irritating traffic lights

[wowa 2]

I'm always irritated that the traffic lights in SC4 are behind the intersection. Is there a way to bring them in front of the intersection? Also strange is that the traffic lights are not always on the same side (sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right side).

Attached you'll see a picture of a T-shaped intersection to see what i mean.

 

Pic 1 is how the traffic lights are positioned in my game, pic 2 suits my suggestion of the lights in front of the intersection and pic 3 additionally shows every traffic light on the right side (for right-hand traffic). So unfortunately, pics 2 and 3 are simply painted to show where the lights should be (in my mind).

 

http://www.imgcity.net/server/primary/traffic%20lights.jpg align=baseline>

 

Is there a mod ore another possibility to solve that or do you think that's worth to be a request for NAM?

 

Hope this hasn't been discussed before, but i didn't found anything regarding the positioning in front resp. behind the intersection.

 

Greetings,

wowa

 

[SamFlash 0]

Welcome to Simtropolis. In Los Angeles our stoplights are always on the farside of the intersection so you can see them.  If they were on the same corner you were stopped at you would have a hard time seeing them, especially if you were the first car at the light. They would be over your head.   Stop signs are were you want the stoplights to be. 

[wowa 2]

Well, i see. So i dare say it's only a matter of habit that this positioning of the traffic lights is so irritating for me. In my region the traffic lights look mostly like them in this picture:

 

http://www.imgcity.net/server/primary/driving%20school.gif align=baseline>

 

By the way, you're absolutely right that it's sometimes hard to see the lights if you are the first car. It iss often enough necessary to crick the neck.

 

I mean, it's not really an essential point, but it would be nice though if there would be a possibility to change the positions to give my cities a more local look.

 

 

[SamFlash 0]

If your really want to be able to do that, then go over to the modding forums, read thru the tutorials, and learn how to create a mod that will allow you to place stoplights any place you want.  You might even be able to get one of the veteran modders to help you.

[cogeo 960]

A mod like this may be easy to implement.

All you need to do is find the stoplight prop exemplars and just move the model for a distance equal to the width of the road (or a little bit more) to the front. This way you will get the effect of pic 2.

[cogeo 960]

Well, it's not that easy. The same prop exemplar is used for both avenues and roads, and if someone simply moves the model forth, this will also affect avenues.

The only solution would be to mod the network type-21 exemplars for intersections, ie move the props there.

However this is quite a big amount of work, as the intersections are really many: cross, T, diagonals, combinations of straights and diagonals as well as combinations with other network types (oneways and streets).

 

I don't like the stoplights' arrangement either, I would like to have them before the intersections. However I don't know if such a mod would be interesting to many ST members to be worth all the work. I think I will start a thread under the Modding Transit Networks Forum, post your suggestions there. Maybe this could be combined with european (and not only) stoplights and make a supermod.

[GMT 389]

since i live very close to the french border (in germany) i know about hard-to-be-seen traffic lights and know how to avoid them...
just yesterday I've been to france again, for the first time i was steering the car so that's why i haven't realized it until then.
well, to stop chit-chatting:

a common german traffic light looks like this , so it is definately hard to see them when you're the very first car in line. the only traffic lights i have seen here that are on the far side are turning lights if you and the oncomming traffic have green at the same time to that you can make your left-turn or not (say whether the oncommings have red again so its safe to the turn).
yesterday, in france, i saw that they have another, smaller traffic light mounted on the hight a cardriver sits usually wich is not ment for the pedestrians, but for for the first car in line so the driver can see teh traffic lights easier what looks like in this picture . ok, it's a kinda old one, but the concept is still the same, only that most of them have (at least where i was yesterday) like LEDs and a thinner case.

in fact, this system is much better then the german one because it's sometimes very very hard to see the lights in germany when you're the first car.

btw: wowa, are you german? because the picture you showed above is a picture of our drivers-licence tests

[wowa 2]

I thought, that wouldn't be so easy to do (at least for me) and it's good to see that also some other people don't like the stoplights' arrangement in SC4 either.

@cogeo: Thanks for starting a thread under the Modding Transit Networks Forum, i wasn't sure if it's interesting enough for others too.

 

@GMT: no, i'm from Austria, but we have the same system than the german (the picture i used was the first suitable pic i found in Google to show what i mean; i used it as it's sometimes hard for me to explain things in english).

It's absolutely true that the german/austrian/? system isn't the best, but since i'm accustomed to it ...

[beeblebrox 0]

Well I've never thought about it too much, but I know that some (if not all) junctions in the UK have traffic lights at the stop line AND after the junction, so everyone can see the lights, even the first driver in the queue.

[Gozer_Jep 0]

in Holland, the stopline is 1 or 2 meters behind the light, so that you can see the light. I think when the light is on the farside of the intersection you also can't see the light, because other cars are in your sight when you are the second car.

[cogeo 960]

wowa, in pic1 the stoplights ARE placed at the right side, only they're placed after the intersection, not before. So I think the arrangement in pic 2 is wrong already.

[wowa 2]

Ups, you're right cogeo, i thought the light (when coming along from the left side would stand on the left side (but then it would have been before the intersection,.. grummel). Sorry, i must have been blind.

[SamFlash 0]

Date: 1/6/2006 10:43:57 AM Author: Gozer_Jep

in Holland, the stopline is 1 or 2 meters behind the light, so that you can see the light. I think when the light is on the farside of the intersection you also can't see the light, because other cars are in your sight when you are the second car.

quote>

Here in California the traffic lights are mounted high enough you can see them a block away. 

[wowa 2]

OK, lucky California ..... it seems you have the better system!

 

  But what about the weather?

 

Damn, you have the better weather too .

I think, i really should visit California one day.  

[cogeo 960]

I have started a  new thread under the Modding Transit Networks Forum, please post there.

[SamFlash 0]

Traffic lights are good, weather is good, city street highway signs suck.  The ones I'm talking about are the ones that are on city streets telling you there is a highway on-ramp coming up.  Here they wait until you get to it to tell you which lane you need to be in for the direction you want to go.  Unless you already know which lane is the right lane before you get there, you always in the wrong lane.  That's why we always have these idiot drivers trying to cross 3 lanes of heavy traffic to get to the opposite side. Some states put warning signs back a couple of blocks so you have time to get over in the proper lane.  I don't know how they do it in Europe but hopefully their smarter there than our transportation planners.