The other week, I rode my bike in from Waterloo Station to our London office.
At the north end of Waterloo Bridge, where it meets Strand at Aldwych, there is normally a half decent snarl-up and typically a minute or so's delay (even on a pushbike). Today, the traffic lights were out of order. Result? No traffic waiting at any of the entrances to the junction. Everyone keeping their eyes open and moving sweetly past one another.
I was negotiating the junction at the usual time of day, if you're wondering.
I agree that a sample of one is not proof, but I have seen similar things before and the result always seems to be similar. I wonder what'd happen if they turned off every set of lights in Central London?
V
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I wonder what'd happen if they turned offevery set of lights in Central London? V
So do I. Perhaps a petition to hizonner, couched in tree-hugging, electricity-saving terms, will do the trick?
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I think we all know what would happen, free flowing traffic fewer accisents -but thats not KEN wants, the lights, especaiallly along the A4, have been organised that if you pull away from one set of lights, IF you keep to anything other than stupid speeds, 70+ or under 20 you'll be caught at the next lights,and they want us to get out of the cars
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Bank Holiday though,,,,,,,;-O
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"Today" was a typo. This was the other week, on a normal working day. Apologies.
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It happens on every traffic controlled junction I have ever encountered traffic lights out of action no traffic congestion. I have been saying it for years traffic lights in the UK are used to create congestion and not ease the flow of traffic which used to be the purpose of them.
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rustbucket (the original)
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>>are usedto create congestion and not ease the flow of traffic which used to be the purpose of them.
Traffic lights are often used to ease congestion at other nearby junctions . Near us is a set of traffic lights on a cross-roads. On one part of the cross (the busiest route) the delay is significantly longer than the other, which is annoying. But this creates a gap in the traffic at a T-junction further down the road, so people can pull out. Were they not able to pull out easily the traffic would tail back onto a roundabout. Changing the cycle on one set of lights is a lot cheaper than installing another set of lights, which would themselves be a further irritation to drivers. I know this for a fact, by the way. I know the highways engineer.
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Thats a maybe.
But had the drive through our local town the other day (just after 9 am) with several sets of lights out of action, and the normal route at normal time was reduced by considerable amount; but in fairness a lot more caution at the junctions.
More often than not they are not helping traffic flow.
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"...But this creates a gap in the traffic at a T-junction further down the road..."
I can see that it would. Another viewpoint might be that the traffic lights are causing the heavy flow of traffic when they are green, so without their being there, there would be natural gaps anyway (I hope that makes as much sense to you as it does to me).
Also, to be blunt, I wouldn't always trust the word of a highways engineer. My father dealt with them on a regular basis and said that he regularly saw flaws in their plans that they missed. (In one of them, if you know it, they amended the junction in about 1980 where Lady's bridge meets Blonk St in Sheffield. They barred lorries from doing a right turn. Result? Lorries doing U turns in the Wicker. If you don't know Sheffield, forget it. If you do, you'll realise it was imbecilic. A few weeks later, they changed it back.)
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I thought they were intended to reduce accidents, not to ease congestion.
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L\'escargot.
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I thought they were intended to reduce accidents, not to ease congestion.
I would imagine in my example that making it easier to pull out onto a main road has reduced accidents or at least reduced the risk of accidents. Plus the crossroads in question would be impossible to cross for pedestrians if there were no lights.
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"I thought they were intended to reduce accidents, not to ease congestion."
It just might be that they work on neither level.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006...l
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Traffic lights inevitably increase congestion (or rather traffic density) because there is a significant amount of time between cycles where no traffic is moving.
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"I thought they were intended to reduce accidents, not to ease congestion." It just might be that they work on neither level.
It's not just a question of getting rid of traffic lights, though, is it? As the article says they were replaced with roundabouts, pedestrian areas, and cycle ways.
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Lorries doing U turns in the Wicker.
Is that t'Wicker where t'water runs under t'bridge? ;-)
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L\'escargot.
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Nearly, L'escargot, nearly.
It's dahn t'Wicker where t'water runs o'er t'weir.
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>>Also, to be blunt, I wouldn't always trust the word of a highways engineer.
This tallys with my experience too.
In the department where I was an undergrad, there were 3 honours courses being run. Aeronautical Engineering, Automotive Engineering, and a Transport Management & Planning Course. The Aero and Auto courses were pretty similar in entry requirements and shared a common course content for the first year, and then a pool of largely common or analogous options for the remainder. During the few (**typically Micky Mouse!) lecture courses where we shared with the TMP lot, it rapidly became clear that if brains were dynamite, the hats of most would-be Transport Managers & Planners were quite safe!
Number_Cruncher
** Put it this way - they didn't share the CFD or Digital Control courses!!
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Update. Last Thursday, I left Southampton station at the usual time, heading for home. In my car, this time.
Normally, there's a queue of around 30-40 cars at Foyes Corner crossroads. This time though, I knew it would be worse, as they are carrying out major roadworks and they have set up temporary traffic lights.
Guess what, the lights were out of order. And, as a result, despite the road being pretty severely dug up and the junction restricted, guess what again? Yep, no queue at all. All I had to do was slow down, let a car out across my path and drive on. Amazing, isn't it?
I think I'll stand for mayor of Southampton on a policy of turning off all the traffic lights.
V
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