Imagine you come to a stop in a busy intersection. You know it will take 5 minutes before you get your left-turn signal. No more. You click on the get-green-light transponder mounted on your dashboard (spending 10 cents a click), hope others waiting for the same left-turn signal do the same, and if a few people click, you get your green light in a flash!

This would be very easy to implement- get your regular 4-way traffic lights and mount a 4-way directional wireless receiver capable of detecting transponders mounted on dashboards (like the dashboards some of us have to have today for some toll highways). The wireless could be a cheap wireless receiver from Radio Shack! Link the receiver to a billing centre where they would deduct 10 cents for your clicks, a microchip that would decide when to change green lights based on clicks from frustrated motorists and wait for the money to roll in.

One way other motorists can avoid being stuck in traffic longer (because others are clicking to get green lights faster) would be for them to click their own get-green-light transponders. Of course, those without transponders would have no vote in the matter, but would you want to be caught without your trusty get-green-light box?
-- Sprokets, Apr 26 2005

Bidding for greens bidding_20for_20greens
intruiging ideas anyway. [Zimmy, Apr 27 2005]

[+], but the funding has to go directly to local roads, no politicos allowed.
-- normzone, Apr 27 2005


Give a vote a cost and it might work. But would this costly undertaking be worth it?
-- DrCurry, Apr 27 2005


Great idea. I personally like the fact that it should take at least two or three cars to turn a light from red to green. However, I can see being in a rush and getting pissed off that the guy behind won't payup the $.10 fee. By the way, this is somewhat similar to the toll roads out in California that charge different rates based on the amount of time you save by taking them.
-- thefullrob, May 12 2005


there will be cross sections that will be almost impossible for cars to get through during certain times. roads coming out of economically hurting communities will stand still while an intersecting road from some suburbian village will constantly cut it off. Not that thats the biggest issue. [In a way this is advocating that people with more money should be able to get where they are going faster.]
-- SpocksEyebrow, May 12 2005



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