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Comment by sangupta | Hacker News Reader

The author should visit the busy streets of north India - specifically the NCR region and see what happens when the red lights are not functioning. I have faced such situations and have been stuck for up to an hour for the jam to clear up. Per my own personal experience, traffic lights are a must.

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There could be cultural differences at play here I suppose. The British seem to have a knack for queuing which may be missing in other cultures.

I live in South Africa, and I have definitely seen improvements in traffic when certain lights are out during rush hour (4-way stops on highways in particular).

I agree with the knack of queuing being missing in different cultures. In Malaysia, when the traffic lights go out, it's absolute deadlock.

I commute quite heavily in the UK, and there are certainly places I can see where traffic lights are either completely surplus, or could be reduced to peak-operating only, and there are other places where it would cause worse problems if there weren't traffic lights in place.

My commute route also takes me by a few traffics semaphores. I can tell if they are not functioning properly (flashing red only) by the long backup.

During heavy traffic at commute times, the lights facilitate semi-smooth traffic. Off peak and I see where they interfere -sometimes they turn red on you, even though there is no cross traffic.

Also, conversely, there are moderate-traffic intersections which only have stop signs. I hate them. I wish they'd put in some quick phase traffic lights to smooth out traffic.

Some of the worst jams in Mumbai I've experienced are when a policeman decides to direct traffic at a junction rather than let the lights do it...

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