Bloody Traffic lights on Round a Bouts

[Crippo]

What is the point of them? Round abouts are there to aid traffic flow. I appreciate that when its busy that Signals may be helpful, but turn the damn things off outside of rush hour.

On the A5 near Lichfield they have a double round a bout structure and sometimes traffic can queue up to it in all directions, but even in rush hour you are not guaranteed having to queue. For the past few months they have been doing pinch point improvements....now they are finished. Guess what? All they have done is put traffic lights on . So I came to this today at Mid day, and queued for 5 minutes because the traffic lights have slowed the traffic down so much that there is huge queuing where before there was none....What idiot decided to do this? He needs to be shot!!!!!

They need removing

Who do I complain to?
Council or Highways or MP?

Thanks

RANT MODE off

[leggly]

They are wonderful aren't they Working nights,they are pointless but they don't turn the fkers off. Don't worry about the wasted fuel or the emissions. Joe public isn't capable of thinking for themselves anymore so we all suffer.

[imagineifyeswill]

It seems to be a trend over the last few years putting traffic lights on rounabouts totally negating the point of having rounabouts. I find up here in Inverness when the traffic lights break down the traffic moves much more smoothly far less congestion.

[robinessex]

There is a town in Wiltshire (won't name' it), which has a colletion of stupid traffic lights, so much so, that during the evenings, when the town centre is virtually deserted, I just ignore certain red lights. And before howls of recrimination, you can see far enough in the direction you need to look for oncoming vehicles, to make it 100% safe. These junctions worked for many years without traffic lights anyway.

[dxg]

You can pass a red light if you believe it to be displaying because the signal is broken.

If the signal is serving no purpose (i.e. no other traffic around), could you argue that it's redundancy amounts to being 'broken'? Hmm...

[alangla]

Why can't we just adopt the flashing yellow/flashing red lights used pretty much everywhere else during quiet times. Seems to work fine both on the continent & the US.

[AClownsPocket]

This used to be a roundabout

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9783081.VIDE...Canford_Bottom_junction_reopens_but_drivers_are_left_confused/

They made it traffic lights. You go left to turn right and vice versa. It really is the most idiotic thing I've seen.

I take a detour now to avoid it.

[Hooli]

The only reason is to cause traffic jams, then the council can pretend there are too many cars & charge more for parking etc.

[bairn7]

Absolute joke. For anyone that knows the Earls Gate roundabout in Falkirk (Major roundabout joining the M9), this has just been 'signalised'. I've never once known there to be a major problem with traffic queues pre-signalisation. Yet, a month on from signalisation (with out of time signals spaced 5 metres apart on one part of the roundabout) and there is now triple the length of queues at peak times. Not to mention the pain in the *ss when using the roundabout before 6am - always completely empty - and having to stop at three separate points of the roundabout before hitting my exit!! grrrr!

[Pappagallo]

M40 J15 Longbridge Island is a good example. The lights used to fail quite regularly on there and the traffic flow was so much better for. It did make it quite difficult to join it from one of the roads though as there were few gaps.

[askew]

See also the Highways Agency pinch point programme. A recent completion of this has seen lights installed under Spaghetti Junction - the phasing doesn't allow enough traffic off the slip from M6/A38 leading to queues down the hard shoulder and L1. Pisses me right off as it used to flow alright!

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/m6-...

Why was the scheme needed?
Prior to the works M6 junction 6 suffered from severe congestion, especially at peak periods. Queues were particularly severe on the approach to the motorway from Birmingham City Centre.

Pfft. Seen more queues now in several weeks than I had in the months prior.

Edited by askew on Friday 19th September 17:15

[Riley Blue]

Two of three roundabouts on the A61 in Chesterfield have them, the third is to get them sometime soon. When some work was taking place to install some artwork on one of them recently the traffic lights were turned off and traffic moved far more freely even with one lane closed. Drivers had to think for themselves and did, as far as I know there were no serious accidents during the 'lights out' period but there have been plenty due to red light jumpers when they've been on.

