I know that flashing yellow arrow have been around for a while. I wondering what the future of Flashing yellow arrow signals will be?
I confess my biases, being an IL driver and the 5 Section Towers are the norm in this state (outside of Peoria, that is, which has gone with the Flashing Yellow Arrow)
The reason for the FYA is the 5 section towers ARE broken and needed fixing. They create yellow trap, which is extremely dangerous, and people frequently forgot they didn't have right of way if they didn't get the green arrow at the beginning of the cycle. FYA has been shown to solve all the problems with the 5 signal head and improve safety... with the added benefit of extra flexibility.
Being that many states still don't have flashing yellows, and the states with flashing yellows still have large amounts of intersections without the flashing yellow, the yellow trap you site is made up. People didn't frequently forget anything.
A true yellow trap was when the light for one direction went completely red, however the opposing traffic still had a green. Left turning traffic believed the opposing traffic had a red also, and would complete their turn in front of traffic that still had a green light. Historically, that's how the yellow trap existed.
When you say there's a yellow trap today with a 5 section tower, it's not close to the same thing. Basic rules apply in those instances: traffic turning left on a green ball yields to opposing thru traffic. Its a very basic rule of driving.
I don't see a future for the original green-orb PPLT display for dedicated left turn lanes. It doesn't provide as many functions as the FYA, nor does it provide any safety benefits.
Yellow trap is not solved by time, its solved by the FYA. The way yellow trap has existed has not changed, and its gotten worse with all lights having sensors, adaptively skipping phases of the cycle and changing timings dynamically.
And people do forget (which was unrelated to my yellow trap statement). Thats why many areas post signs to remind people on every single 5 section tower, and even with that, I still see people forget on occasion. Just because they forget and go immediately doesn't mean there is an accident... the opposing traffic will see they forgot and just let them go to avoid the accident.
The way yellow trap has existed has not changed, and its gotten worse with all lights having sensors, adaptively skipping phases of the cycle and changing timings dynamically.
That's a fuckin fact. Just the other day, I approached a light to turn right (in a right turn lane). The signal changed from yellow to red for the street that I was turning on to. The signal then realised that I had turned right (and there was no one else approaching), so it never gave my direction a green. The street that I turned on to immediately got a green again (1 second red for them -- yes it visibly confused the drivers).
There's nothing wrong with what happened above. I'm glad that adaptive signals have taken over. They have the potential to seriously improve traffic flow. But they work a hell of a lot better when each movement has its own dedicated signal.
By the way, the diagram with the arrows in the OP is ridiculously confusing. I consider myself a traffic control expert, and I'm lost.
Over 99% of existing traffic lights still operate the way they've operated for decades - without a FYA. Life goes on fine. In many states without a FYA, many of their drivers aren't even aware such a function exists.
There's signage at FYA lights instructing people what to do during the flashing yellow, so the signage issue hasn't been eliminated. And as people have pointed out, FYAs can be used as protected and protected/permissive, so the yellow trap as you define it can still occur.
What I don't understand is why FYA is not incorporated in existing doghouse layout. For me that doghouse alone is a strong message. and replacing that one with a tower means loosing some communication.
No, keeping green arrow in place for protected phase (if any), and repurposing yellow one as FYA/cycle indicator.
I understand that there is some discrepancy about yellow arrow at given moment being a transition to red or FYA, but how big of an issue that is? After all, FYA can also eventually switch to solid red ball...
I don't see too many people ignoring traffic lights. Trying to beat - maybe, but not ignore. Stop signs are much more ignorable, and speed limits...
I would think that cutting a turn that forced oncoming traffic to slow down would have more in common with trying (but not necessarily succeeding) to beat the light rather than brazenly running the light. I suspect many people think "yield" means "I can go if there's any kind of gap or if the car in front of me could go, even if oncoming traffic has to slow down" and not "I need a gap large enough to go without affecting oncoming traffic".
And sometimes you have no other choice other than to choose minimal gaps. Roundabouts are especially good for that type of training. And as long as a razor blade can go between two bumpers, there should be no complains.
You can't give the left turn a red light while simultaneously giving through traffic a green light. No better than a doghouse/tower.
