used for traffic lights is that they give a green light to the traffic that stops on them. Which means that in order to get a green light you and all the cars traveling with you will have to stop and wait at each light for the magnetometer to give you the light.
And it gets worse... because the majority of the lights with left turn lanes will give the green light to the left turn lanes first, compounding your wait time. But have you ever noticed that sometimes you don't get the left-turn arrow at a lot of lights? That's because somewhere along the line a traffic engineer decided it was a good idea to put the magnetometer under the second car position in many of the left turn lanes. Brilliant. So if you're a single car, no light for you. Two cars... you get the arrow. Or (and here's the best part) just stop where the second car would be and you'll get the turn arrow. No kidding! Now not all the lights do this... but try it sometime at the light at Green Bay and West Avenue. Works like a charm.
Not all the lights around the area work as I've described... but the majority do. And of course there are variables... like if the light works the way it's supposed to work. The light at George Street and Clinton Street is awful, for example, and often keeps traffic waiting un-necessarily for two or three minutes before it changes. Definitely needs repair!!
Okay, now drive around and check it out for yourself. Knowing how the magnetometers work I bet you'll come to the same conclusions I did... that they're really dumb, they waste gas and time, and they should all be replaced with timers set to the traffic flow.
Incidentally, I've explained this to three of our mayors over the years... so far, they haven't seen a need to act. But I sincerely believe if the timers were installed and set correctly, we'd never hear any further talk about the North-South corridor that none of us want!!
Cheers, and happy driving!
