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Following on from the pedestrian crossing question,
Generally, traffic lights sequence so that once a light turns to red there's a couple of seconds' delay before the adjoining road turns red-amber (which seems imminently sensible to me).
However, I've noticed on a number of lights stationed on roundabouts that this delay isn't present; the lights go red and red-amber simultaneously. It seems to be exclusively roundabouts that are set up like this, I don't recall offhand ever seeing it on a regular junction.
What gives? Is saving a second in getting traffic moving worth the added risk which mush be inherent in doing it like this? All it would take is for one driver to set off briskly and another booting it trying to 'beat' the lights, and it's going to be messy.
And more pertinent to us of course is that it doesn't give slower traffic time to vacate the junction. At a set only the other day, if I hadn't checked back round the roundabout as I pulled away and blindly trusted that green = go instead, I would have driven straight over the cyclist chancing his arm on a late amber. (I always check regardless just in case, but I suspect that not everyone does.)
I nearly got caught out on one on my commute. It's also a roundabout - at the bottom of a slip road. It's also a route to school for a lot of kids. Very dodgy.
I think even with lights the normal 'give way to the right' rule of roundabouts still apply?
Having no delay probably lets them clear an extra 10.1 vehicles an houtr throught the junction or something.
perhaps because you can see the car and you cannot generally at a junction?
Never noticed it tbh
I have noticed that they never switch them off so that even at 3 am in the morning you need to stop on a deserted roundabout
Dullest thread ever
[i]Dullest thread ever[/i]
^^
Dullest post ever?
I've done worse
Dullest thread ever
And yet here you are, choosing to read it and choosing to comment. What does this tell us, boys and girls?
And checking back to see if there was a reaction...
Is there a delay on the reaction?
I remember when I first moved to Edinburgh from Glasgow that the Edinburgh Traffic lights changed more rapidly than the ones in Glasgow, I have noticed this difference in other towns too. I also believe that the sequencing of lights these days changes for different times of day to allow for the prevailling traffic patterns, although this may be entirely in my imagination...
PS after the BBC article last week have you spotted anyone else at the crossings reaching for the wee spinning thing?
*is amused
Somebody had to roll in being a tool, and I had nothing on.
In Wolverhampton the lights are purely advisory
Red means ease off but otherwise carry on if nothing's coming. No tax, no MOT, no insurance, no licence - why bother with lights?
[i]I had nothing on. [/i]
go and get dressed and then come back and try again.
I don't think it is anything to do with no delays - it's drivers ignoring amber (or even 'just turned red') lights.
the lights go red and red-amber simultaneously.
Seems sensible to me - perhaps if all lights were set up like this then we'd get less people speeding up when they see amber to (illegally) [i]"beat the lights"[/i]?
Sure, but some consistency might be sensible, unless you're trying to deliberately cause accidents?
I guess on a roundabout with lights the risk from the other traffic streams is a bit less if someone jumps the lights, because the traffic is more-or-less going one way and there is already a "user-understanding" about what happens at roundabouts without lights.
Whereas most junctions have traffic travelling through in multiple directions and many drivers would be completely lost without lights.
I was told these light infested things are not (i.e. no longer)roundabouts, but instead now a sequence of quite seperate junctions.
Hence why you are suppoosed to choose lanes at each set and filter over to the left as appropriate.
Worked better as roundabouts (mostly) imho.
What gives? Is saving a second in getting traffic moving worth the added risk which mush be inherent in doing it like this? All it would take is for one driver to set off briskly and another booting it trying to 'beat' the lights, and it's going to be messy.
Your entering a roundabout, so dont you still have to give way to traffic already on it? whether they jumped a light or not.