Red lights are one of the worst nuisances on your drive. They slow you down, they reduce fuel efficiency, and they're generally annoying. While you can't avoid them entirely, you can reduce the amount of time you spend at traffic lights.
As we've established in the past, speeding only nets you a marginal travel time gain (and arguably not enough to be worth the risk of a ticket). The bigger problem is traffic lights. While not unpredictable, they're complex and it becomes difficult to manage them over more than one or two intersections.
Not only do they all slow you down, but you waste gas when you idle at them (though you should never turn your car off at a traffic light). That being said, you can still find ways to reduce the amount of time that you spend at a light.
Learn Basic Traffic Light Prediction Cues
Knowing how a traffic light operates is helpful for knowing how to avoid them. We all know that lights change automatically either based on timers or sensors, there are a few patterns and predictors you can keep an eye on. Here are the basic steps of a traffic light cycle and how you can use that information.
Green Light - While a traffic light is green, traffic can flow freely. At intersections equipped with sensors, the most heavily-trafficked direction will often stay green until it's given a reason to switch. This means that late at night, cars already waiting at the light you're approaching may be about to trigger a red light cycle.
Don't Walk - At intersections where a pedestrian signal is functional, the Don't Walk cycle (characterized by a blinking orange hand and sometimes a countdown timer) will complete before the intersection enters the yellow light cycle. If you're approaching an intersection and you see a countdown timer near zero, expect a yellow light shortly thereafter.
Yellow Light - This part of the cycle will typically last 2-4 seconds, or enough time for the intersection to be cleared before entering the red light phase.
Red Light - This is the part of the cycle that hangs most people up. As you should be aware if you passed your driver's test, you can make right turns at this cycle unless specifically prohibited. You can also make a left turn if you're turning from a one-way street to another one-way street.
Green Left Turn Arrow - This part of the cycle typically (but not exclusively) comes before the full green light. You can sometimes use this to your advantage if your destination is directly on the opposite side of the intersection on the left (like a gas station). While turning left and going straight will both get you where you need to go, left turns get to go first, reducing the amount of time you spend at the light.
Obviously, every traffic light is different and not every intersection strictly follows the same rules. Often a cycle can be adapted to the needs of a specific area. Your best bet is to learn these routes and find the exceptions.
Of course, there are things you can do to avoid spending time at lights that have nothing to do with the red light cycle itself. Here are just a few.
Avoid the Most Problematic Traffic Lights if Possible
Not all traffic lights are equal. In many cases, a single heavily-trafficked light can cause disruptions on your commute several intersections away. Identifying these and circumventing them while mostly sticking to your path can help.
In the example above, the intersection of Bells Ferry Rd and Highway 92 is a notoriously dense intersection with several lanes of traffic going in both directions. For some commutes (like continuing straight on Bells Ferry Rd), there is no alternative. However, if you were approaching Bells Ferry Rd from the top of the map and need to turn right, Robin Rd can help you avoid the intersection altogether.
Choose the Least Dense Lane
Not everyone has the same path in mind while approaching an intersection. Theoretically, all lanes would be filled equally, but you can often find that on a multi-lane highway, either the right- or left-most lane can fill up faster than the other, depending on what's around you. If you need to travel straight through an intersection, but most people are turning right, moving to the left lane can reduce how much time you're spending at that particular light. The closer you are to the intersection, the less time you're waiting, and (ideally), the lower the chances are you'll get caught at the next red light cycle.
Of course, changing lanes means you need to be aware of where other cars are. Rapidly changing from one lane to another can also draw the attention of law enforcement officers. Not every intersection has a clear-cut "better" lane, so if you find that changing a lane didn't help you much, just stay there. It's better to give up the few second gains than risk hitting another car or getting pulled over.
Choose an Alternate Route with Fewer Lights
This is a strategy that's only as useful as the streets in your area allow, unfortunately. However, a route that takes the same amount of time but has fewer lights can actually be more beneficial. Partly due to the unpredictable lag that traffic lights cause (even Google can't predict accidents or traffic jams with 100% accuracy), and partly due to increased fuel efficiency.
Plan Your Route to Avoid Left Turns
Unless you're in the specific scenario described above where your destination is directly across from you, left turns are generally bad for the efficiency of your route. This isn't due left turns being harder for an engine to pull off, but rather the amount of time that you'll spend waiting at a red light. Imagine a route with two stops along the same road, both on your left. If you were to stop at the first place you pass and then continue on, your route will look like this, with each yellow arrow indicating a left turn:
The result (assuming you need to travel back in the direction you came to get home) will be three left turns. One to get into your first destination, one to continue on your path, and one to get to your second destination. Each one of these is an opportunity to get stuck at a traffic light. However, if you wait to turn left until you reach the farthest destination, your route will look like this:
This results in only one left turn. On your return trip, you can turn right into your second destination, which is a turn you can make even at a red light. There are fewer barriers to your path. You can then turn right again when you're ready to head home.
Obviously, this doesn't apply in all situations. You may find that the lights are timed in such a way as to favor left turns. Or perhaps traffic is very crowded turning right into a destination. Maybe there's so little traffic in an area that the gains are negligible. However, if you're wasting a lot of time at traffic lights waiting to turn left, rearranging your route is (unsurprisingly) one of the best ways to mitigate that wasted time.
Photo by William Warby.