Irish traffic lights facilitate red light breaking?

fullstop

The Alpha wrote: »

Drive up to northern Ireland and see an efficient system, the second the light turns red, the other traffic light turn green and if you brake the red light for a second, you're gonna crash.

Not true. The North use a red, amber, green sequence.

xabi

fullstop wrote: »

Not true. The North use a red, amber, green sequence.

They also have Red Amber that we dont use here.

Infini

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Irish lights are terrible. The sequences are far too long and 4 way red for traffic to allow pedestrians to cross rather than integrated with the direction of traffic green is plain dumb.

I would also add that its even worse in some places because multiple traffic lights in close proximity to one another arent synced right, ie you get a green light only for the next set of lights to turn red before you reach them and theyre only a few hundred meters away. Would be better if multiple lights were arranged in a notth/south and east/west pattern where all lights along a certain area were set up for freeflow patterns.

Not everyone will break them because they can but some will end up rushing them if they're repeatedly held up in a short space of time its that aggrivation that fuels this.

AndrewJRenko

lawred2 wrote: »

Why is it a pisstake?

It's an effort to ensure people clear the junction before allowing more traffic into it.

If only the drivers had known that green lights inevitably go amber and red, they could have held back and avoided blocking up the junction in the first place.

The Alpha

Infini wrote: »

I would also add that its even worse in some places because multiple traffic lights in close proximity to one another arent synced right, ie you get a green light only for the next set of lights to turn red before you reach them and theyre only a few hundred meters away. Would be better if multiple lights were arranged in a notth/south and east/west pattern where all lights along a certain area were set up for freeflow patterns.

Not everyone will break them because they can but some will end up rushing them if they're repeatedly held up in a short space of time its that aggrivation that fuels this.

You need to keep the jobs for the boys. Intelligence is not required.

biko

I don't think it's the sequence. I see people in Galway driving through red lights long after it as gone red.
If I shoot off when my light goes green I can easily hit the last idiot breaking the perpendicular light. Maybe one day I will upload my dashcam shots of these ****.

BeardySi

The Alpha wrote: »

Isn't it ridiculous as how when a red light comes on, it takes anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds for the other traffic light to turn green. Therefore encouraging and actually facilitating red light breaking. Drive up to northern Ireland and see an efficient system, the second the light turns red, the other traffic light turn green and if you brake the red light for a second, you're gonna crash.
End result = everyone obeys traffic lights.
What is the logic of waiting for up to 10 seconds for the opposite light to turn green other than to allow red light breakers to pass through?
All other European countries have a proper red, yellow, green sequence...

Not entirely true.

There is usually (but not always) little or no delay between red on one side and red/amber on the other side, but red light running is rampant here too. Bust junctions will usually see a couple through on each red sequence. What we do have is the red/amber light before a full green which prevents most for taking off suddenly and having a collision. What we don't have generally is that delay where all arms of the junction are on red.

Weepsie

It astounds me that people don't realise you actually stop on an amber light. Not the red. Unless it's unsafe to do so.

Cordell

The Alpha wrote: »

an efficient system, the second the light turns red, the other traffic light turn green

It's not efficient, not safe, and definitely against traffic safety guidelines and possibly rules - in mainland EU it's definitely against the rules to not have a minimum period of overlapping red on conflicting roads, as such to allow cars that went in just before red to clear the junction.
The current system is fine, red light breaking just have to be enforced, that's the only change needed.

samih

Cordell wrote: »

It's not efficient, not safe, and definitely against traffic safety guidelines and possibly rules - in mainland EU it's definitely against the rules to not have a minimum period of overlapping red on conflicting roads.

What you say doesn't seem to be true. Having driven in Germany, Finland, Sweden, UK the light on the crossroads turns from red to red amber while the other direction is still amber just before it turns red to minimise the dead time in junctions. In Ireland there is up to 5 seconds of where all the lights are red and this is really really stupid in my opinion. It just encourages the "light red" (see Blues Brothers) brigade and makes the law abiding drivers look silly waiting for ages wondering what will happen next.

Sweden uses green amber when the light is changing to red which is similar to amber in Ireland and the other listed countries.

Cordell

I'm open to corrections, but this was the case when I worked with this stuff: one light goes from red to green while the other goes from amber to red. If a car passes the light just as it turns red, then it must be able to pass the junction safely, assuming that on the other road the driver shoots just as it turns green.
It's not stupid, it's safety over convenience.

Heres Johnny

Green means go
Amber means speed up
Red means next 2 cars only

What's so difficult about following that?

BronsonTB

Some shocking replies on this...Better enforcement for red light jumpers is badly needed...
(It is already illegal, now just need to hit these people much more in their pocket or better still, repeat offenders banned off the road!)

Driving is a privilege not a right. Seems to be forgotten....

Heres Johnny

BronsonTB wrote: »

Some shocking replies on this...Better enforcement for red light jumpers is badly needed...
(It is already illegal, now just need to hit these people much more in their pocket or better still, repeat offenders banned off the road!)

Driving is a privilege not a right. Seems to be forgotten....

Mine was tongue in cheek anyway!
But I think the system in at the moment is correct, you need to give time to clear junctions and it works well nearly all the time. Should be enforcement for traffic light breaking, I see cameras on some lights but don't know if they are dummy cameras most of the time or fully functioning