A recent discussion on the Jeremy Vine show about some traffic lights in Carlisle which were to be permanently switched off as when they failed after the floods the traffic flowed more smoothly.
Here in Sunderland the traffic lights are going off by stealth, due to the city council completely ignoring their maintenance.
The wind or vandals turn a light in the wrong direction, just leave it like that. Bulbs fail in the lights, don't bother to replace, even if it means a red light has totally failed.
Of course the local drivers have taken to this, never seen so many people jump red lights as they have been doing recently.
Look out for me, I'm the grumpy old git in the red Terrano!
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The lights at a faily complex multi offset junction near me failed for two days. The only time the traffic has flowed properly, even during rush hour, was when the lights failed.
There is no reason for traffic lights at slow city centre junctions. Get Rid I say.
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I know there'll always be an exception but for the majority of cases, I think that crossroads and a few junctions should have lights.
About 3 years ago, we moved house to a new town but we'd always driven around here as my auntie lived there. Before we moved, to get from my school (and Mum's place of work) to here we never encountered a single traffic light.
To get from here to Mum's work we now drive through 3 sets. All of which are on simple T junctions which managed perfectly before the lights.
I'm with RF - get rid.
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Adam
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Judging by the last time I witnessed traffic light failure I'd have to disagree. I must have been waiting at these crossroads for about a minute while traffic coming the other way totally disregarded the fact that there were no lights and hence no-ones right of way and all followed each other at 30mph over the junction.
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Mike Farrow
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there were no lights and hence no-ones right of way and all followed each other at 30mph over the junction.
Is that all? When some lights failed in our town centre I was actually overtaken as I trundled through looking for traffic approaching from the side roads!
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Not sure about turning off completely, but they could certainly be switched to flashing amber at night and at quiet periods, in the same way they are in France. Does anyone know whether any UK towns have tried this? Evening / night journies across built up areas ae especially frustrating, with frequent pointless stops at empty junctions and deserted roundabaouts. The temptation to jump them is strong!
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Certainly turn off all traffic lights on roundabouts!
Stupid idea, mixing system designed for smooth traffic flow with one having the opposite effect.
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Hang on a minute, there is a difference between just turning lights off and removing them, if lights are removed then rights of way have to be established by road markings, give-way signs etc.
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I totally agree with frostbite and traffic lights on roundabouts.
Its a daft idea that does not work.
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I totally agree with frostbite and traffic lights on roundabouts. Its a daft idea that does not work.
Sorry guys but I don't agree.
Quite a few of the roundabouts at M1 junctions now have full or part time lights (21, 24 & 25 spring to mind immediately) and at all of these the traffic flow is a lot better than before. Certain routes are obviously being held up for a few seconds longer but the entry routes that did have major queues on approach have only minor queues now.
Traffic lights and roundabouts combine well when there is a strong inbalance between joining traffic flows.
But you're right about some of the daft places to put lights!
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But you're right about some of the daft places to put lights!
A college student of ours had a set of lights in his lounge! A week or so after installing them there was a knock on front door.
Plod "you have a set of TL in your front room".
Student "yes".
Plod; "you are not going to tell me they fell off the back of a lorry are you?".
Student "No".
Long pause.
Student: "Would you like to see the receipt".
Plod, "yes".
5 minutes later student appears back at front door with receipt.
Plod, looking very downcast, goes away.
How do I know. I bought the lights for some experiments. Afterwards I scrapped them to the student for £5.
Funny things, (some of) these students.
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Students have a natural hankering towards road signs and other street 'furniture'.
I assisted in the collection of many signs, cones and barriers during my time at university, resulting in impressive 'council depot' style displays in our halls of residence.
There was one particular sign that I had my eye on for ages, but never managed to drum up the equipment, manpower or insanity necessary to aquire. I thought it would have looked excellent in our halls kitchen. It was a nice blue one about 8 feet square and read "M6 South - Birmingham".
