As long as it's just you - it won't do much damage. They change the lights, but it's not immediate.
Now, if you had a bunch of them - or a bunch of people have them... That's a different story.
Back when the active traffic management was a new thing and these devices were gaining popularity, we examined what a non-skilled (not that you're not skilled) hack would look like and wrote a few contingency plans and reports for a large municipality. Mostly, they'd just fuck stuff up for a while and people would go about their day.
The true danger lies in if they actually understand traffic. From inside your car, traffic may not look all that complicated. It's actually pretty fucking complex.
Not sure if I'm making sense. I'm kinda shitfaced.
Oh I was had a few when I wrote that last message so no worries on the shit faced part. I'm glad to know I couldn't fuck things up too much. Unless I spend some time studying traffic. Then I could do some real damage. You know it almost never occurred to me study traffic even after discussing things with you all this time. I should study traffic. That way if I ever go crazy at least I can have some real fun. Or at least if I really don't want to be at work I can bring the city's traffic to a stop and listen to podcasts in my car.
Find the ten busiest light-managed intersections. Turn 'em on off for the maximum duration. As soon as they revert, turn them back off again. Do that for about five minutes. That should set things back by a couple of hours - so long as you do it at peak time.
Any longer and you'll have cops there who know how to direct traffic.
If I ever need to cause a distraction in a city this is how I will do it.
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