Why the Dutch Wait Less at Traffic Lights

What people said

jodrellblank · 2022-12 · Recommendation

See the youtube channel Not Just Bikes[1], specifically videos like - "Why the Dutch wait less at traffic lights" - [VIDEO] argues that American traffic engineering is optimised for car movement, at the expense of pedestrians and bikes, whereas Dutch traffic engineering is to minimise conflict between vehicles and maximise movement of people overall. Leading to more complex but more efficient intersections. - "The Dutch solution for safer sidewalks - continuous sidewalks" - [LINK] has crossings at junctions where cars and people intersect designed so the cars visibly have to travel over the sidewalk through the people's area, instead of designed so the people have to visibly travel over the road, through the car's area. - "Crossing the street shouldn't be dangerous, but it is" [in North America] - [LINK] talking about length of crossings on wide road, traffic signals, priorities, etc. [1] [LINK]

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Kim_Bruning · 2021-12 · Recommendation

Here's a link to some traffic light systems that you can trust most of the time. But nothing is perfect, so you're still required to pay attention yourself too, of course. [VIDEO]

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seer · 2025-10 · Reference

In some European countries all of this is commonplace - check out the not just bikes video on the subject - [VIDEO] Detects if you are coming to the intersection and with what speed, and if there is no traffic blocking you automatically cycles the red lights so you don’t have to stop at all.

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