Peace of mind regarding traffic lights

[chengy]

Hi all,

With the attached picture, just wanted to double check that the red lights were for bus lane only? I think when I drove through today there are now traffic lights on either side of the bus lane (but still to my left) which showed red, but the traffic light on my right was on solid green so I proceeded nonetheless. Is this correct?

Just wanted to ask for future benefit.

Thanks

[andrew]

were you driving a bus ?

[FraserLFA]

[miroku]

Are you sure you should be driving?

[MrChips]

What a stupid junction, but looking at that pic then yep the red is for the bus only. If the new light that's not int that pic was in line with the red light in the pic then i'd also say it's for the bus only.. assuming they haven't drawn another stop line across into the 2nd lane?

[stuart313]

I saw something similar, cant remember where but the bus just pulled out into the right lane to go through the lights on green and then back into the bus lane after the junction. Leftist thinking at its best.

[Sheepshanks]

That does look a bit bonkers, especially the far pair of lights. If they've added another light then I guess that's an admission that it's confusing.

[chengy]

Thanks for the replies, I've only been driving day to day in just under a year so constantly learning and making sure what I'm doing is right.

[chengy]

MrChips said:

What a stupid junction, but looking at that pic then yep the red is for the bus only. If the new light that's not int that pic was in line with the red light in the pic then i'd also say it's for the bus only.. assuming they haven't drawn another stop line across into the 2nd lane?

Thank you MrChips, Yes it was in line with the lights on the red, perhaps trying to prevent confusion.

[4rephill]

That's unusual!

Round our way, I've never seen the lights for buses stay on red whilst the car lane is on green, it's always the other way round to give buses a "right of way" over the cars.

What then happens is that all of the cars get stuck behind a bus traveling at 10 ~ 15mph that keeps stopping every 100 yards and they can't get round the bus due to oncoming traffic, so the traffic builds up behind the bus, junctions start to become blocked by drivers failing to keep them clear, and the whole city grinds to a halt.

I can only assume that the three people riding on the bus must be far more important than the hundreds of people in the cars stuck behind the bus getting nowhere fast!

[herewego]

4rephill said:

That's unusual!

Round our way, I've never seen the lights for buses stay on red whilst the car lane is on green, it's always the other way round to give buses a "right of way" over the cars.

What then happens is that all of the cars get stuck behind a bus traveling at 10 ~ 15mph that keeps stopping every 100 yards and they can't get round the bus due to oncoming traffic, so the traffic builds up behind the bus, junctions start to become blocked by drivers failing to keep them clear, and the whole city grinds to a halt.

I can only assume that the three people riding on the bus must be far more important than the hundreds of people in the cars stuck behind the bus getting nowhere fast!

Yes people without a car or licence, e.g. young people, old people, sick people, poor people, disabled people should stay at home where they belong out of sight.

[Vaud]

It's an odd junction OP, I'd be giving it a second look if I wasn't familiar with it. Poor design in my view.

[TheEnd]

Yep, poor design.
They'll sometimes put shutters on the lights so the left set of lights can only be seen from a position in the bus lane.

[matchmaker]

Here's a similar setup in Stirling. Not the best view, but the bus bay has a traffic light at its exit.

[Martin_M]

miroku said:

Are you sure you should be driving?

How ignorant.

That set-up does look confusing. How does that work? When the bus light is on green, the other is on red which therefore allows the bus to move into the right lane further up where the parked cars on the nearside are?

Edited by Martin_M on Sunday 22 February 16:11

[Johnnytheboy]

Martin_M said:

miroku said:

Are you sure you should be driving?

How ignorant.

That set-up does look confusing. How does that work When the bus light is on green the other is on red which therefore allows the bus to move into the right lane further up where the parked cars on the nearside are?

Quite right, give the OP a chance.

The absence of a physical divide between the bus lane and general traffic lane makes this deeply ambiguous.

[M6L11]

miroku said:

Are you sure you should be driving?

A little harsh, no? I've been driving 20-50k per year for the last 10 years, and I've never ever seen a junction like this. The only instant giveaway is the location of the stop lines in the road. I can easily see how the OP was confused on a quick drive through. An adjustment to the road markings, and/or a plate on the light saying 'For buses only' or similar would have helped imo.

[55palfers]

I'm with OP - confusing, especially from a distance.

They need a red-light camera on the bus lane to catch buses pulling into RH lane if BL light is red.

[Cliftonite]

55palfers said:

I'm with OP - confusing, especially from a distance.

They need a red-light camera on the bus lane to catch buses pulling into RH lane if BL light is red.

I would imagine the bus lane light changes to green fairly promptly on the approach of a bus!

If not, a bus moving to the RH lane to take advantage of a green light is perfectly legal.

[Nigel Worc's]

Local junctions for local people, really really stupid, just like all the traffic island stuff these days, both with and without lights.

Well done OP for having the sense to ask, and a big fk off to any cretins trying to belittle him/her.