Eko : Ecological and Economical Traffic Light Concept

Eko is the ecological and economical new design of traffic light. A highly useable concept, it will not only assist in preserving our environment in reducing the pollution, it promotes safe driving too. Eko traffic light tells drivers how long the light will change from red to green. This traffic light design will give a lots of advantages and the major benefits are : lesser pollution and lesser consumption of fuel (drivers can turn off their car while waiting for the green light).

eko ecological and economical traffic light concept

eko ecological and economical traffic light concept

eko ecological and economical traffic light concept

eko ecological and economical traffic light concept

Designer : Damjan Stanković



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29 thoughts on “Eko : Ecological and Economical Traffic Light Concept

  1. OH MY GOSH! i was thinking about this the other day, it would be so convenient to know how long the light was going to go. And i am definitely for it if it were less energy consuming. Now only for it to become adopted by every state, so we can have pretty lights! 😀

  2. Need Minutes, Seconds display for View for ALL lights.
    Nice.
    Integrate into estd traffic signal systems alone for LA CA So CA USA.
    Must have for CA State.
    Way Cool

  3. Finally a great idea!
    Considering that the lights are rigged for commercial advantages = tickets.
    This improvement is long over due.
    I would also incorporate it into the other lights or have a universal timer.

  4. They have thought of this. It was tested in it proved to be a lot more dangerous than standard traffic lights. People would anticipate the change and speed forward causing more accidents.

  5. In addition, how would people shutting off their cars at a stoplight save fuel? Carbureted engines use a healthy amount of gas to start, so this would offset the stopping for them. In addition, oil circulation is a necessity for a vehicle to run efficiently. It is a well known fact that vehicles that make a bunch of very short trips will not outlast a vehicle that may have up to twice the mileage of healthy use. People are in such a hurry to “be green” that they forget some of the important basics of life.

    • thats the first thing that i thought… the start up takes a huge amount of gas compared to the rest of the car trip. while its a great idea simply for the sake of driving i think maybe the author grabbed onto the wrong aspects.

      • i just realized that the green light didnt have this feature… i think it would be safer for driving if people knew how long the green light had been up. this might stop people from racing the beat the green.

  6. umm, existing traffic light infrastructure doesn’t have the wiring nor the circuits needed to communicate the part about the time remaining. I doubt this idea will sweep the nation since the expense of revising the infrastructure would be quite high.

    • you do know that practically 90 % of traffic lights in use today are set with timers and are in no way connected to an "infrastructure" unless by that you mean connected to the power lines that do just that, feed power… thats it

  7. Since when is shutting off a car at every red light economical? As others have said, starting up the car consumes much more fuel than just leaving it running on neutral and it pollutes a lot more.

    I think it’s a good idea to have the countdown red light because you can put the car in neutral and just leave it in low rev and only put it in first (or drive) at the right moment, now *that* is advantageous.

  8. I was in Bulgaria early -08 and they had similiar system. 2-digit led display next to red light telling how many seconds ’til the light changes.

    Not sure how it would affect pollution, it really never crossed my mind to turn the engine off for 5-25seconds. The main difference is, i think, that those traffic lights can handle more cars than normal ones because cars get moving instantly on green light, not with small delay as usually.

    And they are nice.. if you see that there’s long wait u can tune the radio or send sms or whatever. ^^

  9. This is a poorly thought out idea. The traffic light system depends on the variable timing of the lights to control flow. This would make the light a passive indicator, increasing the chances of incidents.

    And the thing it’s trying to solve is just as poorly thought out, considering more dirty exhaust is released by turning the car off and on. This is why valid ideas are peer reviewed before they publish. The internet makes it too easy to spread stupid ideas.

  10. I’ll just add to the chorus on this one being a very bad idea.

    As was mentioned, the internal combustion engine uses a lot of fuel (Roughly equivalent to 2 or 3 minutes of it running at idle) when it is started. So no reduction in pollution for turning cars on and off. In fact, there would be an increase.

    Also, as was mentioned, the universal result of motorists knowing when the light will change will be cars proceeding into the intersection before they are supposed to. At least in America… 🙂

  11. dan the man said: “i just realized that the green light didnt have this feature… i think it would be safer for driving if people knew how long the green light had been up. this might stop people from racing the beat the green.”

    Yeah… We already have that. It’s called the “yellow” light.

  12. There is similar system in Russia as in Bulgaria. And nothing had changed. Engines still work, even if red light on for 3 minutes and some drivers even don’t wait for the green light, they start moving sometimes 5 seconds before it.

  13. This reminds me a bit of the red/green man pedestrian lights that tell you how much time you have left to cross. I think it would be nice as a road user to know how long you have to wait at the light like when a computer tells you how long you have to wait fo a download.

  14. This is a naive optimist's dream. Anyone who's lived in a city like New York knows that drivers will just use that light to see when they can zoom out. They do it now looking at the cross street lights. Good idea but a bit misguided.

  15. I doubt anyone would turn off their cars while waiting for a light to change, but it might stop people riding the clutch waiting to take off. It's a good idea for people who are impatient.

  16. Very good concept, although the timed light has been used before. In Osaka, they did implement these timed lights, but they were done away with. However, the ecofriendly concept is new.

  17. Hi, this is about to be a rant but –

    In the US, counting lights is incredibly easy. I believe that many cops have learned this trick and many make the mistake of believing the police force have traffic signal "changers." The basic premise of counting lights is the same in other countries, so you should be able to use the same basic method that I lay out here:

    It all begins with looking at the numbers on the crosswalk (or "the count"). This on about 90% of all lights signifies the time when the yellow light will trigger. Some lights have safety buffer times for pedestrians that get to the crosswalk slowly, and many will have electromagnetic triggers in the ground which can sense cars waiting at the light. We will call these electromagnetically triggered lights: sensored lights. Some sensored lights will even automatically change a major street's light even when only a few cars are waiting on the light, breaking the timing of the light. You can see which lights are sensored by the rectangular shapes cut in the ground under the part where cars should stop.

    I recommend learning this system and taking advantage of it. By figuring out which streets in your city are the least restrictive to traverse, you can cross the city with only green lights if timed properly. You can even learn to try to hit lights with barely enough time to catch the yellow, so that if you believe someone is following you they are forced to stop or your suspicions are supported. Learning all of this is about trying to remember the various "counts" for all the lights, then finding streets that if you maintain a consistent speed, you can properly go through all the green lights. At a certain point, driving this way becomes rhythmic.

    I've found many of these streets to be one way streets. If the street is not one way, you can begin learning the timing. When starting, aim to make it through two or three traffic lights on a bigger street by starting from a side street with a traffic light. Starting from this position will always keep the timings consistent unless there are sensored lights, giving you a way to compare and contrast. On some streets getting any further than two or three may be impossible, but other streets that are possible are nearby.

    What a stupid concept for a light post. Just look at the count…

    I think I'm about to write a book about this btw.

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