Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

artlebedev.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 72 posts

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#61

Post by rimantas »

yaakov34 wrote: post #50

When it comes to Lebedev's designs, one would do well to reserve judgement until seeing the final result. For example, Lebedev designed bus stops for the city of Perm with tremendous fanfare, see here: http://www.artlebedev.ru/everything/perm/bus-stop/ . There were hundreds of press articles about it, which is surely unusual for a bus stop design. It then turned out that the bus stops could not be built with rounded…

  It doesn't help that Artemy Lebedev is a giant, giant
  douche nozzle - if you read Russian, you can convince
  yourself of this by browsing his blog.
Yep. The things they do are not that great to allow for his tone. "Kovodstvo" was a good read for me when I was starting my proffesional career as webdev (around 1999), but I left it for the higher quality in English (and because Lebedev's studio still cannot code HTML).

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#62

Post by watmough »

docmarionum1 wrote: post #11

I was in Istanbul a few months ago and the traffic was the craziest I've ever seen. It didn't really seem like anyone paid attention to the traffic signals anyway. I don't see how a new design would help fix that.

I spent a week there, and truthfully it didn't seem any worse than Houston or New York. Not really all that much traffic, and what seem like drivers who are used to the locale. Down near the harbor, I never saw a car run a light in all the times I walked from there back up to my hotel in the old town.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#63

Post by watmough »

Cushman wrote: post #8
umtrey wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, from a design standpoint, the idea of using LEDs is being challenged - while the designer mentions a lack of snow build-up, the traditional lights do a good job of emitting enough heat to melt snow drift: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34436730/ns/us_news-life/t/energ... It's not an entirely obvious problem, but one that is being dealt with often in colder climates. Unintended consequences of design.

There must be cheaper ways to get rid of snow than incandescent lightbulbs .

You could duct building hvac systems at street level and use waste heat / energy that way.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#64

Post by watmough »

Cushman wrote: post #8
umtrey wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, from a design standpoint, the idea of using LEDs is being challenged - while the designer mentions a lack of snow build-up, the traditional lights do a good job of emitting enough heat to melt snow drift: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34436730/ns/us_news-life/t/energ... It's not an entirely obvious problem, but one that is being dealt with often in colder climates. Unintended consequences of design.

There must be cheaper ways to get rid of snow than incandescent lightbulbs .

You could duct building hvac systems at street level and use waste heat / energy that way.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#65

Post by eru »

ojilles wrote: post #46
dmazin wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some cities in America have traffic-synchronized streets where a driver going a certain (indicated all along the street) speed should hit the greens every time. The problem one one street I've seen it used for is, the sign is very vague about when this system is active "during peak traffic hours" so I do not know when to go the suggested speed or not.

Pretty common elsewhere in the world too. In the Netherlands they call it the "Green Wave", and marketed as such. I suspect b/c speeding in those area's really doesn't buy you anything. So when traffic is light, they double as a "speed bump" :-)

Common in Germany as well.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#66

Post by eru »

hackermom wrote: post #52

Reading this got me thinking about the sound signal schemes that traffic stop devices - sometimes the lights, sometimes the push button boxes - emit to aid those with visual impairment. The Swedish system is a mechanical ticker placed inside the push button box, like a very loud clock that ticks slowly at one tick about every other second during red/yellow, and then picks up pace to about 7-8 ticks per second during…

You can also hear those ticks in parts of Germany.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#67

Post by jevinskie »

hackermom wrote: post #52

Reading this got me thinking about the sound signal schemes that traffic stop devices - sometimes the lights, sometimes the push button boxes - emit to aid those with visual impairment. The Swedish system is a mechanical ticker placed inside the push button box, like a very loud clock that ticks slowly at one tick about every other second during red/yellow, and then picks up pace to about 7-8 ticks per second during…

My university (Purdue, USA) has an audio countdown with a seconds tick.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#68

Post by jules »

SoftwareMaven wrote: post #22
umtrey wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, from a design standpoint, the idea of using LEDs is being challenged - while the designer mentions a lack of snow build-up, the traditional lights do a good job of emitting enough heat to melt snow drift: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34436730/ns/us_news-life/t/energ... It's not an entirely obvious problem, but one that is being dealt with often in colder climates. Unintended consequences of design.

Utah has that problem with its LED stoplights. The DoT said, "Tough. Treat it like you would a power outage". http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705366962/Blowing-wet-sno...

Those lights look like they have been specifically designed for catching snow. Move the glass in front of the lights to the end of the tubes, problem solved.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#69

Post by gcb »

ZoFreX wrote: post #38
gcb wrote: post #14

never liked anything from that studio. but then, i don't like Dyson too... but this proves my point about art lebedev. they got an assignment to redo traffic lights, and just made then square. ...oh, and use the newest led tech buzzword! don't forget the latest led tech buzzword.

If you read their earlier post on it, the squareness is far from a quirk and actually a very well thought out design decision. Obviously design is a matter of taste, but like them or no, their method is a lot more than just being quirky or using buzzwords.

I'm not disliking based on aesthetics.

but because 100% of traffic lights were i live are square. nothing new.

also, besides being square, they have sensors in the asphalt that detects cars (and bikes in bike lanes) toadjust for optimum wait time.

Re: Istanbul Isiklarius traffic lights

#70

Post by thejbf »

_b8r0 wrote: post #44
docmarionum1 wrote: post #11

I was in Istanbul a few months ago and the traffic was the craziest I've ever seen. It didn't really seem like anyone paid attention to the traffic signals anyway. I don't see how a new design would help fix that.

Istanbul is about 3000 years old and built on 7 (some very steep, think San Fransisco steep) hills. It was never designed (if designed is a word you can use at all here) for either tall buildings or vehicles. Over the past 10 years something weird happened, people started buying cars, and some people would buy more than one but as most people live in apartments in Istanbul it appears as though there are more cars on…

Is it necessary to mention Saudi Arabia here? Atheists dont drive better in Istanbul. Istanbul is an old, huge and unorginized jungle. Most of the bridges and connections are not designed to handle today's traffic volume. I remember spending 3hrs just to arrive work and get back at home (And there are only 10km btw the two -- avg I spend at least 2 hrs). There is not a proper railway or metro system. Even though sea transportation is fair enough, most people drive and they drive alone. Population is estimated to be 20M with tourists. There are tens of thousands cars crossing the bridges that are making the Europe-Asia connection with only 7 lines in total.

Given these circumstances, just imagine the stress on the drivers.

But the best part: I live in Asia and work in Europe. My 2hrs is an intercontinental journey.

Post reply on HN