i've noticed this late at night (which seems to be fine) but 6pm? thats too early, and as a frequent pedestrian to this crosswalk, there is no way those cars are stopping for pedestrians.
email our trusty Gaugahn and tell him to extend the red/green lights past rush hour.
i'll be interested to see if he responds, or does something about it.

It used to switch to the blinking lights only in the late hours, after midnight, and now it is doing it in the middle of rush hour. Seemed broken to me.

Also, as a pedestrian, the consequences of playing chicken with 40 mph cars is life or death.

I guess JC is decades away from being a pedestrian friendly town, if ever.

Happy driving!

Oh well, if we are talking about not bothering to pay attention to the rules of the road, a standard traffic light is no improvement in Jersey City. Its not like half the drivers bother stopping at red lights anyway.

Same here, ianmac.

Blinking traffic lights are appropriate in many ocassions. The problem arises when drivers CHOOSE to ignore their meaning and associated rules/directives. That doesn't mean that the lights are inherently dangerous. If drivers are ignoring their meaning, police should be alerted and enforcement should be stepped up.

I think its actually very appropriate to change from a full light to flashers at night. The light is a very long light when traffic is light.

As for the pedestrians, if its a flashing light, they have the right of way and vehicles must yield if they are in the crosswalk. Of course if they aren't in the crosswalk they are fair targets to be run down.

Quote:

Why do you consider traffic lights blinking yellow, or red, to be broken?

Blinking yellow = slow down, proceed with caution (similar to yield)
Blinking red = same as STOP sign

Its been doing that for a lot longer then a week. I think this might be by design.

For the past week or so the lights at this intersection just blink yellow for Paterson and red for Congress every evening after 6pm. There is still heavy traffic at this time, and many pedestrians exiting the light rail station via the bridge. This is a very dangerous situation and I'm surprised it has lasted this long.