Traffic lights cause should be abolished. Discuss....

[Marty]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/n ... 187165.stmWell thats what this bloke thinks

[Volksy]

At the very least, flashing lights that allow filtering on opportunity should replace mandatory lights that forbid it.

They do this in Europe and the states at quiet times, i.e middle of the night. I dont mind traffic lights, however being sat for ten minutes at 3am, where there is no other traffic crossing does become frustraiting.

[Marty]

I do think he has a point, I live in a village where there are three sets of lights so very close together (and if yu hit one on red, you can bet all the rest will be on red too when you get to them) - most of the times during rush hours the roads are chokka - when on the rare occasions (like whenerver there is a month with 30 or 31 days in it) they pack up and people take it in turns - the roads seem far less congested.

[Volksy]

However the majority will take it in turns, there will always be one noob (normally in a Range Rover Sport et al) who isnt willing to, which then causes accidents. Unfortunatley that is why traffic lights are there, not for the Majority of courtious drivers, but for the noobs who are not.

[marinast]

Traffic lights can be altered by the council to mess up the roads around them, hence said council then being able to say that the roads are chock-a-block due to too much traffic.Look at London, the number of private cars in the congestion zone today is over 40% down on 2001 figures, yet because of all the extra lights which have been installed on previous normal junctions, coupled to there being many more buses on the roads now (bus lanes reduce the amount of avaliable road, what about turning left at a traffic light junction, it's chaos if only three cars can get into the left hand lane, holding up others etc.)Plus all the pollution cuased by all these lights being on all the time.Madness.

[Timewaster]

Intelligent traffic lights cant possibly be beyond the wit and wisdom of science.So you dont, for example sit at a red light for 5 minutes while nothing happens only to finally be set free and see a car stuck at the red light the other way. Did they only change because someone came the other way?There are traffic lights around here which turn green for the pedestrian crossing when there are no pedestrians and no one has pressed the button. I know, Ive sat there for 5 bloody minutes watching!Of course there is no way you could trust any of the cock juggling idiots in charge of our shambolic road system not to make an utter balls of it.And another thing, if emergency vehicles can have devices fitted to lower traffic bollards (as do busses and taxis in some areas), why cant they zap traffic lights in their favour?

[retrogeezer]

why cant they zap traffic lights in their favour?

They can can't they??Some of the Traffic lights near where I used to live had a grey 'sensor' type thing that changed the lights to green if you flashed main beam on approach. I guess they would change to green when you got closer with just dipped but flashing your main beam saved you having to slow down.Don't get me started on bus lanes, there is one where I used to live (Farnborough/Hants) that runs the entire 3/4 mile stretch of the Farnborough Road (A325). What used to be a fairly free flowing 2 lane road in rush hour is now a 1 lane grid lock with an empty lane for the 2 or 3 buses an hour that follow that route. And they are usually empty.It's also a 30mph limit and there have been countless times when a bus has undertaken me in the bus lane while I'm indicating left for the exit (and doing 30)

[Electric Leyland]

I've often encountered a bust set of traffic lights during rush hour, where the motorists have to use a combination of courage, skill and courtesy to navigate their way through. Funny how the queues are shorter in these scenarios.

[seth]

I don't think you could get rid of them altogether. A good 50% of the population have enough problem filtering one at a time on motorway sliproads But, there are too many of them and as marinast says, London has become blighted in the last few years under Ken. Badly timed lights are much worse for traffic flow than extra bus lanes. Back in December I drove from Marylebone in Central London back to were we live I the NW suburbs on a Friday mid morning. I needed to get back into town (on the tube) as soon as I could so I noticed on this journey in particular how my average speed was seriously affected by being stationary so much of the time at lights. The traffic itself was very light and I was otherwise able to drive a steady 30. It was a distance of perhaps 5 miles yet it still took 25/30 minutes with no traffic. A few years ago I made several evening journeys from home to Chelsea in 20 minutes. I can't imagine that is possible now.Buses (not necessarily bus lanes which also seem badly planned) are the major cause of hold ups now it seems but then they are also my most convenient and cheapest way of getting in to town.

