[dexen]

> since drivers can see them they tend to speed up if the light is about to change.

This is easily solved. For example, intersection just outside my window [1] has LED timers next to traffic lights, but the countdown is blanked (turned off) for the last five seconds, not to encourage reckless speeding.

The blanking appears to work just fine, judging by the way the traffic flows. I pass the intersection daily, both by car and on foot.

[1] in a mid sized city in Poland