And as people have pointed out, FYAs can be used as protected and protected/permissive, so the yellow trap as you define it can still occur.
Only if the engineer in-charge fails to setup the signals correctly. Though that's also true for the standard doghouse/tower displays.
Well, we're (at least I) comparing FYA 4- or 5-light tower with a doghouse. My point is that arranging lights is a tower is as good(or as bad) as putting them in a doghouse, with doghouse having some advantages.
As for prohibiting turns... Here in NYS red arrow means "turn prohibited". So setting up a set of 3 arrows would be an answer. DOes MUTCD allow using yellow arrow within set of 3 as FYA?
This might help reduce the confusion with the yellow arrow meaning either "permissive phase ending" or "protected phase ending". Alternatively, just lag all turns so that there's only one solid yellow arrow (at the very end following a green arrow to clear any waiting cars). But the idea with the FYA was to allow a mix of lead/lag and TOD phasing, so that misses the point.
People in the Midwest pull halfway into the intersection to turn left on a protected-permitted left turn, and trying to change that would be impossible since it's so ingrained in our culture. You can replace the 5-section stacks or doghouses with FYA's, but you'd have to program the phases in the same sequence because of the culture here anyway. Check out a protected-permitted signal in IL sometime, and you'll see that detector loops won't change anything about a signal's operation once the light switches to yellow--once it decides to turn yellow, nothing's going to stop it from allowing the next permissive phase.
The computers at the intersection that I approached saw me, and immediately decided to give my direction a green light. So, the amber phase for the cross-street commenced, but I had already turned on red by the time the cross-street's red light came on. Rather than give my street a green, because it saw no one else approaching, it gave the cross-street a green light again. They're adaptive in the sense that they adapt to real-time information (using cameras). They have their ups and downs. My point originally was that they are sometimes too sensitive. Sometimes so sensitive that I fear they may accidentally create a yellow trap (although only in theory -- I've never actually seen this happen). I'm not even sure why right-turn lanes have sensors, since right on red is legal, and unless there's 500 cars trying to turn right, we don't need a green to complete the maneuver.
What does this have to do with what I wrote? People also wait in the intersection around here. It's not 100% of drivers, but it's more than three-quarters, I'd say.
It seems to me that they're trying to reinvent the wheel with a FYA. Whenever there's an arrow, it means you have the right of way or your right of way is ending.
So, now we throw that logic out the window with the FYA. If you have one you don't have the right of way. It's blurring the lines too much.
Doghouses work fine. I'm not a fan of towers as I've been with drivers who, when they see green, even it's a left turn green arrow, they go, not realizing they can't go straight...yet.
I think your issue is with the shared aspects, not the arrangement of the signal faces. Towers can be, and often are centered between the left through lane and the left turn lane (as I believe they are supposed to be). Doghouses can also be placed directly over the left turn lane. Centered signals are possible either way.
I'd say forget. Generally people seem to forget on lots of smaller side streets, when they get the green ball instead of the green arrow (because they were skipped, usually due to not long enough presence to activate the green arrow, or too few cars in the turning lane for lights programmed that way), and they're used to getting the green arrow first, they accidentally go right when they get the green ball, while the cars in the other direction are also trying to go straight. Its generally a pretty slow movement so its not generally deadly, and the cars are going slow enough that someone notices and hits the brakes to let the car go. It seems to happen a lot on certain intersections around here, that is, until they switched to FYA. I haven't seen it with FYA (infact, it happened a fair amount at a few intersections without a PPLT signal, but they installed FYAs without green arrow at those, and it eliminated the problem on those as well. The people doing it usually give the I'm sorry signal if you honk at them when they realize what they did.
Also, I have never really seen an adaptively programmed signal with doghouses that skips phases for no traffic in all directions that doesn't have the yellow trap issue. The simplest way to check it is stop on the left turn sensor in the green ball direction when no other cars are around (i.e, at night), and wait for your green arrow. If you don't get a red ball in your direction before your green arrow, the intersection is subject to yellow trap, as thats what it just did in the other direction. The signal should either give the left turn arrow in both directions to prevent the yellow trap (preferred to save time), or give the side street a green ball for a few moments before giving you the green arrow. I've never seen the signals programmed "correctly" this way.
