Can you imagine riding down Riverside drive and having the each light turn green as you approached?
A temporary pilot project with this goal in mind was tried in San Francisco, and it has been so successful that it will be a permanent feature.
The “Green Wave” signal on Valencia Street in San Fran re-timed the traffic lights with a goal of prioritizing bicycle traffic speeds.
While it sounds like an original idea, it has previously been done in cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Portland. The traffic lights are timed to keep vehicles traveling at a steady speed of 13mph (20 km/h).
But what about motor vehicles? Wouldn’t it cause chaos? Actually, a SMTA study performed prior to implementation predicted that motor vehicle travel times would decrease as well.
Considering that there are a number of traffic lights in Windsor that are still timed (rather than sensor-driven), with enough political will, we could see traffic lights optimized to cyclists here too.
Source: Streetsblog San Francisco