billybong Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 It's for traffic light manufacturers / installers etc and council highway designers etc. Most every extra traffic light these days comes with new multi coloured tarmac, new white lines, new pavement reconstruction and new handrails / barriers etc etc etc. On a main road once a new roundabout is indentified they go to town and the full monty comes into play with fresh tarmac, zig-zag lines, those new double decker traffic lights, arrows painted on the road pointing everywhere, instructions written on the road surface, pavement signposts, roadside signposts, overhead gantry signs etc etc etc. Traffic flow doesn't come into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spot Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 It was government policy till recently to phase traffic lights so we used more fuel. I kid u not. Google it. now its up to individual councils. its really shocking when u thInk about it. another indirect tax really. so much for being green. Do you have any links for this? I've been searching and can find nowt other than "anecdotals" on sites like pistonheads so far.... Oh and this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RufflesTheGuineaPig Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 It was government policy till recently to phase traffic lights so we used more fuel. I kid u not. Google it. now its up to individual councils. its really shocking when u thInk about it. another indirect tax really. so much for being green. Do you have any links for this? I've been searching and can find nowt other than "anecdotals" on sites like pistonheads so far....Oh and this... He's kind of correct. Lights are often set to slow traffic down for safety reasons. Basically they prevent you getting any speed up. It's bad for fuel economy, however if you travel about 50% over the speed limit you can usually beat the timings and get all green. Some places have tweaked the lights so you get all greens if you drive about 5mph under the limit... you have to learn you lights. I should also add, in relation to signs, that research done while planning the increasingly hard driving test found that people at most can deal with 3 things happening at once... for example if you put up 4 signs, people are only capable of "seeing" and comprehending 3 of them. So if you have 3 signs and a child, the kid has to be feeling lucky. And that 3 is based on people currently taking driving tests. As you age, the number goes down, and there is some suggestion that computer games may be training kids brains to see more than they would otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buccaneer Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Traffic lights may be seen as a metaphor for government. The more government that you have, the less efficient an activity becomes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
inflating Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 What are your thoughts? Thanks Depends on the location, probably, but in Southend on Sea they removed the old roundabout at Victoria and replaced it with a weird junction and traffic lights. They also in the middle of the night I believe cut down a very old tree that had been there - many people protested about that and rightly so. When I was there, I found the traffic in that area to be worse than when the roundabout was in place. However, they may have rephased it by now If you go to Bournemouth, you will find lots of mini roundabouts - equally annoying IMHO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPin Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 In many cases, I think the road policy is designed to make the journey more difficult, for political, and not environmental reasons! Not sure whether having a queue of vehicles burping out soot at a red light is good for MY environment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DebtFree2011 Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Few years back now but some places in Thailand I saw had a coutdown timer on the red light. Doesn't speed the traffic up but always nice to have a bit of feedback when you are waiting. Kind of like when you are in a queue for a call center and they have the version that tells you what number you are in the queue. Eases the pain a bit. It would be a great idea in the UK ... but that would be too sensible .... instead we have to guess when the lights are about to change Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danlee74 Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Same thing in Poole, Dorset ... http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9346283.Motorists_call_for_removal_of_Fleetsbridge_Roundabout_traffic_lights/ ... traffic moved freely without them during a week last year when they were down for "maintenance" but they went back up and now we have queues again! Couldn't be anything to do with the Siemens "Traffic Solutions & Rail Automation" office there is in Poole, could it?! Can anyone say "stuffed brown envelope"?!! And now due to the Olympics this year (boating in the south west) the council have spunked £5.7m on another traffic light on roundabout conversion (despite huge local opposition) on the A31 to move the problem about 2 miles up the road (that is if the "improvements" actually work)!! - http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/30554.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Take Me Back To London! Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Road signage could actually be done away with pretty much entirely in a city. This would increase safety and alleviate conjestion. It also makes a place look far more pleasant. We don't need the vast majority of them at all. You are spot on. An industry of constantly altering signage, increasing signage and changing road layouts has become established and it all costs a great deal of money. Multi million pound projects are the norm, just to alter a high street or road junction. The situation of road markings is so out of hand, yet the basic fabric of the roads are in a poor state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Bear Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I've wondered before if this isn't some hair-brained, deliberate ploy to get more people onto public transport. Public transport is unattractive as it is overpriced, inconvenient and takes twice as long as using a car in many cases. To meet CO2 targets and get more people using trains and buses, driving is made as unattractive and frustrating as possible. Of course, drivers also need to see the buses sailing by.... Well, in Central London when the tube is working smoothly it is a fast way to get around provided you know how to make the best of it. I would not dream of driving in there unless I had to have a car there. However, you would be bloody lucky to get anywhere on public transport outside Central London in only twice the time you could do it in a car. Note, I did say 'when the tube is working smoothly'. To often it isn't and then it becomes a nightmare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Bear Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Do you have any links for this? I've been searching and can find nowt other than "anecdotals" on sites like pistonheads so far.... Oh and this... I haven't heard one about traffic lights being phased to increase fuel waste but I have heard on central government objecting to schemes which would ease traffic flow because of the loss in fuel tax revenue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Bear Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I have hound the when the lights are out at a junction the traffic does flow better. But some of you will be old enough to remember policemen on point duty. When the lights at a junction went U/S and a policeman on point duty replaced them things really went to hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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