A little driving challenge...

As originally stated, this is Silicon Valley (San Jose Area) specific, bu you can adapt it to your own region. Rules of the challenge:

• You cannot directly or indirectly impede anybody else (cars, pedestrians, bikers, etc)
• You must obey all traffic laws
• No tampering of any kind
• The traffic signal must be working normally
  

The challenge:
How slowly can you cross El Camino Real in your car (driving on a cross street)?

If you are in another locatin, pick the largest street instead of El Camino Real, which is the main drag in Silicon Valley. Also, I start and stop timing when my front wheels cross the boundary of the intersection, typically the bordering lines or the cross walk lines.

I've discovered getting a record breaking time requires both smarts and luck. For example, late at night, the lights cycle too quickly to get a good time. I also get odd looks as my car putters across the intersection...

Scroll down to see my best time. Or guess what time is possible.























































































My best: 30 seconds.

This is about how long it takes a pedestrian to cross. The other challenge is deciding whether to look at the row of drivers watching you, squarely in the eye.

Scroll down even more to see the factors it takes for a "record time".























































































Factors:

• It has to be during peak traffic so the light cycle is at its daily peak in duration
  
• Pick an intersection that is major, so the light cycle is long
• But not too major, as you need to be the only car in your lane, with nobody behind you the whole time (remember no blocking/impeding anyone else)
  
• And this is key: you need to have "walker support" in which pedestrians are also walking, which lengthens the traffic light cycle even more.

In short, my time is limited by the duration of the green light and the luck to have nobody behind me.

My intersection of choice was in the Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto region.