Do traffic lights make you see red?

Hmm, I’m not so sure that Holland is the best example of how to run traffic lights.
Having lived there and driven pretty much everywhere in the country, no traffic lights are sequenced in any way. In fact, my journeys across Holland were often so long, I ended up believing that they deliberately sequence them poorly so as to either a) make everyone think that Holland is bigger than it is or b) encourage more people to use the ridiculously overcrowded train system.

In urban residential areas though they have it right. No markings, no street furniture, barely any signs, just watch out for those cyclists, which I think is the point. Holland have so many cyclists (because it is flat) that it makes sense to remove all the clutter making it less of a risk to them and encouraging motorists to take greater care.

In terms of traffic lights, just go and see the Germans. I lived in Duesseldorf and if timed correctly, you could go right across the city in rush hour without stopping. 2 reasons for this 1) trams are everywhere in Duss and so you barely need a car 2) all traffic lights on main roads are sequenced so that if you stick to a 30 – 40 kmh limit, you barely need to stop.

Think of the fuel and brake pad savings.

In England there is absolutely no thought put into designing the infrastructure for new developments, they just add some more traffic lights, some poorly designed junctions and think that it will all just work.

Kirkstall Road in Leeds is possibly the most poorly designed road in the country. From the Inner Ring road all the way to Horsforth there are traffic lights all the way, punctuated by the most speed cameras I have ever seen and constant fluctuations between 1 and 2 lanes.

Leeds City Councils answer? Lets put a bus lane in it!!!!

I agree with Dean, in England – our lights seem to be put up by overweight men in fluorescent jackets who haven’t got a clue about traffic management.

Whilst I wouldn’t advocate a complete removal of lights I would be in favour of more part-time signals. I know it’s only a few seconds of waiting (or several minutes in some cases) the thing I find irritating about these ‘late night’ lights is the waste of fuel and the quick calculation of where I’d be (closer to my bed) than being stuck at a junction that nobody else is using.

It’s the ‘elf ‘n’ safety brigade all over. Hopefully, with all these cuts in local authority spending someone will see sense and reduce the weighty traffic light budget and actually allow everyone to proceed using that logic we once used to be so proud of over here – common sense.

I hope and pray that traffic lights are going to be put up in some bad junctions in Edinburgh. I’m fed up with taking my life in my own hands every time I have to negotiate those dangerous junctions. Also, the technology exists to have “demand-actuated” (what a horrendous compound) traffic lights. If properly designed and adjusted they work a treat. Maybe we should have more of them

I agree with Sophie.

Far too many junctions in London are virtual death traps because there are NO traffic lights. Light controlled junctions are far safer. I really get fed up with those appalling drivers who ignore the sequence anyway and cross at any colour. Frankly I’d sooner wait for a traffic light to change to green than hope drivers will actually stop – Many don’t as it is not compulsory. I’m more interested in road safety than traffic flow – and I used to drive along Marylebone Road in central London daily. I have to wonder if a reason for lower accidents rates is the increase in traffic lights.

I have no objection with sequenced lights as on Marylebone Road as they do allow traffic to flow.

Mini roundabouts are not only death traps at night – but CAUSE traffic jams at high traffic density. There are many around where I live in London. The problem is the vast numbers of bad drivers. most of whom drive OVER them not around them.

There are far too many of the things and many’s the example I’ve seen of traffic flowing much better when they break down. They do enormous damage to the environment by forcing cars to brake hard, sit there pumping fumes into the atmosphere and burn loads of fuel accelerating away again. Worst of all, they follow a fixed pattern, regardless of time of day or night; it’s infuriating and wasteful to be forced to sit at red lights with no other car in sight. Why on earth don’t they switch to flashing amber at off-peak times and allow left-turn-on-red, as in other countries. Grrr!

Traffic lights serve an important function for our safety. Unfortunately the ‘safety’ aspect includes a time when all lights are red and the road cannot be used. There is little ‘artificial intelligence’ in the majority of traffic light controllers and I often think that they are deliberately programmed to stop traffic when they see it coming. I get most annoyed when I slow down because of a red light ahead, it changes to green, I accelerate and it then changes back to red before I can cross the line! Money spent on better controllers would save a lot of wasted fuel.

I always felt lucky as the town I live in, Swindon, has a great number of roundabouts, including the Magic Roundabout, which I feel keeps the traffic moving, much better than traffic lights.

Imagine my dismay however, when the town built a northern expansion, only to have the major roads going through it disrupted by traffic light after traffic light!

What a backward step.

Back in the early ’80s I used to have to drive through Slough on occasion and the traffic lights there were arranged such that if you drove at a steady 30 mph you got greens all the way. Contrast that with somewhere like Marylebone Road in London where the lights are not sequenced; it’s like a drag strip, especially late at night, as drivers try to get through as many junctions as possible before getting a red. The nearest junction to me on the M40 has a roundabout with traffic lights, fine at peak periods but at one o’clock in the morning?

