Methodology
What the numbers and labels mean
StopLighty separates mapped location facts, community observations, and modeled estimates so one is never presented as another.
Community-observed waits
A wait report is a visitor’s approximate elapsed time from joining a stopped queue at a red signal until crossing the stop line. Reports accept minutes and seconds. The displayed community average is the arithmetic mean of visible reports, is labeled with its sample size, and is not a traffic-engineering measurement. When there are no reports, the page says so and displays no fallback number.
Modeled estimates
StopLighty currently does not substitute a generated baseline for missing observations. If a modeled estimate is introduced, it will appear separately from community data and identify its model version, provenance, confidence, and limitations. A modeled estimate is not measured signal timing.
Intersection and jurisdiction data
Road geometry and signal nodes come from OpenStreetMap extracts. Municipality and county fields are assigned with U.S. Census TIGER/Line boundaries. “Location data checked” records when those sources were processed; it does not mean an employee visited the intersection or confirmed which agency owns every signal.
Descriptions
Natural-language summaries are shown only when nearby source data contains useful landmarks such as parks, schools, hospitals, transit stations, civic buildings, or major destinations. Sparse intersections intentionally have no prose summary. Generic businesses, unverifiable equipment claims, and filler conclusions are excluded.
Moderation, freshness, and corrections
Community reports may be hidden for spam, abuse, or policy violations; aggregates are recalculated from visible reports. Source data can become stale and signal ownership can vary by road. Use the correction link on an intersection page or email [email protected] with the page URL and supporting details.