Why There Are No Countdown Timers On Traffic Lights In The US

In order to obtain a driver's license, you need to know how to read and use traffic lights. Red means stop, green means go, and yellow means book it because you have no idea how much time you have left. Well, you do when traveling in many European and Asian countries, which raises the question of why the U.S. doesn't use traffic lights with countdown timers. The problem is two-fold.

All traffic lights in the United States need to conform with strict rules dictated by the U.S. Department of Transportation. While not draconian, these regulations are stalwart and take a long time to change. The Department of Transportation is open to using programs that alter light timings depending on traffic, but the same can't be said for installing new lights that provide new information — the cameras on top of traffic lights don't count. The main concern is that adding timers to traffic lights could potentially confuse drivers, leading to distracted driving and more crashes.

Another hurdle, albeit slightly more hypothetical, is the price of such an endeavor. Installing the necessary module would cost anywhere between $190 to $1,930 per traffic light, and nobody knows exactly how many traffic lights there are in the United States. We only know that there are hundreds of thousands, many of which are in dire need of repair. So what to prioritize? Do we upgrade the lights, add a fourth color to accommodate the growing population of driverless cars, or install timing modules? There's only so much money in the pot.

While the Department of Transportation is concerned that traffic light countdown timers could result in information overload, the data does not support this belief. In 2017, Oregon State University conducted a study with a countdown timer and found that its presence increased the probability a driver would stop by 13% while improving deceleration rates. Of course, this was just one study involving one intersection, and a researcher admitted that a countdown timer only has value when installed in a light with a fixed timer. But what if you could place a countdown clock in a car?

The Federal Highway Administration — which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation — recently published a study involving special "instrumented vehicles" that displayed a traffic signal countdown timer on a display screen. Like the Oregon State study, researchers found that the presence of the timer decreased car speeds by 15% when the light was yellow or red and made drivers decelerate over 300% more often. But when the light was green, the timer apparently made drivers more confident, as they slowed down less.

These studies demonstrate that giving drivers countdown timers can potentially reduce accidents in intersections. If the U.S. government isn't willing to foot the bill to install timers in traffic lights, perhaps manufacturers can create their own market and produce networked timers that plug into car USB ports. Food for thought.