Andrew Gabriel wrote:
Thought some of you might be interested in a toy I made for
a 2½ year old for a Christmas present -- a working model
pedestrian crossing. He had just started getting fascinated
by traffic lights and crossings, and this seemed like too
good an opportunity for an educational toy.

There's a detailed description and pictures at
http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/lights/crossing/


Cool. Next project maybe a crossing road junction on a square plank of
wood, with traffic and pedestrian lights and approaching vehicle detect?
If you get the software down to a fine art, I could recommend marketing
it to a few councils around here.

OTOH, I've peeked inside the control boxes of various traffic signal
equipment. Horribly complex, but probably is monitoring things like bulb
failure, emergency vehicles and phasing of other signals.

--
Adrian C