Town in England turns off traffic lights, surprising results.

shedweller

http://www.wimp.com/trafficlights/

It wouldn't work everywhere but hats off to them for trying something.
What do the Boardsies think?

mikemac

Nenagh was and still is a tricky town to drive around, narrow streets and lots of mini roundabouts.

In the 1990's it would be locked up with traffic as it wasn't bypassed yet so any lorries going Limerick to Dublin have to go through it

Council turned off the lights every Friday evening for a few hours and traffic sped up, it worked well.
Traffic dovetailed, let one then go, let one then go

It's not always going to work everywhere. Worked in Nenagh as traffic was crawling anyway on Friday evenings.

If traffic was lighter and cars were approaching junctions at speed it wouldn't work so well

Carlos_Ray

I definitely think there are some places where lights are incorrectly timed and therefore cause traffic jams. I think this is the case with the town in the video. Lights that turn red for 5 mins and then turn green for 30 seconds are just plain stupid.

mike65

Traffic lights are a curse, if you turn them off people actually behave themselves as they have to take more care. Certain junctions/side roads would suffer due to speed and flow on the main road it must be said.

shedweller

Carlos_Ray wrote: »

I definitely think there are some places where lights are incorrectly timed and therefore cause traffic jams. I think this is the case with the town in the video. Lights that turn red for 5 mins and then turn green for 30 seconds are just plain stupid.

Amen! One road i have to deal with is the oscar traynor in north Dublin. When traffic is light the lights stay green for a lot longer but when traffic gets heavy, they stay red for longer. And when you get a green you have to break the speed limit to make all the greens. Sticking to the limit just gets you stuck at the next red. Grr..
I think removing traffic lights could work here. Not everywhere or even all the time. I just think some thought needs to be put into this and it should be tried.

A2LUE42

Lights in Limerick are turned off on a regular basis, and traffic seems to work better at these times. But I haven't seen the results during peak comuter times..


Edit: They are now removing roundabouts and adding more lights.......

antomorro-sei

Dunno what'd it be like during the day, or in rush hour, but surely to god they could turn off some of the lights at night time. There's one going into Bluebell at the LUAS stop, and you could be sitting there for 5 mins waiting for the lights to turn green, and not one other car would go past.

shedweller

antomorro-sei wrote: »

Dunno what'd it be like during the day, or in rush hour, but surely to god they could turn off some of the lights at night time. There's one going into Bluebell at the LUAS stop, and you could be sitting there for 5 mins waiting for the lights to turn green, and not one other car would go past.

Yeah, whats with that? I thought the sensors in the road were to stop this kind of thing happening?

antomorro-sei

shedweller wrote: »

Yeah, whats with that? I thought the sensors in the road were to stop this kind of thing happening?

Yeah, they probably should have a sensor or something there but nope. Tbh, you wouldn't see many people sitting there waiting for the lights to turn green either!

Guy:Incognito

shedweller wrote: »

Yeah, whats with that? I thought the sensors in the road were to stop this kind of thing happening?

They are, but I'm forever coming up to lights and people are either stopped way too far back (women) or past the line (men) .

KamiKazi

Stekelly wrote: »

They are, but I'm forever coming up to lights and people are either stopped way too far back (women) or past the line (men) .

Try being on a motorbike which isn't big enough to be detected by the sensors :pac:

Voodoomelon

The major junction at Xerox in Dundalk often has its lights wiped out from an accident the night before or whatever.
Its quite daunting approaching the junction with no lights, but it always works very well and you're normally through the lights in less than 20-30 seconds as opposed to a 3 minute wait for the lights.

If it can work at a high speed junction like that, It should certainly be able to work in a small village.

keithclancy

Old News:

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSGOR14512420070911

j2dab

I remember Jerry Ryan going on about how traffic lights in Dublin were deliberatley set up badly to encourage people to use public transport. He was quite adament.

paddyland

j2dab wrote: »

I remember Jerry Ryan going on about how traffic lights in Dublin were deliberatley set up badly to encourage people to use public transport. He was quite adament.

I wholly agree, and have had same confirmed by someone from inside the city council.

However, what they fail to realise, is that using deliberately badly sequenced lights to feck up traffic, also fecks up said same public transport! So lose lose situation all round!!!

Why do you think it is that on the Grand Canal, for instance, you will hit every single light on yellow, unless you break the speed limit? Disincentive to obey the law, very strong incentive to speed.

There is a very misguided opinion that anything that frustrates drivers automatically slows traffic down. In fact, it only encourages speeding, as drivers try to make up lost time.

Whoever is in overall charge of traffic light policy in Dublin should really be reappointed to lollipop duties...

thirtythirty

I dunno 'bout turning off traffic lights, but i would definately like to see the US' "turn right on red" ability implemented here. Except obviously with the left.

Defo improves movement, and lights individually don't seem like such a chore when you're coming up to them because you have the hope of being able to just continue on your journey, traffic permitting.

corktina

they turn them off in Mallow at christmas and it defianteyl helps. They only serve to cause holdups....id much prefer mini roundabouts (except that most Irish drivers just dont "get" roundabouts....

Michael 09

I used to live in Germany and all the lights turned flashing orange after 11pm... made perfect sense really.