Are these Bennett Haselton posts just trolling by Slashdot editors?

If the patent officer recognize it as useless, they will reject the patent.

Until four years ago, I worked in Los Angeles as a traffic engineer. The ATSAC system is used on more than 4,000 intersections, is interconnected, and makes adjustments to signal timing either manually or automatically. There aren't cameras at all of the monitored intersections, but you don't need cameras to measure traffic volumes and speed, they're just an additional tool.

Further, the systems that use cameras for vehicle detection are falling out of favor. There are too many conditions, such as rain, snow, fog and bright sunshine that can befuddle the systems and cause them to fall back to pre-set timing rather than relying on vehicle detection. Where inductive loops aren't used, radar is proving to be more reliable than cameras.

Even where there's no interconnection, most intersections have controllers that are considerably more sophisticated than simple timers.

It's already being done. Los Angeles started in 1984 in anticipation of the Olympics, with system called ATSAC. There are several different types in use today.

I posted something similar above. NCHRP Report 731 hews pretty closely to the recommendations in the ITE Traffic Engineer's handbook. I'll add that the MUTCD, section 4d.26 refers to that 3 second minimum as guidance, and uses "should," rather than "shall" or "will."

Sorry. I didn't read the second paragraph of the summary, and only skimmed the Ars article. I still assert that it's not law, it's a recommendation.

What gave you that impression? Signal timing is determined by an equation, but may have some minimum defined by local or state law, or in a design manual.

At 25 MPH with no grade, depending on law or policy, it may be perfectly permissible to have a 2.8s interval, though it's common in practice to round that to a minimum 3s. Here's the equation from the 1999 ITE handbook:
Y=t + 1.467v/2(a+32g), where
t=perception-reaction time, typically assumed to be 1 s,
v=speed in MPH (ITE recommends using the 85th percentile speed, but many agencies use the posted speed.),
a=deceleration rate, assumed to be 10 ft/sec^2,
g=grade.
If you want to read more, NCHRP report 731details recommended guidelines, and provides some history for the recommendations.

Thanks. Why wouldn't radar work? Mountainous roads?

Ethanol, by itself, has an octane rating of about 129. The octane rating isn't about the energy content of the fuel, but rather its tendency to ignite under compression ("detonate") as compared to iso-octane.

Those tube-shaped sensors can probably measure a bit more than speed. I don't know what is used where you are, but I recently completed the design for a dozen automatic vehicle classification stations. They measure speed, count axles, and of course, count vehicles. I doubt that the sensors you're talking about are for speed enforcement: That's easily done with radar and photos.

Add moose to the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...

In this context, they're talking about a test sample. Perhaps the summary should have been edited to say so in plainer English.

Don't you need to move the spool of abs (or whatever plastic they're using) up there? I don't think this is about the weight that travels up there, but rather the time to deliver parts there. If X plastic widget will get the primary air scrubber(s) working again right now, that vastly trumps relying on a secondary for six months.

How about Arizona to Fairbanks. Seventeen days for the trip is quite a long time, though. I've driven between LA and Fairbanks twice, and can do it in 7 days without pushing too hard.

I couldn't agree more. Where I live, I pay a monthly fee simply to be connected to the grid, whether I use any electricity or not. I assume that if micro-generation becomes common that the co-op must increase this fee. I will happily pay an increased fee to have the night-time and winter generation that are impossible with solar.

A transfer switch, combined with a good inverter (or a pair, depending on your load) can provide this today. (The transfer switch is mandatory for any solar install, anyway, so as to keep utility workers safe.) In fact, this has been possible for at least 15 years. In fact, a good inverter can act as the charge controller for your batteries, as well as manage a back-up generator to keep the batteries charged during an extended outage. If you want a good system that provides backup power, I would talk to somebody about designing it for you, rather than trying to cobble it together yourself.

There's a very nice graphic, so you needn't strain yourself by reading. You only need to scroll, and click twice. While the picture seems to paint a very precise picture, the article states that the timing is ambiguous, so it might not land so directly in North America.