Car manufacturers and state authorities alike have tried for years to boost vehicle efficiency and improve safety of both passengers and pedestrians. While the automotive industry has evolved at a very fast pace in the last couple of years and new safety and green systems emerged, there's another way to work on these two particular areas: traffic lights.
We've all heard of traffic lights and chances are that most drivers hate them from the bottom of their souls. They block you from reaching the destination faster, they make you burn more gas and sometimes, they force you to wait for several minutes in a huge traffic jam at a larger intersection.
But beyond these terrible scenarios, we must accept that traffic lights are playing a key role, not only for the overall safety of traffic, but also for pedestrians who wish to cross a road without putting their lives at risk.
While there are multiple traffic lights systems around the world, we're not going to talk about them, but about the way they are controlled or, if you prefer, the magic that lies underneath their cases or the spell that makes them turn green when a car approaches.
Although in some regions authorities and various companies have started testing innovative traffic light control systems, there are usually two different modes adopted by most nations on the planet: fixed time and dynamic control. Let's take them one a time and see the differences.