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For many years when I was in Civil Engineering I had in my office a huge street sign ordered over the phone for a new road by our site foreman saying 'Berry Hill Drive'....
Well how was I to know it was spelt 'Bury Hill'?
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Anyone tried the new layout at junction 14, M5 lately? Before and after imressions?
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In Naples they turn the traffic lights off during weekends!
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306 2.0 SE Cabriolet
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Most of you are, of course, assuming that the reason for traffic lights being at junctions/roundabouts etc is to make life easier for motorists at those junctions and to make traffic flow better. This may well have been the case in the past but I would argue that nowadays the reason is to make life more awkward for motorists and to slow progress so that we get so frustrated that we give up using our cars. I would also suggest that we could all name many sets of lights that impede progress/slow down traffic flows/are totally unnecessary. If we can do it so can the traffic management people - so it must be deliberate.
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Most of you are, of course, assuming that the reason for traffic lights being at junctions/roundabouts etc is to make life easier for motorists at those junctions and to make traffic flow better.
They also have another function, of allowing pedestrians to cross
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"of allowing pedestrians to cross"
Ah yes, especially important in areas where a pedestrian has never been seen. Would you like me to name a few locations where the lights have a delay for pedestrians to cross but I've never seen a pedestrian in years?? To save holding up traffic unnecessarily at these locations they could put a "pedestrian button" on the lights - but don't usually bother. It must be deliberate.
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There is a set of lights at a crossroads near me which have always been there as far as i can remember. Recently they installed pelican crossings at the junctions to make it safer for pedestrians to cross, but they have also changed the lights to a volume operated system where they have installed sensors in the road to measure the traffic levels to determine whether the lights go red or green. Unfortunately this system has led to a few minor accidents & head-on collisions, because drivers simply wait in the middle of the cross roads (no yellow box here!) where the traffic from the adjacent direction start to pull away from the other lights turning green!! Luckily i havnt heard of any fatalities as yet but how long will it be until there is one?
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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My council's Local Intergrated Transport plan that I downloaded from their website confirms that traffic lights are used to create delays and punish the motorist. It states that it improves safety by preventing motorists from being able to get up to speed. What it fails (deliberately or otherwise) to see that if you halve the traffic flow and throughput, you will automatically half accidents etc.. as you have halved the size of your source of data.
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The traffic ligts at Hardwicke Circus in Carlisle are the ones the original poster was on about.
They have bagged the heads and correclty changed the stop line markings for roundabout markings as per TS & GD Regs.
Suprisingly, however, they haven't followed recommendations and erected New Road Layout Ahead signs.
However, traffic now flows very well around this particular roundabout, so hopefully they won't revert to traffic signals after the 6 month trial ends!
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I have had this theory that in this country traffic lights are designed to impede the progress of traffic not help it flow. I can show many examples around the country that support this.In Morroco 30 to 40 years ago their traffic light system worked during the peak times when necessary and changed to amber at off peak , so that junctions reverted back to uncontrolled, this keept traffic moving. Here in the UK I often sit at traffic lights in the early hours of the morning waiting for fantom traffic and my turn to go on the green light.When will will somebody with some common sense design traffic lights that actually assist in traffic flow?
rustbucket (the original)
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I have a theory that the Councils are deliberately creating congestion. With the financial success of the London congestion charging scheme, I reckon the local authorities just can't wait to be allowed to bring in their own schemes. Let's face it, there's no money to be made from freely flowing traffic, is there?
Richard
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That wouldn't surprise me in the least. However, most councils are not as smart or sneaky as Livingstone so I would expect most of those schemes will either fail to get of the ground, or will crash and burn fairly effectively.
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What a marvellous sequence of conspiracy theories. I prefer a simpler theory, that insufficient study or common sense has gone into these obstructive installations. Or possibly there is a vested interest in selling traffic-light kit to councils (which after all don't have unlimited money) just like there has been a need to build new roads and by-passes to keep all those earth-movers fully occupied.
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