Utterly ludicrous red light time thread

Chris_533976

So I was waiting in the usual badly signalled traffic snarl-up while going Geocaching in Mahon, Cork yesterday when I was thinking. Whats the longest red light time you know of??

Coming out of B&Q in Mahon to the crossroads I timed it once. The standard sequence is FOUR MINUTES red.

If that doesnt make your blood boil when you JUST GET CAUGHT I dunno what will. Encourages jumping too, as a four minute wait is stupid.

Dont get me started though on the Mahon traffic arrangement though, that would only make me mad

Wishbone Ash

The sequence at the junction of the Snugborough Road and the slip road from the N3 (outbound) in Blanchardstown seems to have an excessively long red period.

Stark

Chris_533976 wrote: »

Dont get me started though on the Mahon traffic arrangement though, that would only make me mad

Ah Mahon Point. Loads of stressed out drivers inching their way through bumper to bumper traffic getting cut up left, right and centre by queue jumpers so they can eventually fight for a crooked parking space next to boring generic UK shop outlets. It's like they carved out a little slice of Dublin and brought it to Cork.

trellheim

Ye shipped it down there because you were envious. Don't turn around and complain now :p:p

The sequence at the junction of the Snugborough Road and the slip road from the N3 (outbound) in Blanchardstown seems to have an excessively long red period.

EVERY road there seems to have a long red time

bazzer

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The sequence at the junction of the Snugborough Road and the slip road from the N3 (outbound) in Blanchardstown seems to have an excessively long red period.

I timed that one - it's three minutes. :mad:

John_C

I'm pretty sure the law says a light shouldn't be red for more than 2 mins.

Gauge

The ones in Mahon Point are longer than that, I've noticed because I always seem to get caught as a new song begins on my ipod- I get to sit there and listen to the whole song before it goes green again!

Chris_533976

John_C wrote: »

I'm pretty sure the law says a light shouldn't be red for more than 2 mins.

Find that law I'll do some timing next time I'm stuck and a choice letter will be written.

I still maintain that a bit of simple trickery with some ludicrous sequences, and giving equal priority to traffic from both ends of the South Ring (as it stands traffic from the west has 1 set of lights to get on the approach road, and east traffic has 2. West traffics is sequenced better, east traffic is sequenced very badly) will solve a lot of problems.

Ham'nd'egger

I have been stuck on Bridgefoot Street at night for up to ten minutes, beat that!

mikemac

I've regularly been stuck at red lights for 5 minutes plus.
Because sometimes a motorcycle can't trigger the sequence so if it's extremly quiet (like 5am) and the traffic signals don't switch automatically then a bike can be stuck for aaaaaages!
And the moment a car rolls up next to me, then the lights change
I have to resort to breaking the light to get across the junction sometimes.

Cars have it easy and have no right to complain!:p

Wishbone Ash

micmclo wrote: »

Because sometimes a motorcycle can't trigger the sequence

'They' say that if you angle the bike downwards towards the surface it will trigger.

Hamndegger wrote:

I have been stuck on Bridgefoot Street at night for up to ten minutes, beat that!

I've never been delayed at Bridgefoot Street!

Perhaps you need to move forward more to trigger it.

_Kaiser_

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The sequence at the junction of the Snugborough Road and the slip road from the N3 (outbound) in Blanchardstown seems to have an excessively long red period.

Also because they made a mess of the junction anyway with 5 seperate light sequences. Still it's not as bad as it was when it first went in, when the light at the end of the Snugborough Road coming into the village would stay green for all of 8 seconds at peak times...

L1011

Getting out of Dunnes Stores in Maynooth can be interesting, often 3 minutes between changes that are usually enough to let 4 cars out, max - possibly less if theres an unwary driver or a low powered car on the ramp...

Ham'nd'egger

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

'They' say that if you angle the bike downwards towards the surface it will trigger.


I've never been delayed at Bridgefoot Street!

Perhaps you need to move forward more to trigger it.

I don't know, it just seems to be an unreliable set of lights. I have gotten through it quickly on other nights

Random

It's annoying during the day but it's nighttime that it's worst whe nyou're sitting at lights which don't have a sensor for 2 mins

gurramok

And include those lights that instantly stop traffic on major routes like the N2 when a single car appears from a housing estate.
One that gripes me is the one at Claremont, its like they are gods !

Next junction down is an industrial estate with hell of alot more traffic and they have to wait a couple of minutes to join the N2 which is normal!

Another one especially at night is the Whitworth Road/Prospect Rd junction. Sometimes at night, you can be waiting 10minutes for the thing to trigger from Whitworth direction. It dont make sense as it appears to be a random delay when before the white line. If you move up it makes no difference, you'd be nearly onto the Prospect Rd and the lights wouldn't change.
Other nights do be grand(ya wait your 2min) but other nights its insane, it don't make sense!

Another is Belvedere Place/Mountjoy Sq/Fitzgibbon st junction. if your coming from Belvedere Place, it's upto 5 minute wait there despite there being hardly no traffic at all from Mountjoy/Fitzgobbon and Belvedere Place is the main route!

murphaph

micmclo wrote: »

sometimes a motorcycle can't trigger the sequence so if it's extremly quiet (like 5am) and the traffic signals don't switch automatically then a bike can be stuck for aaaaaages!

