Friday, January 18, 2008

Lampu Isyarat

You'd think that when driving, one must always mind his/her way on the road.

This is very true. On the other hand, the co-driver has a field of opportunity. Ranging from changing the radio station every 5 minutes or so, to dozing off, there's just so much to choose from... it's just crazy! Let me tell you what I chose...yes...I chose to take note of the different behavioral patterns of traffic lights across Penang (sounds very...academic, no?)

Traffic lights here in Penang has much evolved from the "whateverhappenedtothegreenlight" conventional traffic light to the much preferred "traffic lights with a countdown timer" traffic light. I have come to quite a fascinating conclusion from my tireless scrutiny of these devices. The amount of time allocated for each traffic light differs from one place to another and also they somehow differ for each time of day!Fascinating!...well,to me at least.

And the time allotted are somewhat random numbers in my opinion. 43 seconds was of them, and 120 seconds on another. How peculiar. It seems to me that if these numbers were in fact a result of surveying the traffic itself, it amazes me how tremendously hard these people work as they come up with different numbers for different places for a different time of day.

Or, they could all just be random numbers. For me, this shall remain as one of the conundrums of the universe...unless of course, someone fills me in with the details.

Until that fateful day, I bid you adieu.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

being a co-driver (who drove for the last time, 3 years ago, still legal though), i sometimes do things like...sleep. heheh. and to top it up, i slept in the bus just now, and when i woke up, i heard "excuse me, this is last stop!" and i was "OMG, and where am i now"

Anonymous said...

i believe those things have sensors in the pavements that detect if there's cars on the road plus a max time control system.that what makes the time varying thing happens.no cars,the light turns red.a lot of car,max time is used.it can be cheaply design with motion sensors and simple c++ or MATLAB program.not so hard to figure it out.ahaha.

Sir Ashcroft said...

That was very enlightening. Owe you a big one there.was never good with c++ though, and MATLAB was...okay I suppose. Don't like programming much to tell you the truth...loathe maybe the more accurate word here.

Anyways, thanks for the info bro.

Anonymous said...

i thought i was cursed when i approach a green light on an empty street and suddenly it turns amber.

btw didn't u brag at school about your vehicular encounter?

Anonymous said...

I did?Ahaha...maybe...I forgot.Twas a long time ago. Even if I did, I certainly didn't tell mom.

aisyah. said...

i cant believe that u think of all this.

Unknown said...

You'd be thoroughly surprised with what goes on in my head...

aisyah. said...

you know, i do believe that i would..