WVDOH generally programs signals in the way described that can cause yellow trap like this before. At most intersections, if you wait in a left turn lane with a doghouse signal long enough and there's no cross traffic calling their phase, you will get an arrow. Oncoming traffic has no way to know that your through movement still has a green. I've been stuck in the resulting yellow trap situation before.
I'm not sure if I'd want to force a red to allow the arrow to occur, but I might only allow the arrow to happen if it had been preceded by a phase that served side road traffic. That would eliminate the yellow trap. Of course, FLYA would, too.
One on hand, it's structure very simple: 4 verses halved by a middle 8, all bookended by an introduction and coda. This results in contiguous first and second verses - a structural aspect the Beatles had used previously in [1] "Love Me Do", [7] "Do You Want to Know a Secret", [8] "Misery", [9b] "Anna (Go To Him)", [9c] "Boys", [9d] "Chains", [9f] Twist and Shout, [10] "From Me To You", [13e] "Till There Was You", [17] "Little Child", [19] "Not a Second Time", [23] "Can't Buy Me Love", [25] "And I Love Her", [26] "I Should Have Known Better", [28] "If I Fell'', [29] "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You", [31] "A Hard Day's Night", [31b] "Matchbox", [32] "I'll Cry Instead", [35] "Things We Said Today", [40] "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party", [41] "What You're Doing", [42] "No Reply", [43] "Eight Days a Week", [44] "She's a Woman", [44b] "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey", [46d] "Words of Love", [47] "Ticket to Ride", [49] "I Need You", [50] "Yes It Is", [51] "The Night Before", [52] "You Like Me Too Much", [54] "Tell Me What You See", 56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", [56c] "Bad Boy", [57] "I've Just Seen a Face", [59] "Yesterday", [66] "If I Needed Someone", [68] "We Can Work it Out", [71] "Michelle", [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows", [80] "Paperback Writer", [82] "Doctor Robert", [84] "Taxman", [88] "Yellow Submarine", [89] "I Want To Tell You", [92] "She Said She Said", [95] "Penny Lane", [96] "A Day in the Life", [99] "Fixing a Hole", [100] "Only a Northern Song", [101] "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", [105] "Within You Without You", [111] "All Together Now", [114] "All You Need Is Love", [116] "I Am the Walrus", [122] "Lady Madonna", [126] "Don't Pass Me By", [128] "Blackbird", [129] "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey", [135] "Sexy3 Sadie", [138] "Mother Nature's Son", [139] "Yer Blues", and [140] "Rocky Raccoon". What is much less common is finding a Beatles song with contiguous verses other than verses 1 and 2. In fact, "Prudence" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4) is just the 11th such example, following [19] "Not a Second Time" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4), [31b] "Matchbox" (in which the first three and last two verses are contiguous), [56b] "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 4-5), [77] "Tomorrow Never Knows" (in which verses 1-3 are contiguous, as are verses 4-7), [80] "Paperback Writer" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 3-4), [84] "Taxman" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 3-4), [95] "Penny Lane" (in which verses 1-2 are contiguous, as are verses 4-5), [96] "A Day in the Life" (in which verses 1-3 are contiguous), [129] "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey" (in which all three verses are contiguous), and [135] "Sexy Sadie" (in which verses 1 and 2 are contiguous, as are verses 3 and 4), and [140] "Rocky Raccoon" (in which verses 1-5 are contiguous, as are verses 6-7).
On the other hand, contrasting with the macro-scale structural simplicity, each verse has a complex and sophisticated micro-structure that can be divided into 4 distinct sections: Part a, lasting eight measures and consisting of two phrases (each four measures, and each in turn two iterations of the same two-measure chord progression); Part b, lasting just two measures and using the same two-measure chord progression found in Part a, but increasing the energy with more lyrics (a greater rate of words sung per second), and (in the first verse only) through the addition of percussion; Part c, which repeats the opening lyrics of the verse (usually in slightly modified form) and also employs different chords; and Part d, an instrumental tag which requires its own separate discussion (see below). This micro verse structure is adhered to by verses 1 through 3, but verse 4 breaks the pattern by rhythmically augmenting Part b (it lasts four measures instead of two) and jumping to the coda in place of Part d.
