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What you might also be astonished at is that the Brits meekly sup it up with a spoon.
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In Nottingham, we used to have the most exquisite green wave when the County Council were in charge.
When Labour came to government power traffic control was passed to the City and Borough Councils who created a Crimson Cascade (as they call it).
I worked out that they make 7p in fuel duty from everyone stuck at the lights. Every set changes red, and they introduced phantom phases and new sets 100 yards apart which would change alternately.
I will be writing to ask when the lights will be turned back to normal.
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Too little - too late.
We must be getting close to a general election. I , for one, will not be bought by this motoring tit bit, tossed to us on the grounds we should be very thankful.
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how can the boys in their saxo"s burn rubber at the lights if they are on green
disgusted
-----------chav
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They'll be ok, its only for those of us who try to obey the speed limits... they'll still arrive at the next set whilst they're still on red! ;)
Its been like that on the Hagley Road in Brum for a number of years... if you keep to 30/40 dependant on the limit you'll get 4 sets at green...
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for every green there must be a red? number cruncher help me out here please
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My feeling about the lights in the southern parts of Birmingham is that they're geared up for busses - if you rush away from the lights and push the speed limit, the next set is red when you get there, but there is a slower pace which can catch the lights on green when you get there.
Boring as a boring thing, but it gives Gordon less duty, and on the days the mobile speed camera is out he gets even less from me.
Win, win.
Almost as good as going the opposite direction to work, away from the City, after 25 years of grind.
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"for every green there must be a red? number cruncher help me out here please"
Traffic moves in slugs, and traffic light systems have been interlinked for decades, so the art was to programme them with the aid of the sensors to maximise traffic flow. So yes, the lights would be red, but the slug would still be some distance away.
Then the lefties got into the control rooms with a brief to 'reduce average urban speeds' and 'punish the motorist'.
What you see now, is cars mostly sat staring at empty junctions, and every other green phase showing to an empty road.
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>>What you see now, is cars mostly sat staring at empty junctions, and every other green phase showing to an empty road.
Quite so - I find it infuriating to know that the system could work so much better.
In the longer term, it would be even better if the traffic light control and the sat-nav in your car could talk to each other - it would then be possible to adapt your cruise control so that you would (nearly!) always arrive at green lights.
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Where I live the local council must have shares in traffic light companies, as they seem to be fanatical about installing traffic lights. A new 4 lane dual carriageway ring road has a 30mph limit and more traffic lights than the roads it replaced.
Along another 30mph dual carriageway near me (yes, this council loves those too) the lights are definitely set to 'red cascade'. Drive at 30mph and you will certainly be stopped at several sets along this long stretch of road. Very frustrating.
Of course there's a fixed speed camera along that road, along with several mobile sites. You would be forgiven for thinking it was all done on purpose wouldn't you?
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Experience tells me that the exact opposite of this has been done in recent years. Who knows whether it's to raise fuel duty revenue, add weight to "worsening congestion" arguments to justify draconian new taxes, make public transport look better, or simply an attempt to frustrate motorists out of their cars, but we can all name traffic light installations which are phased appallingly badly, or which simply needn't be there at all..
What I will never understand is why every major new roundabout installed in recent years is a congested, traffic light controlled nightmare, yet when the lights fail, the traffic flows beautifully.
I don't think traffic management policy has had a congestion reduction / speed improvement goal for some time.
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Traffic lights come out of a different budget. If you install them then I think it comes out of either county or national budgets. Things like road improvements and roundabouts etc come out of council budgets which is why they don't happen.
Still don't know why it has taken these chumps so long to work out that congestion and pollution in urban areas goes up whenever you impede the free flow of traffic. Stoke which is covered in humps and is full of stinking old diesel buses is incredibly polluted. A moving car is more fuel efficient than one that has to keep stopping. It does make me laugh when these silly greenies keep banging on about reducing pollution when it is their obsession with making us wear hair shirts and use buses and generally make our travelling lives a misery that have caused the extra pollution in the first place!
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Interesting new technical term just casually introduced above - the concept of a traffic "slug".
Can we now expect to hear it used in traffic reports, and perhaps even pass into general use? A slug of commuters waiting on platform 2, a slug of shoppers all loading their trolleys with cheap booze?
I thought Number Cruncher might have developed a mathematical explanation, both for the formation of slugs, and their eradication.
My thoughts;
if each set of lights has equal red and green phases, then the total Stop period in each direction must be greater than 50% (Red, Amber, Red and Amber). So how can slugs pass freely through the lights from all directions? Doesn't it require the slug to speed up when approaching the lights, in order to get its tail through before it's another's turn?
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In London in the 1980s I managed to drive non-stop along Marylebone Road and Euston Road a couple of times.
Can't remember the exact number, but I think it involved catching eight or maybe 10 sets of traffic lights on green.
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What is so marvellous about this? They have had it in Germany for the last 40 years!
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It is very reminiscent. I remember admiring the 'green wave', especially when driving late at night. One could traverse the whole city with every light turning green as you approached. After a few years of driving, you would know where the induction loops were and would know exactly what speed to travel at to just catch the next green. I used to really admire the professionals who must have set it all up.
Fast forward to around 1999, suddenly, lights that would turn green would now turn red when passing the same induction loop. More and more this would happen until all my theories were trashed and had to be rewritten.
Nowadays, I approach lights in the distance and they are green for me, yet there are cars waiting in the wings held on red. As soon as I get close, they go red for me and let the people at the sides go. Stupid.
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Lets not get too excited about this. Although its plain common sense, no-one with any firepower in the government has put their name to this, nor are there any timelines for this policy to be introduced.
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