What do you think of traffic lights with countdown displays?
Your recent comment about trying to brake from 40mph in three seconds in a reply to JF, Monaco prompts me to ask what you think about traffic light countdown displays? We have had them here for years in Bulgaria and I can see only advantages. When approaching lights one can judge well in advance whether or not it will be necessary to stop. When waiting at lights one has advance notice of when to engage first gear and be ready to move (and also, perhaps, whether there is time to retrieve a map from the boot). Why are they not in use in the UK?
Asked on 21 March 2011 by NO, Varna, Bulgaria
Answered by
Honest John
I have been advocating traffic light countdowns (and count ups) ever since I first saw then working effectively in Thailand eight years ago. But the UK traffic management system lobby does not like them because it says they cannot be combined with its variable traffic light delay flow systems. Of course they can, and are, as they are in Thailand. Also in Thailand they do something unheard of in the UK. They switch off junction traffic lights at times when they are not needed. In the UK this sometimes happens on roundabouts, but you get held up by red lights at deserted junctions at 3am.
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