Ridiculous short interval at traffic lights

FitzElla wrote: »

I also thought the reduced traffic volumes during the lockdown had messed up the sensors but reading this thread has been interesting. Several sets of lights I go through barley let 2 cars through now. The fact so many people check their phone at lights doesn't help either, the light can be green for a bit before some people get moving.

I agree with getting people to move from cars to other transport, but will the changes to lights not massively impact Dublin Bus? From what I remember they carry the majority of public transport users in Dublin. How do they expect people to switch to the bus when it is getting slower?

Lights are basically the bottom of the list for buses.
It goes in my opinion.
Cars in bus lanes
Dwell time
Rambling routes
Excessive number of stop
Traffic lights

FitzElla wrote: »

True, but where there is no bus lane the effect of slowing down traffic directly impacts on buses. Also drivers get frustrated at short change lights and start blocking junctions, using bus lanes and generally create more congestion for buses to navigate. Coupled with little to no enforcement of red lights, yellow box junctions or bus lanes, it is a free for all out there.

Fiddling with the light sequence in the absence of real enforcement and a real effort to improve the alternatives (bus mainly) only makes everyone's journey worse. When the schools go back in September the city is going to grind to a halt.

So because motorist will break the law we should just give them what they want? We already tried that and it failed. Cycling and walking are real alternatives regardless of the fact you seem to think they aren't. Hopefully with a new government ANPR isn't too far away now

LeinsterDub wrote: »

No it hasn't. The number of cars has sky rocketed. Up nearly 100% in 30 years.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/452305/ireland-number-of-registered-passenger-cars/#:~:text=Registered%20passenger%20cars%20in%20Ireland%201990-2017&text=In%202017%2C%20the%20number%20of,approximately%20two%20million%20registered%20vehicles.

You've dismissed cycling and public transport. Not many alternatives left for you is there?

Cars up 100% according to you. Parking and road space artificially reduced over 30 years. What result were you expecting?

How about cars up !00% Road space and parking up 100%?

The only answer you get here is the sad, spiteful bicycle crowd repeating that "it wont work" plus the cheering for the continuation of DCC's malicious campaign.

I don't commute myself (sorry lads) but have watched this going on year after year. Actually met DCC Traffic Department about 20 years ago. Even then all were bicycle loons with no other agenda.

As I have posted before the solution is an underground but they will not consider that on any account as it does not meet the primary goal (as evidenced here) to "get" motorists

Truthvader wrote: »

How about cars up !00% Road space and parking up 100%?

Car usage is up in Ireland. Car usage in Dublin city centre is down every year for the last decade. If you look at the number of people instead of the number of vehicles, car usage makes up a tiny proportion of the traffic inside the city centre. And yet car lanes (aside from bus lanes) make up the largest proportion of the road space.

If you're saying that increasing road space to accommodate extra cars is a good solution, you have been proven wrong repeatedly by history, not just here but in every other city. You can live in your own bizarre little world where everyone who disagrees with you is sad, spiteful or a bicycle loon but that says more about you than it does about anyone else.

Also, the conspiracy theory that DCC don't want a metro is a wonderful invention. DCC couldn't ever pay for a metro, that will be done by central government through TII/NTA. On the other hand, central government has very little say in the timing of traffic lights, that's done by DCC. I suppose you could suggest that they're scheming together to get you but then you'd have to ignore the billions of euros put into road building and maintenance over the last twenty years. It's a bit odd to spend that kind of money building roads if you hate cyclists.

There are a few awful traffic lights like this in and around Navan. On the driving test route no less. You slow down to approach the junction and the lights go from red to green back to red by the time you've made it there. Makes progression very difficult as you try to judge the lights when really, you should be making sure there is no traffic in your blindspot and ahead of you on the approach to the junction. I get that the point is to make people more cautious but in a way it actually makes driving more dangerous as its another un needed variable you have to account for in a situation where you need to be on top of all traffic around you and ahead of you. I hate the gamble of whether I keep my speed up to progress or just slow down to avoid having to slam on the brakes.

LeinsterDub wrote: »

Pre-covid: Bus is stuck behind a line of cars illegally using the bus lane , has to wait for 3 or 4 set sequences to get through.

Post-covid (hopefully): Enforce the bus lanes , bus has to wait slightly longer for lights to change but gets out on the 1st sequence

Except that the majority of roads don't have bus lanes and they're sitting waiting on traffic lights to change with all the other vehicles. Plus many bus lanes often merge with normal traffic and have to wait for another couple of light sequences to get through so buses are yet again badly affected by this change.

I haven't seen a bus miss numerous lights because of so many cars illegally using a bus lane. Taxi drivers and parked vehicles are a bigger issue for buses so I don't believe there would be a big difference with 100% enforcement. I'm happy to be proven wrong with research and statistics.

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

Except that the majority of roads don't have bus lanes and they're sitting waiting on traffic lights to change with all the other vehicles. Plus many bus lanes often merge with normal traffic and have to wait for another couple of light sequences to get through so buses are yet again badly affected by this change.

I haven't seen a bus miss numerous lights because of so many cars illegally using a bus lane. Taxi drivers and parked vehicles are a bigger issue for buses so I don't believe there would be a big difference with 100% enforcement. I'm happy to be proven wrong with research and statistics.

Nothing is perfect but it's a start
I see it all the time. Can't find any research at the moment but I know the NTA consider this a major problem, partly BusConnects is designed to fix the problem. DCC have installed bollards at numerous locations to help with this problem.

Truthvader wrote: »

The capacity has been deliberately and artificially reduced. Check out all the cheerleaders here and the level of jealousy and spite informing their posts. The agenda is not to promote alternatives but to drag everyone down to the level of bicycles/CIE they are stuck with

And private cars don't drag down bus reliability/journey times? Ha.

beauf wrote: »

In fact its quite strange with traffic still being light how often you hit a queue lately, and not peak times either.

Traffic is not light, that’s a misconception held by people who are WFH. TII traffic counters show volumes increasing since mid-April and by mid May they were back to 50% so they’re well on the way to recovery by now.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/significantly-higher-traffic-volumes-on-some-roads-figures-show-1.4256172

For example, last week traffic count on the M50 between N4 and N7 was 131k. The same week last year was 167k.

beauf wrote: »

50% of normal volumes is light no?

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/car-hgv-traffic-returns-to-pre-covid-levels-amid-slower-recovery-on-public-transport-1.4295467

The point is there are queues off peak where normally there aren't even during peak, or at least not as bad.

The nature of traffic has changed. Cars moving at different times and to different locations

With Chu as lord mayor I can only see things getting much worse....

punisher5112 wrote: »

With Chu as lord mayor I can only see things getting much worse....

The Lord Mayor has very little power. If she was Chief Exec, you might have some cause for concern.