[j-j]

I feel that we need lights - simply because there is not enough trust for the moron that you're never more than 10m from (or is that rats? eh..)I'm a cyclist and I rekon it'd be really tricky turning onto a main road in the city without the traffic stopping.I don't buy this "more awareness/ safety" from drivers because they had to be more aware - that's a 'slippry slope' argument, do one thing (like get rid of T-lights) and it necessarily follows that some effect/behaviour happens. If that was the case, we'd have no newspapers because no event would ever be so surprising that news would need to report it!Notice all the arguments in the article inform you of the qualifications of the arguer, that's what critical thinkers call 'the argument from authority' - It totally avoids logic and goes straight to the emotions of us reading it to make it more "true" - give us proof!The only way to get some form of truth about this stuff is to run a trial (with all the locals signing a disclaimer so they won't sue when their 12 year old gets flattened by some nhilist spazzy in a Range Rover sprote who thinks the change is some gift and licence to ignore consequence)It's a nice dream but I just can't buy these types of proposal straight up. I need to hear the REAL science behind their arguments not just "what some professor sez"

[Electric Leyland]

Fastest way from A to B for me in London usually, same as in any city centre, is on a pushbike. Particularly wrt red lights, speedbumps and parking. Unless its a very long journey, or its late at night. Usually works out quicker than a tube or a bus, certainly a car. As demonstrated by the Top Gear crew recently. Not wishing to badmouth the automobile for obvious reasons, or to open up a debate on pesky menacing cyclists, but you just don't need to stop at red traffic lights, even on fairly busy roundabouts. Anyway all old cars should be allowed to flaunt the entire highway code, in the same way as pre-'73 cars can flaunt road tax.

[Richard]

They installed traffic lights in Cupar a few years ago, with the result that the town is a bloody nightmare for pedestrians and drivers alike. Not one but two pensioners have been crushed under slow moving lorries. The queues regularly stretch the full length of the town.Sometimes events like the airshow at RAF Leuchars or the Open at St Andrews generate huge amounts of traffic passing through Cupar. You would think the queues would stretch for miles. Think again, they switch the lights off when it's busy and traffic flows freely.

[pogweasel]

Roundabouts are far more of a peeve than traffic lights alot of the time. When a 'development' of 3 new houses goes up and the council insists on a mini roundabout that is much too large for the road, which would have been fine with a normal junction. Or the major/minor interface.Turning right onto the A1 every morning, takes a good ten minutes. The rest of the journey to work (12 miles) takes about the same. Mega frustrating - did they not think that there would be naff all coming "around" to break up the flow of the main carriageway? GRR!

[mk2_craig]

That guy should come over here and live in the home of the "filter in turn" system for a while, then he'd realise just what horse shit he's been talking.If motorway gridlock can spontaneously occur for no apparent reason other than the sheer volume of traffic, I hate to think what turning off all the signals in a decent sized city would lead to Pedestrian crossing facilities are unfortunately the main reason why traffic lights are often installed at junctions where they are otherwise unnecessary

[j-j]

Have you ever seen the electric signs over motorways sometimes have reduced speed limits? Quite often 50 then 40 for a couple miles then back to nat limit. I heard they do this to actually help traffic flow (?) sommat to do with the average speed for large EG ruch hour volumes.Anyway my pet peeve is still your everyday middle lane hogs and the no indicators bregade. No amount of traffic lights and signs change that lot..

[Maltelec]

I hate traffic lights. The clutch on my old land rover is heave enough just driving normally. I get to the point where I don't use it and just stop/start it in gear. Fortunetly the gearbox can change gear quite normally without the clutch. I wonder why I have them sometimes. I suppose its useful for hill starts.

[pandamonium]

Take a look (maybe on google earth) at Cramlington, Northumberland. NE23. There are hardly any traffic lights, only roundabouts. It never caused any problems, if anything, it made things better IMO.