What if we lowered the time between the moment a light facing one street turns red and the moment the light...

Question

...facing the other street turns green?

Even by as little as 1/10 of a second...would that reduce pollution (by letting people get to where they want to go faster) without lowering the risk of automobile related accidents?

I've always noticed that there was this delay, and it made me wonder why it was so long.

Answer 1

No it might increase accident rates, but in europe the lights go from green to red, no yellow. The yellow comes just before the green giving the drivers time to get ready and go. It seems like they can get more cars through the intersection this way.