In Jersey we are almost always in a rush.  We are always looking for a way to keep our bodies and our cars in motion.  We have to deal with traffic because we are in one of the most populated states in the country but what we don’t have to deal with is a prolonged red light. Yep, there’s a hack for that.

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We love life hacks.  That is why we go down a rabbit hole watching them on social media and bored panda with our eyes glazed over. Removing a strawberry stem with a drinking straw?  Excellent.  Wrapping a wet paper towel around your beer and putting it in the freezer for 15 minutes to make it ice cold in a fraction of the time?  Love it.  Using a pants hanger to hold up your cooking book for hands free help?  Now your just showing off.

These are all great but how about a hack we can use to diffuse the Jersey frustration that comes along with waiting too long at a red light?  There is a reason that happens and there is a way to bypass it.  Let’s see how well I know you.  You are at a traffic light and it literally seems painted red.  What do you do next?  You inch your car forward because you think there is some sort of sensor.  If that doesn’t work you roll back a bit for the same reason. That is not the hack, I’ll tell you right now.

You are close though, the sensor is the key element here. Apparently newer traffic lights have sensors on the top of the cameras.  You probably thought they were cameras  when you flicked them off but that was in vain.  These sensors are supposed to detect your arrival and activate the light to change once clear.  Sometimes they just don’t change and this is where the hack comes in.  When you are at a standstill red light, try flashing your high beams at the light.  This works on sensor lights because the reason they are not changing is because they get dirty and the high beams can cut though the crud to say “I’m here!”.

Try it the next time you are parked at the red light that is not acknowledging your existence or the fact that you have to get to your kid’s soccer game five minutes ago.  I’m interested to see if this works for you so email me after you try it!  Shannon.holly@townsquaremedia.com.  Now go show off and tell somebody about your new found superpower.

How much did gas cost when you started driving?

LOOK: See how much gasoline cost the year you started driving

To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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