The best part of my job is that everyone else is an expert at it!
Wait, you're a teacher too?
Nope, but anyone who has every drove a car can do signal timing apparently.
I'm not saying I'm an expert, but when you're the only one sitting at a light for 2 minutes at 1 AM, it doesn't take an expert to know something went wrong.
Oh no - now look what we started ;)
Skunkfunk - you may be right. Call it in and see what answer you get. My bet is that the cycle length where you live is under 2 minutes long. I am pretty sure that the time you spend waiting is a clearance interval (time for the detector to sense you are there and not turning, and make sure it doesn't affect progression of upstream/downstream signals - usually about 15 - 30 seconds) plus amber and all-red (usually combined for 6-8 seconds depending on the size of the road) so in a worst case scenario, you are waiting for about 40 seconds which can feel like an eternity when there is no opposing traffic.
If it is longer than that, then there may be a broken vehicle detector. This time of year we have a lot of broken detectors out in the network since winter maintenance beats them up pretty bad. Our contractors will be out fixing them over the next month or so as the frost comes out of the ground.
On very rare occasion, I have seen bigger problems like lights miswired, sidestreet detection turned off, or controller malfunctions, but usually its just a cut detector wire (loop) that needs attention. But do call it in - I'm curious what the answer you get will be - and before you call it in, use a stopwatch and get a real time. FYI everyone says either 2 minutes or 5 minutes with the odd 10 minute wait reported. You fall into the highest percentile with a 2 minute wait time. We keep a scorecard.
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