Lastly, the tag/intro/coda deserves special consideration. This is not a textbook use of the tag (it might be considered more of an ostinato) because it is heard throughout except for during verse 4 (tags are usually only heard between sections, during the intro, and/or during the coda, but not during the verse proper like this one). I classify it as a tag, however, because of its adhesive quality, which is a defining characteristic of the tag - it bridges and transitions from from formal section to another. In fact, with the exception of verse 4 (and its absence is hardly even noticed there due to the increased energy and density of instrumentation), the tag really never begins or ends because the music both fades in and fades out, although it does change to reflect the underlying chords and structure. More commentary on this when I reach this song in my harmonic analyses.
Of the three fundamental drumming patterns mentioned yesterday, the metronomic beat is the simplest because the pattern is the same on each beat. That being said, subtle differences can be found. But on a fundamental level, once the pattern is established it typically doesn't change.
Take, for example, 'Across The Universe'. The only percussion used on the track (in both the 1968 and 1970 releases) is a constant quarter note bass drum.
Ringo will often use metronomic patterns during passages that change meter because the solid beat helps ground the music. Indeed, 'Across The Universe' incorporates an occasional 5/4 measure in the verses, which does not effect the drum pattern in any way.
Similarly, the choruses in 'Good Day Sunshine' (which alternate between 3/4 and 5/4), the verses of 'Good Morning Good Morning' (which maintain a constant beat despite various meters), the verses in 'All You Need Is Love' (which alternate between 4/4 and 3/4), and 'Two Of Us' (which is mostly in 4/4 but occasionally implements 3/4 and 2/4 measures) all employ metronomic drumming through metrically varying and/or ambiguous passages.
The majority of Ringos' metronomic drumming patters, however, are found in metrically consistent passages. Just as he did through the changing meters of 'Good Day Sunshine', Ringo also hits the snare drum on every beat of the bridges of the always-common-time 'All My Loving'.
Similarly, he hits the snare and bass together on every quarter note in the refrains and bridges of 'We Can Work It Out', in the first transition in 'Birthday' (the part where everything else drops out and it's just drums), and in the bridge of 'I've Got A Feeling'.
He strikes the snare on every quarter note and the bass on every eighth note in the bridges of 'No Reply', in the choruses of 'Hey Bulldog', and in the bridges of 'Sexy Sadie'.
And throughout 'Old Brown Shoe' and in the 'Rocky Raccoon' solos (and elsewhere) he alternates eighth notes between the bass and snare.
While the loose definition of the metronomic beat is that every beat is the same, that's not always accurate. Sometimes that concept is expanded to encapsulate more than just one beat. In the bridges of 'Hold Me Tight', for instance, it's a two-beat pattern: beats 1 + 2 are identical to beats 3 + 4.
This 1 + 2 = 3 + 4 metronomic beat pattern can also be found in the opening two phrases of each verse in 'Money (That's What I Want)', and in others.
Most Beatles music is in duple or quadruple meter (divisible by two), but some is in triple (divisible by three). The metronomic concepts apply equally in such instances. The second part of the bridges in 'She Said She Said', for example, maintains a 3/4 meter, throughout which Ringo maintains a metronomic beat through constant quarter notes in the bass and constant eighth notes in the snare.
'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' employs two different metronomic beats, both in 6/8. In every third and fourth measure of the first bridge, the bass articulates a syncopated duple division of the triple meter. And in the second bridge, a 1 |2 |3& pattern between the bass and cymbals is maintained.
The waltz bridges in 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!' put the bass drum on beat 1 and answers that with hi-hat hits on 2 and 3, making the pattern 3 beats long (instead of 1 or 2 beats long, as illustrated above).
Similarly, the verses and pre-choruses in 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' both use metronomic beats in 3/4 time. The verse pattern lasts 3 beats; the pre-chorus pattern lasts 1.
Metronomic beats are quite common in Beatles music. Of the 211 tracks they officially recorded and released between 1963-70, 71 of them (33.6%) feature metronomic drumming. So while the above is not an exhaustive list and catalog of Ringo's metronomic drumming patterns (I've cited 20 examples, but there are 51 more), it should give a clear idea of what they are and how they work.