Are the lights broken or not?

One of my (many) frustrations is waiting at lights when there is no traffic going the other way. Well, maybe I should call the council and tell them the lights are busted? But are they? We hear that lights often get controlled by super-computers (which apparently don't work very well!) so we could assume that if we wait at lights for no reason then there must be a fault. We also know however that some are just bog-standard lights which aren't optimised in any way and therefore like most people, I simply assume that the lights are probably working 'normally' but are simply crap. Also, of course in the UK, our councils are famous for indifference, lack of motivation, lack of funding, basically it is everyone else's fault except theirs so most people would rather cut off their own arm than attempt to get anything like service from the council. For this reason, we simply suffer, grind our teeth, swear, get violent and wonder why it can't all be better. In Japan, they have a different outlook on things. Whatever you do, you do it to the best of your ability (I think they used to do that here once). That means if a traffic light is not working pretty much as close to its optimum then it is fixed, no questions need to be asked. Turning traffic lights off at night? no problem, re-phasing them at certain times? easy, removing sets that have outlived their use? Certainly. Not sure what it will take for us to get back that way, perhaps a large town or county being so well run that it inspires its residents to all give to society and see the positive outcome. I, for one, will not be holding my breath :)

Weymouth, what have you done?

I used to live in Weymouth and it suffers greatly from traffic congestion, primarily because of a lack of roads crossing the river Wey and the harbour and the small size of roads, with one-ways, in the town centre. It didn't used to be too bad but then they decided to remove a pelican crossing on King Street - used by many people coming from Car Parks to the sea-front and replaced it with a standard set of lights further up the road which have made things worse since the phasing is much more traffic unfriendly. Now, they have completely ruined the town centre by replacing roundabouts with massive sets of traffic lights and at the clock-tower have replaced a mini-roundabout with traffic lights including a new restriction on right turns from Kings Street onto the Prom (you now have to make a much longer journey round by the hospital to come back again). The traffic is now MUCH worse than it has ever been and as always, the planners who do these things just carry on making these ridiculous decisions. They have made similar changes up Rodwell road including more restrictions and traffic lights.
It is hard to communicate how strongly I feel about this idiotic and seemingly unaccountable decision to spend a massive amount of money on technology which doesn't really make anything better, including the long-term maintenance cost and of course the lack of any reasonable chance to revert the changes because of all the money they have spent. It now has to work (even though it doesn't)!
Oh, and the justification for these changes which were always going to be popular? The 2012 Olympics and specifically the sailing part of them! An event which will take place for a single month somehow justifies an obscene amount of expenditure into a system that doesn't work. I don't know how many visitors are expected but since Weymouth already has an influx of 1000s of people each summer, I don't see that it will be massively different than normal. Also, more importantly, they have already proved that their changes have made the CURRENT situation worse before any extra traffic they expect. If they hadn't taken so long to install the lights, they could have perhaps trialled temporary lights before committing to the full-blown systems. The only thing I can imagine is that the people are either incompetent and simply believe that traffic lights are the ultimate management system or otherwise they are creating work to keep themselves in a job (although I expect they also employed consultants who will never say, "you don't need to change anything").
What we need is a public enquiry into this continued fiasco!

Another nail in the coffin for traffic lights

BBC News today with an article about how the US are taking to roundabouts to REPLACE traffic lights (not the UK where we have both at the same place!). There are some nice logical reasons for this in the article including a 40% in accidents, a 90% drop in fatal accidents and £150,000 savings per year because of maintenance savings as well as drivers saving fuel. Of course Britain are so arrogant about such things we are no longer pragmatic about these decisions, it is corruption, inept councillors and mad health and safety laws that make our once great country simply Mediocre Britain.

More insanity

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Instead of you having to read it, it basically bemoans a local council's idea to ask the County Council to switch off some traffic lights on a roundabout in PEAK times, because it makes the traffic back-up. Really? So we want lights that are on 24 hours per day, except peak times when they would be most needed!? As the article says, what's the point then?

I still can't see why part-time lights are not the norm and they only stay on 24 hours for special reasons. Oh wait, I do know. Because Britain has become a nation of bureaucrats and incompetents who spend 99% of their time justifying why they are so rubbish at their jobs with, "it is everyone else's fault except mine". This country doesn't have too many pioneers any more which is a shame. 

Junction of Rodwell Road and Westwey Road, Weymouth

Oh my goodness me, how to turn a working roundabout into a mess of traffic lights for no good reason at goodness knows how much installation and maintenance costs!

Weymouth have been busy recently, much of which is justified by the 2 weeks of the water sports part of the Olympics in 2012 (this much investment for 2 weeks?) but I think it is actually a case of Weymouth getting money from central government and deciding to spend it on what they have wanted for ages. Control!

Lights are about control, not about efficient traffic management. You only have to look at the layouts that have taken months to complete and there are lanes all over the place, the usual traffic light chaos and the expense.

What I find really difficult is the realisation that most County Halls live in traffic light land as the ultimate in traffic management when in reality, it hides the real issues.

The reason why the Kings roundabout didn't work was because there is no capacity up Kings Street onto the Esplanade, ironically partly because of the new traffic lights they installed on Kings Street and Queen Street. Replacing the roundabout with traffic lights will make precisely zero difference (except it will cost loads of money) and if anything will make it worse.

IDIOTS

Flashing amber - has been mentioned before!

New article on the BBC web site about possible use of flashing amber during quiet times. This would be a start but I think traffic lights on roundabouts should be switched off outside peak hours - even during the peak they seem to cause more trouble than they're worth.
I'm very disappointed with Andrew Howard's response as the head of safety at the AA. Maybe the clue is in his job title but safety at all costs is nonsense. Life is not safe and traffic lights do not noticeably improve safety for all the hassle they cause. Of course we could simply ban all cars but then people would probably trip over and hit their head on the floor instead!

part time lights

I'm sure I've blogged about this before but why o why are traffic lights not part-time by default and only extended to 24 hours as required?
All you need is a reflective badge on the traffic signal so you can see that you are approaching a junction but switch the lights off to reduce power and the annoyance of waiting at so many red lights for no reason. It is a no-brainer to me. If someone jumps them and crashes, its no different than if you pulled out of a side-road with no traffic lights and crashed.
If you really needed to, you set them all to orange so it is clearer but I like the idea of switching them off altogether.
Part time signals do exist, although mostly on roundabouts and slip-roads, so it is obviously permissible and possible.
Come on someone, do it. Lead the way. Be leaders not followers. Show some unction. Think outside the box. Save tons of money and tons of hassle.