I treat those as faulty and proceed on red.

corktina

absolutely...a lot of the problems could be people not pulling right up to the line and therefore not trioggering the lights...this used to happen to me years ago getting out of our estate and you'd have to get out and walk up to the front car and try to explain to some bimbo that if they pulled forward 3 feet the lights would change....then run like heck back to your own car......

random

random wrote: »

It's annoying during the day but it's nighttime that it's worst whe nyou're sitting at lights which don't have a sensor for 2 mins

Or even more frustrating when they do, but they don't work!!.
With those that work, I find that it's possible to crawl over the first sensor and the lights will change as you reach them, but this only works when it's quiet!

andrew163

The pedestrian lights right next to Mace in blanchardstown village. Maybe I'm miscounting, but they seem to let two full sets of cars through (and it's a freakin slow sequence) before they let pedestrians across. Missed so many busses waiting at those damn lights

Skyhater

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The sequence at the junction of the Snugborough Road and the slip road from the N3 (outbound) in Blanchardstown seems to have an excessively long red period.

Totally rediculous that there are traffic lights there at all!!!!
That Junction should be a roundabout....... loads of space for one, and traffic would flow much better!!!

Saruman

Its not a roundabout for two reasons i would say... firstly.. too many junctions! Secondly.. traffic volume.
Roundabouts are only good in low volume areas. The little one up at coolemine industrial estate causes havok during rush hour due the the volume.

dodgyme

The junction on the N4 between lucan and the superquinn is atleast 5 mins.

Polar101

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The sequence at the junction of the Snugborough Road and the slip road from the N3 (outbound) in Blanchardstown seems to have an excessively long red period.

It's also a very silly junction, as there's no ramp for traffic coming to/from N3 in the Cavan direction. I know there might be no room for two ramps, but that's why the junction is so slow for everyone.

Going to be interesting with the Metro line added around there..

dodgyme

Saruman wrote: »

Its not a roundabout for two reasons i would say... firstly.. too many junctions! Secondly.. traffic volume.
Roundabouts are only good in low volume areas. The little one up at coolemine industrial estate causes havok during rush hour due the the volume.

Big ones can be painful also but I know you point. e.g. the one outside the south county business park in sandyford. You need serious pickup to get onto it at times and the roundabout just up from it near bewleys where traffic in the morning from the mountian side due to its flow gains priority over traffic coming up from the M50 (the busiest road in the country)?

corktina

the problem with roundabouts in Ireland is that most drivers havent a clue how to use them properley due to incompetance and some people would be parked there all day with out added traffic lights....

corktina

corktina wrote: »

the problem with roundabouts in Ireland is that most drivers havent a clue how to use them properley due to incompetance and some people would be parked there all day with out added traffic lights....

Along with entering in the left lane and turning right or slowing down half way round etc etc

Properly sequenced & auto sensing lights can realy make an improvement, unfortunately too many are just installed and not "tuned" sometimes making things worse.

Also roundabout lights should always be part time, nothing worse than sitting there looking at an empty roundabout & red light that appears to be "stuck"

Capt'n Midnight

Traffic sensors are supposed to be able to detect bikes, they don't. So if you are coming from a side road to a major junction it's usually quicker to use the pedestrian crossing :mad:

I've only seen "bike friendly" sensors on speed cameras in the UK :rolleyes:

Victor

Polar101 wrote: »

It's also a very silly junction, as there's no ramp for traffic coming to/from N3 in the Cavan direction. I know there might be no room for two ramps, but that's why the junction is so slow for everyone.

AFAIK its too close to the next junction - you would have merging traffic crossing demerging traffic.

Hotblack Desiato

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

'They' say that if you angle the bike downwards towards the surface it will trigger.

There is a limit as to how much you can do that before you fall off!
With a taller bike and a shorter rider, it can be very very little.
Except on the very smallest bikes, nobody is going to be able to lean it over far enough to make much of a difference to a sensor, and still be able to hold the bike up.

Perhaps you need to move forward more to trigger it.

What is it with the 'stopping at a random distance before the stop line' thing?

You never, ever used to see that, at least not in Dublin, it seemed to be a matter of honour to gain every inch you could before being forced to stop
now you get drivers stopping wherever they feel like it, 2 or 3 car lengths short sometimes, wtf is that all about? Allowing themselves to begin that vital nose-pick half a second earlier???
I've even seen this on the Naas Rd approaching the Red Cow, on a 3 lane road if you are the second car in your lane, especially the middle lane, you will be expecting the one in front of you to be stopping where the other lanes are stopping. Not some random number of metres before. I don't know how these eejits don't get rear-ended.

Speaking of traffic lights and the things people do at them, going through the Red Cow this evening I was behind a BMW, every time the traffic stopped he turned on the interior light and was looking at some sort of catalogue. He didn't always put it down before moving off, either. It looked like what I imagine a rent-a-bride catalogue would look like :eek:
it's funny sometimes when car drivers forget that the motorcyclists behind or beside them can see what they're up to more clearly than another car driver can

patrickc

Hamndegger wrote: »

I have been stuck on Bridgefoot Street at night for up to ten minutes, beat that!

ive noticed at certain junctions even a few inches can mean you being detected by the sensor or not, particularly into the redcow carpark for the luas, thats can take ages if you don't hit the right spot for the sensor.

Stark

ninja900 wrote: »

What is it with the 'stopping at a random distance before the stop line' thing?

You never, ever used to see that, at least not in Dublin, it seemed to be a matter of honour to gain every inch you could before being forced to stop
now you get drivers stopping wherever they feel like it, 2 or 3 car lengths short sometimes, wtf is that all about? Allowing themselves to begin that vital nose-pick half a second earlier???

I hate when you get stuck/nearly stuck in a yellow box because of them. I usually wait to make sure there's space cleared for me before following them through a junction, but I have been caught out once or twice. It happened once and a Garda walked up to me and asked me what I was up to and I had to explain to her and ask her to go up to the person in front of me and ask them to move forward Or they stop about 2-3 car lengths behind the line, then gradually creep up to the start line while waiting for the green light, instead of just stopping in the correct place to begin with, then relaxing while waiting for the light.