tbourner Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 There's quite a bit of road work going on around here at the moment, and sometimes it's meant that the traffic lights aren't working, and I've noticed that traffic is flowing MUCH better when they're off!! I understand the need for lights at most junctions, some roads would be a right PITA to pull onto without them! There are some junctions by me that really don't need them though, and almost NONE of them need to have them on 24 hours. Even with the sensors that tell it a car's there or not don't work very quick, you end up pulling up to a stop, at 23:30 with no other bugger around, and as soon as you've actually ground to a halt they go green!!! Would it not be very easy to turn them off after say 19:00, and back on in the morning some time? There'd probably need to be a wind down time of a minute or 2 with some clever way of informing people they're about to go off - otherwise the switch off/on period could cause some accidents. Just can't help thinking that everyone's going on about car pollution, think of how many cars are stopped at lights in the country when they could have driven straight through! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogmaw Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I'm all for it, there are 100s of things they do in other countries that we could do here, like turn all rural traffic lights to flashing amber after say 11pm? A good one I have seen recently in Spain and Cyprus was a digital countdown in seconds next to the red light, showing you how long it would be before they went green. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edd_t Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 Even with the sensors that tell it a car's there or not don't work very quick, you end up pulling up to a stop, at 23:30 with no other bugger around, and as soon as you've actually ground to a halt they go green!!! grrrr theres a set like that right outside my girlfriends place. really annoying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbourner Posted May 23, 2007 Author Share Posted May 23, 2007 A good one I have seen recently in Spain and Cyprus was a digital countdown in seconds next to the red light, showing you how long it would be before they went green. Yeah I've heard that one, sounds like a good idea. There shouldn't be so many roundabouts with lights either, surely that makes it a ring road? Roundabouts work brilliantly as they are, you only need lights on the ones where a major road crosses a smaller road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turbonut Posted May 23, 2007 Share Posted May 23, 2007 I have to agree there but only with some junctions. Theres a very busy junction in my city, 3 dual carriageways and two main roads, not to mention some filters. I remember the lights being out one afternoon and it was a nightmare, traffic coming seemingly at me from all directins "theres going to be a serious accident at this rate" I thought. Sure enough, passing through couple of hours later, ambulance, police cars - taxi on its side, another car badly bent On the other hand, a busy island in the city centre regularly has lights out but traffic flows slowly and cautiously and so far no accidents, and no queues! unlike usual! It works in other parts of the world though, a pilot scheme would be good. L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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