Speed activated red light signals

[Pica-Pica]

Had the chance to experience these on the A75 in Springholm, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The car in front (for sake of argument) was travelling at no more than 32mph in a 30 limit. It triggered a set of lights, whose sole purpose is to stop, frustrate and presumably educate drivers. However much locals know about it, I am sure only non-locals will get stopped, but this will frustrate locals as much as others, along with the added emission impact of stop-start traffic. Anyone else come across these elsewhere? Experience? Views?

https://www.dgwgo.com/dumfries-galloway-news/sprin...

[codenamecueball]

I imagine they'll cease to function soon.

[Psycho Warren]

I presume it has red light cameras? otherwise youd just carry on through red as its not a junction and serves no purpose other than to inconvenience people.

[Janluke]

I'm up and down that road quite often and to be fair they seem to work very well. At first they had the timing a little off so the speeding car got through and the car behind got stopped. I like the idea, stray over the limit and get delayed slightly rather than 3 points and fine

[Swervin_Mervin]

Pica-Pica said:

Had the chance to experience these on the A75 in Springholm, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The car in front (for sake of argument) was travelling at no more than 32mph in a 30 limit. It triggered a set of lights, whose sole purpose is to stop, frustrate and presumably educate drivers. However much locals know about it, I am sure only non-locals will get stopped, but this will frustrate locals as much as others, along with the added emission impact of stop-start traffic. Anyone else come across these elsewhere? Experience? Views?

https://www.dgwgo.com/dumfries-galloway-news/sprin...

They use them a lot on the continent, and they're usually signed well in advance. First I've heard of them over here. Are they signed?

I think they're superb and something I'd like to see rolled out more, particularly in rural villages when those 40mph everywhere nodders pass through from an NSL to a 30 without changing their speed. Might make people think a bit more about their speed.

[akirk]

they have had them in Swindon for years...

[Riley Blue]

An interesting speed reduction measure though possibly with an adverse effect on air quality; cheaper than average speed cameras I suppose.

[WyrleyD]

Yes, there's a set of these lights on a main road through a small town the in the Haute-Vienne, installed about 10 years ago I think.

[anonymous-user]

Janluke said:

I'm up and down that road quite often and to be fair they seem to work very well. At first they had the timing a little off so the speeding car got through and the car behind got stopped. I like the idea, stray over the limit and get delayed slightly rather than 3 points and fine

Yes, get delayed along with anyone behind, whether they’re speeding or not.

[Hol]

They have them near our place in Spain.

On those ones, the annoyance is that you can pass through the sensors under the speed, but the guy 10x car lengths behind can be speeding and the resulting Red light further on catches both of you.

The locals seem to ignore them, but the civil Police will always target hire cars as a money winner.

[alangla]

A set were fitted in Fairlie, after a coal lorry from Hunterston ran into a house & killed the occupants.
https://goo.gl/maps/tBYA8gbzVAD2 - house is on the right (you can see where it's been rebuilt), lights can be seen in the distance.

[Alucidnation]

Those lights are at a blind junction?

[alangla]

Alucidnation said:

Those lights are at a blind junction?

The Fairlie ones? Yes, but it was just a give-way before, practically zero traffic comes out of the junction and they are speed sensitive. Presumably when they were put in, they were placed in a location where it might make some sense to have lights.
Here's a news story from their installation - https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/scotland-g...

[Kenny6868]

The lights in question in Springholm are a pain in the backside! You can be stopped while doing the speed limit because the car/truck 100 yards behind you is speeding. They are not calibrated correctly, nor have they been since they were installed. A better solution to the village would have been average speed, but the didn't want to spend the money.

Similar systems have been around for years. I remember being in West Berlin in 1988 where they had a system where if you kept to a variable speed limit (displayed on gantries above the road) you got green lights all the way to the city center. Worked a treat.

[Ken Figenus]

These are pointless extra lights for this sole purpose only? That is they don't penalise drivers for speeding from one normal set of junction lights to the next set of normal junction lights? Hmm - poorly executed then. Or is that programming too complex?

Edited by Ken Figenus on Friday 1st March 15:55

[Johnnytheboy]

The temptation to sit and needlessly rev my engine at these lights would be overwhelming.