Home » traffic signals » Traffic Signals

Traffic Signals

Posted by aditya | 12:06 PM | | 1 comments »

At intersections where there are a large number of crossing and right turn traffic, there is possibility of several accidents as there cannot be orderly movements. The earlier practice has been control the traffic by means of traffic police by showing stop signs alternately at the cross roads so that one of the traffic streams may be allowed to move while the cross traffic is stopped. Traffic signals are control devices which could alternately direct the traffic to stop and procced at intersections. The main requirements of traffic signal is to draw attention, provide meaning and time to respond and to have minimum waste of time.




Advantages of traffic signals
  • Provide orderly movement of traffic and increase the traffic handling capacity of most of the intersections at grade
  • They reduce certain types of accidents, notably the right angled collisions
  • Provide safe crossing of the heavy traffic
  • When the signal system is properly co ordinated there is a resonable speed along the major road traffic
  • Signals provide a chance to crossing traffic to cross the path of continous flow of traffic stream at resonable intervals of time
  • Automatic traffic signal may work out to be economical when compared to manual control
  • The quality of traffic flow is improved by forming compact platoons pf vehicles

Disadvantages of traffic signals
  • The rear end collisions may increase
  • Improper design and location of signals may lead to violation of the control system
  • Failure of the signal due to electric power failure or any other defect may introduce a lot of confusion to the road users


Highway and Transport Engineering
and this section is about Traffic Signals
(refference : Khanna, S.K., Justo, C.E.G., Highway Engineering, 3th edition, Nem Chand & Bros Roorkee (U.P.), 1976.)


Bookmark and Share

Title Post: Traffic Signals
Rating: 100% based on 99998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: aditya