Traffic light buttons

Ive said this before in other threads. We have a habit in Ireland when it comes to any kind of infrastructure, to "future proof" whatever we get, and so it often is over engineered and guess what, more expensive.

There is also a tendency of doing something (anything) different from what the Brits do.

They were indeed installed absolutely everywhere here.

Purely from a practical point of view, the bigger buttons are far superior for anyone with dexterity issues, missing digits and temporary disability (cast / bandage / heavy gloves / holding a baby etc.). I was pleasantly surprised to see the units retrofitted with touch-free sensors, although by the time they sense a hand, you might as well have touched them.

Just because "the UK still operate them", doesn't mean they're still fit for purpose for plenty of people who need better. I'd imagine they just don't want to spend the money to replace them. Just look at roads - the UK still operates a huge number of pothole-ridden roads which aren't suitable for plenty of cars!

The new ones were good for using your elbow on during Covid too.

We have a long history of doing things half-arsed and then having to upgrade them just a few years later. e.g. M50, those diddy little 30m trams on the Red Line… usually at far greater expense than if it was done right the first time.

The M50 was also originally designed from the start with the extra space and width to be easily widened after opening.

Really? Because many of the junction designs are very compromised since the upgrade, so if there was provision made, it was not sufficient. The widening project also cost a fortune.

The lightbulbs inside them would fail and require constant replacement maintenance. The newer type have the crossing direction indicator for visually impaired people also.

Dynamic speed limits could be used to allow 120 km/h limits outside of busy periods on the M50. I sometimes travel on the M50 in the early hours of the morning and it's annoying that I'm not permitted to travel at more regular 100 km/h, like on all the other motorways, even though traffic is extremely light…….although you still get gobshites hogging lane 2, even then, thereby blocking nearly 70% of the available lanes. And no, I won't overtake on the inside!

Back on topic, the old UK traffic light push button units were regularly vandalised in some places so I guess the councils went with a more vandal proof solutions and standarised with that.

It's grand and well saying it's "only 3 minutes" longer to drive the full length of the M50 at 100 km/h versus 120 km/h when that's just a single instance. If you spread that out through the year for a person that travels the full length during quiet periods, 5 return journey days over 48 weeks (52 - 4 weeks for annual leave, as an example), that equates to a full day (24 hours) of a persons life. Even your suggestion that most people would lose about 1 minute as they are likely to use only a section of the M50, that still equates to 8 hours extra used up in a persons life annually.

Also, on a quiet motorway at night time with very little traffic, are you saying that I'm more likely to be involved in an RTA on every other M-road (with a 120 km/h speed limit) apart from the M50? Night time RTA's on motorways are very very infrequent. I checked some data from the RSA and it would suggest that collisions on roads with a 100 km/h limit are FAR more numerous than those with 120 km/h limits. As the vast majority of roads in Ireland with a speed limit of 120 km/h are motorways, it would be reasonable to assume that the figures shown in the table referencing collisions at 120km/h are regarding motorways except for the M50. The data below is for the years 2008 - 2012. The M50 upgrade project was completed in 2010 so it would be part of the dataset referenced here.

@kirving & @bk , you're both missing my point. My comments about having a 120 km/h limit on suitable sections of the M50 are only in relation to when the road is quiet/with low amounts of traffic. I've made that clear. Please don't keep going on about complex and stressful situations that would apply when traffic volumes are not low.

WTF has this got to do with traffic lights?