I saw the weirdest thing in Compton at 3am....

[Compaq888]

Don't ask me what I was doing there and don't ask me what I was doing there at 3am.

Anyway. I'm standing in the turn lane to make a left turn and I see a 03-05 Honda Accord 4 door roll up perpendicular to me, but he was going to go straight. He rolls up to a red light. Flashes his beams the light turns green for the cars to go left(make a turn) and he flashes his beams again and gets a green light. And off he goes.

And I can do that **** too??? And will it work for me???

I posted it here because this obviously saves fuel economy if you are idling less at a stop light.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

Check it out! I wonder if they flashed their brights so it would flood the camera with light and mask the IR signal from the doohicky?

[GasSavers_brick]

It bears mentioning that unauthorized posession of a MIRT is extremely illegal...criminal offense, not civil infraction. They're intended for emergency vehicles to get through during a response. Everybody else getting them defeats the system and screws up the flow of traffic when you start playing with timed lights.

[Compaq888]

There was no outside device on the accord. The person just flashed their highbeams twice.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by Compaq888

There was no outside device on the accord. The person just flashed their highbeams twice.

first of all, the device could have been hidden, so you have no idea if he had one or not.

Flashing your high beams doesn't work. It's the wrong type of light and it's the impossible to get the correct frequency.

People think it works, but it doesn't. Cooincidence is more than likely the culprit here.

[The Toecutter]

I'd like to get one of these for my electric car when it's done. I may not ever use it, but I'd like to have it if ever I might need it.

[rh77]

I can say that the high-beams deal is all "placebo effect". Many metropolitan ambulances and fire apparatus have a special strobe that is picked-up by the traffic control system to clear the way and improve response times -- the strobe has a very specific pattern that isn't recognizable to the naked eye, and is recognized by that jurisdiction's sensors.

Here's what I hypothesize is what happened. As we all know, there are pads on the roadway that detect the presence of a vehicle. Some streets have priority over others, so if a vehicle is detected on that street (espcially late at night), the light changes immediately. People flash their bright lights thinking that it makes a difference but that's not the real reason, even though the light changes. During the hours of daylight, traffic is heavier, and the thought of using bright lights doesn't often occur (since it's light outside).

It cracks me up to see people flash their lights and think they're making the light change. It's all the weight of the vehicle on the sensor, and the programmed priority of the traffic flow.

RH77

[Compaq888]

I dunno. The way that accord did it, it made the lights change super fast.

We will never know what really happened.

[SVOboy]

At the middle of the night around my neck of the woods all I have to do it roll up to the light and the camera will switch it immediately, since there's no one around it just switches only when traffic comes up to a red. The wonders of camers/roll strips.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

At the middle of the night around my neck of the woods all I have to do it roll up to the light and the camera will switch it immediately, since there's no one around it just switches only when traffic comes up to a red. The wonders of cameras/roll strips.

Mine is the same way.

If the guy flashed the high beams and the weight sensor actually turned on the light, he will think that his high beams caused it.

This is textbook classical (Pavlovian) conditioning. As long as he thinks his behavior is responsible for the outcome, he'll repeat it. It might not work every time, but every so often he'll hit the jackpot and time it perfectly. This moves into operant conditioning and the driver/flasher is receiving a variable schedule of reinforcement, which is the best way to make a behavior permanent.

This is no different than other superstitious behaviors.