Full traffic signal control

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For FDOT when going in the traffic signal control box you just have the basic functions such as Flash and on. But I think it should be more. It should be Off, Flash or on. There should also be a GUI were you can control the minutes of the traffic signal for each signal light so for example Left turns have about 3 minutes set auto well I can go in the box and change that to 5 minutes. There should also be a feature were you can change it to Auto or sensor.

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no because some would put it for 10 minutes

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The minutes idea can be taken abuse of like luke said, but maybe if there was a serious time limit.
I don’t work for DOT right now so I’d love to see a picture of the GUI and a gif of how it works for more background.

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3 MINUTES FOR A LEFT TURN LANE???
ive never seen a single lane with more than 3 cars

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Re:

This is the light system as of ~mid 2019

image

Click a button and it updates the traffic signal instantly.

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This would be good for events for example if there was ever a job fair then FDOT can simply change the minutes this would resolve traffic issues.

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I suggest this:
Normal
Flash
Off
And manual control which has 4 stop light buttons N, S, E, and W. You press which one you want green.

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Doesn’t seem like a very big suggestion to just add an ‘off’ version, although, I’d like to notify that turning a traffic light off is pretty impractical and requires all vehicles to stop at the intersection.

Furthermore, the timing thing is limited due to the usage of a public plugin to make the traffic lights-- no Firestone developer made them and they’re not customizable to such an extent at default (and editing it could lead to copyright issues).

I think a much more important issue right now is the absolute absence of pedestrian signals which is incredibly frustrating and unrealistic.

Don’t see the purpose for this either, no one’s gonna stand at an intersection for an hour or something to control traffic manually (although I’d love to do so!).

HOWEVER, I do hope that the control system in v3 for traffic lights is improved for realism and accuracy, and when ‘fixing’ an outage, you actually have to check the signal sequencing computer and see the error which occurred, etc.
Also, if a car crashes into the control boxes for example, the lights would go on outage or go off (although this could be heavily abused and should be on a cooldown timer and a max. n. of DOT/currently off control boxes).

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Sensors were removed for ‘lag’.

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I think it would be cool and easier to implement then changing the time limits for stoplights. Having manual control would allow for DOT to control busy intersections during events.

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I think that LEOs should also be able to access this panel. (not to fix anything, only to direct traffic). In some cities around me, the local police officers have access to the traffic light controls to direct traffic/close a certain area.

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Going to answer from a developer standpoint, apologies if this was mentioned above.

As it is planned now, v3 will continue the use of an external plugin to manage its traffic systems. Because of this, the box supplied (if I recall correctly) only comes with flash and regular. While I proposed several times to go with an independent system which would allow for much more, this was denied as overall it is very simple for these traffic lights to be adjusted and edited in the future should they need to be, as remember, v4 is a cancelled project in hopes that v3 will be maintained and updated indefinitely, meaning changes overtime.

Is this a possibility? Yes, and I hope it happens. Is it planned? Unfortunately, not.

If it makes you guys feel any better I’ll bring this up with Fedora and possibly Envelope and see what can be done.

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While the external plugin is great from a general viewpoint, it restricts unique timing changes, etc., and there are no pedestrian signals nor bus priority signals.

With the addition of train signals (which will have to be programmed independently), this could be an incentive to scrap the entire signal setup in v3 at the moment and program something completely new, but this is a massive feat and I know that Env has a lot more to do than worry about traffic lights.

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