Stop-light stats

How Many Red Lights Have I Waited At?

Every commute is a string of red lights. Enter your driving habits to estimate how many you have sat through and how many hours you have spent watching them.

0red lights waited at so far
0Hours spent at red lights
0Full days
0Reds per driving day
0Reds per year
0Minutes per year
0Gallons burned idling

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to any server.

Why count red lights

Hidden commute time

A 45-second wait feels like nothing, but thousands of them add up to days of your life.

Compare routes

Try different lights-per-trip numbers to see what a route with fewer signals saves.

Fuel awareness

Idling burns fuel too, which the calculator estimates for you.

How to use the red light calculator

  1. Describe your drivingEnter how many years you have driven, days per week and trips per day.
  2. Count the lightsEstimate traffic lights per trip, the share caught on red and the typical wait.
  3. See the totalsRead lifetime red lights, hours waiting and fuel burned while idling.

How the estimate is calculated

Red lights per driving day equals trips per day times lights per trip times the share you hit on red. Multiplying by driving days per year (days per week times 52.18) and your years of driving gives the lifetime total, and multiplying by the average wait gives the time spent.

Traffic engineers commonly design signal cycles of roughly 60 to 120 seconds, and the average wait for a driver arriving at a red is often around 30 to 60 seconds, so 45 seconds is a reasonable default. Idle fuel use for a typical passenger car is roughly a quarter to half a gallon per hour; adjust it for your vehicle.

~40% on red

A typical share of lights you arrive at while red; tweak it for your area.

45-second wait

A middle-of-the-road average wait for a red signal.

Idling fuel

About 0.3 gallons per hour for an average car.

Red light calculator FAQ

How many red lights does the average driver hit?

It depends hugely on where you drive. City commuters may hit dozens a day, rural drivers almost none. Adjust the inputs to match your routes.

Does this count lights where I drove straight through?

No. Only the share you set as caught on red counts toward the total and waiting time.

Does an electric car burn fuel at red lights?

No. Set idle fuel use to zero for an EV or a car with start-stop technology.

How can I hit fewer red lights?

Choose routes with coordinated signals, drive at the posted speed so you ride the "green wave", and avoid peak hours when possible.

Is my data saved?

No. Everything is calculated in your browser.

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