[Who me ?]

try most of the roundabouts off the M6. Priority is given to traffic coming off the motorway, and i've noticed default indication is green to M6 off ramp. AT ALL HOURS. I'd suggest this was the brainchild of a failed traffic engineer from Berk Hampstead, home of prize berks.

[rich40]

Traffic lights are probably the most obvious evidence of corruption in local councils.

[Vanin]

Too many roundabouts are far too great in circumference allowing the traffic to speed up to hinder filtering.
The best ones are where people are brought to a halt or at least no faster than walking pace which allows everyone to muddle in gently. These roundabouts do not need lights.

[andrewrob]

Riley Blue said:

Two of three roundabouts on the A61 in Chesterfield have them, the third is to get them sometime soon. When some work was taking place to install some artwork on one of them recently the traffic lights were turned off and traffic moved far more freely even with one lane closed. Drivers had to think for themselves and did, as far as I know there were no serious accidents during the 'lights out' period but there have been plenty due to red light jumpers when they've been on.

In Hasland, a stones throw away from that roundabout, the council removed a mini roundabout and replaced it with 3 way lights which resulted in accidents and congestion, after a campaign by locals the lights were removed and a mini roundabout put in its place.
Total cost was over £100000 I think.

[Mr Taxpayer]

Gloucester.
The A40/A417 roundabout had "Peak Time only" lights. Since November these have been set to 'all the time'.

The A417/Corinium Way roundabout had "peak time only" lights and not all of the entrances to the roundabout were light controlled. They've now widened and "improved" the roundablout. In the process they installed lights at all entrances and made them on all the time.

These "improvements" add 2 minutes to my journey on a Sunday night as well as increasing CO2 emissions from me having to idle and accelerate to 70 from standstill twice plus all those lights on all the time.

If councils can justify turning off the streetlights, why can't they turn off the traffic lights too?

[Red Devil]

AClownsPocket said:

This used to be a roundabout

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9783081.VIDE...Canford_Bottom_junction_reopens_but_drivers_are_left_confused/

For a very long time, the A322 in Bracknell has had a smaller version of Canford Bottom, whereby the primary route has subsequently been cut through the centre of the original roundabout and a forest of lights installed. The purpose is to prioritise the major traffic flow which has a certain logic, but it beats me why they can't switch them off at night. Turning right is then a PITA with a succession of stop/starts which have no benefit to anyone. Suppressing the lights for at least 25% of each 24 hour period (for example between 9pm and 6am) would save time and money all round.

[Mr Taxpayer]

Red Devil said:

AClownsPocket said:

This used to be a roundabout

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9783081.VIDE...Canford_Bottom_junction_reopens_but_drivers_are_left_confused/

For a very long time, the A322 in Bracknell has had a smaller version of Canford Bottom, whereby the primary route has subsequently been cut through the centre of the original roundabout and a forest of lights installed. The purpose is to prioritise the major traffic flow which has a certain logic, but it beats me why they can't switch them off at night. Turning right is then a PITA with a succession of stop/starts which have no benefit to anyone. Suppressing the lights for at least 25% of each 24 hour period (for example between 9pm and 6am) would save time and money all round.

They are currently installing a similar style of roundabout at Black Dam in Basingstoke. Priority will run from the A339 'Basingring' to/from M3 Junction 6. You can bet a tank of fuel that the lights will be 24/7.

[Nimby]

Mr Taxpayer said:

They are currently installing a similar style of roundabout at Black Dam in Basingstoke. Priority will run from the A339 'Basingring' to/from M3 Junction 6.

Not really - priority will be "from" M3 J6 only. There will be four lanes northbound from the motorway spur across the hamburger to the A339, but M3-bound traffic has to go round as it's always done. Schematic

The objective is to stop morning tailbacks onto the M3 itself. Evening queues back to the Reading Road junction are perfectly acceptable. :-(

ps More pointless lights are one junction up - M3J5 for Hook / Odiham. Maybe it's busy in rush hour but they are completely unnecessary the rest of the day.

Edited by Nimby on Wednesday 7th January 16:55