🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <RHL.92Aug7081059@valhalla.mitre.org> rhl@valhalla.mitre.org (Roger Lincoln) writes:
>Is it just blind luck or are the traffic lights on Rt 2, between 128
>and the Concord Rotary, *purposely* timed to make you stop at at least
>three of them?   

I don't know about Rt 2, but in Medford on the parkway (Rt 16 ?) which
runs parallel to and just south of High Street, the lights *are* timed to
make you stop. There is even a sign that says so!!

>but there's no constant speed to drive at to get through them
>cleanly (I even tried 55 mph :-).  Wouldn't it make sense to time them
>so the 4-lane primary traffic (ie. Rt 2) could travel at the mythical
>speed limit and make all the lights?  Sorry, I forgot where I was for
>a second.

When they reconstructed the Fellsway in Medford in the late 1950s,
all the lights from Wellington Circle to Roosevelt Circle *were*
synchonized, using a transmitter located in the MDC reservation
in North Medford.
There were 3 separate cycles: in-bound rush, out-bound rush, and
non-rush.  During the non-rush periods, during light traffic, you could
travel at the speed limit and get green lights all along that stretch.
The lights would turn green just as you got to them.  But if you went over
the speed limit, you'd have to stop at each light along the way!
-- 
            Dick Grady               grady@world.std.com