That said on my current list of things to get excited about traffic lights don’t even register.

Traffic lights make me see red.
They waste everybody’s time and grind the country to a halt.
They waste fuel and pollute the air unless you drive a hybrid vehicle that switches off at standstill or like me turn off the ignition at most traffic lights.
They are necessary at peak times but for the remainder of the 24 hours they should be switched to a flashing light and treated as mini roundabouts, motorists slow and give way to the right.

When the traffic lights failed outside a busy junction at my local supermarket recently the normal queues disappeared within minutes and there was a clear flow of traffic all afternoon. I suppose the problem is identifying which junctions and at what times of day a switch off would work.

About 6 or 7 years ago Watford Town Council installed traffic lights at the junction near Watford Railway station and the result was absolute chaos. Then 2 or 3 years ago they were removed, and surprise,suprise,traffic now flows smoothly, no hold-ups just as before the lights wre installed.
But give credit where credit is due, at least Watford recognised a mistake, even if it took a few years, and corrected it, unlike High Wycombe which has gone traffic light mad. After driving through High Wycombe for 23 years back and forth to my employment prior to the traffic light fiasco, I now avoid it any cost.

There are several basic problems with traffic lights in the UK. The system needs to be brought up to date by the dinosaurs in Whitehall who seem stuck in the 1930s.
1. The standard layout of lights at junctions is flawed and unsafe. There should be no repeater lights on the far side of junctions. Motorists should stop at the red light itself, as they do in France. That reduces confusion when there are several sets of junctions and pedestrian crossings close together and it greatly reduces the numbers of posts and signals. I have often seen motorists start off while their signal is still red because they have seen a signal at a pedestrisan crossing or at the next stage of a light-controlled roudabout turn to green. A crazy system.
2. To have to have sets of ights controlling traffic flows at large roundabouts illustrates the confused thinking of the authorities. If the flow of traffic is so high that lights are needed, then why have a huge roundabout taking up land? Roundabouts should enable traffic to flow freely, otherwise they are a waste of space.
3. Where there are roads with many sets of lights in series, as the Swindon writer states, the timing of the lights should enable groups of vehicles to continue at a steady speed at the speed limit without having to stop and start regularly, which wastes fuel and causes extra wear on vehicles.
4. Traffic lights can be programmed to be turned off or to go to a flashing amber at less busy times. Again, the French have it right.

A high proportion of the great increase in the number of traffic signals is probably due to the more prevalent installation of signal-controlled pedestrian crossings instead of Zebra crossings. The new Puffin type of pedestrian crossing installation overcomes many of the problems described in comments above: they are responsive to demand, switch out if no one is crossing or has finished crossing, and use the normal light sequence towards vehicles. A full description can be found in your copy of “Know Your Traffic Signs” [which every good driver will have studied, of course].

Traffic-lights with the capability of recognizing traffic flow and then the ability to alter timing of light sequence should be installed .
Speed limits of 20mph should be observed at all times and not ,as suggested varied . I live in a street where there is a school and speeds of up to 60mph have been observed ,(some by parents dropping their children ).

On many occasions, I have noticed the following happening on less busy roads.
Someone approaches a pedestrian crossing on a road, presses the countdown button but before
the light changes he/she discovers that there is actually no traffic or the last vehicle has already passed. So he/she crosses the road and disappears on the other side. A moment later, the light changes to red for motor traffic and all approaching vehicles have to stop but there is not even a
single soul there trying to cross the road.
Maybe at spots like this the traffic lights should be replaced by just simple zebra crossings.

It is infuriating but newer pedestrian crossings help to avoid this problem. Unfortunately, replacement costs money, so that the problem will be with us for a few years yet.

I try to wait for a gap in the traffic rather than press the button at pedestrian crossings to avoid the need to stop the traffic. I am not advocating this as a safe thing to do, but I have not been killed so far!

I’m not sure that zebra crossings still have a place in the 21st century. They belong to a time when traffic density was lower and respect for other road users was higher.

I’m not condoning this technique, BUT if you are driving late at night and the traffic lights turn red, slow down, check every direction, if you see no cars, no people, no bikes or any other obstruction, carefully drive through them at a speed you know to be safe. If you get stopped by the police, then you were simply not taking enough attention, and did not abide by the technique I have just defined, and deserve to be caught. No one has to wait at red lights last thing at night, or during the day to be honest, if you are sensible, safe and careful about it.

so true about the pedestrian controlled crossings, people are ‘programmed’ to push that damned button – I’d love to be able to work out how much needless disruption to traffic flow, how much pollution, how much fuel is wasted every year in the UK through these things. Socially, it pushes us (as motorists) further and further into beings who can only repond to a ‘light’, as opposed to ‘a person’.