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@Oliver Schick may know more about the Ken Livingstone's era more, the peds timing are more consistent, but they're shorter than most of the crossing that was previously long enough for says, an elderly to comfortably walk across without the light changing halfway through.

Ped clearance times haven't changed.

The green man is the invitation to cross it's not the time you have to cross the road, that comes afterwards (whether it's a blackout/flashing green man/the mysterious void at puffins).

It's important to remember that Puffin rhymes with Muffin

We know you love muffins. Very biased.

let's not let facts cloud our judgement, tibber...

You know what work better in the past? messing up the traffic flow encouraging people to take public transport, walk or cycle.

That went well until Boris decided to fix it to "smooth traffic flow".

Well, it's hard to respond to all of this without multi-quoting. :)

I certainly don't want to jump on Ed when he refers to 'smoothing the flow' in a critical way, but its effect as a policy is pretty hard to grasp. In essence it's something very simple, and an attempt towards fulfilling the unfulfilled dreams of highway engineering--optimal usage of available highway capacity, largely by means of 'intelligent' (i.e., cleverly programmed) signal control systems. The concept itself, of course, is not new--the LCC did an interview with the then Traffic Director for London, Derek Turner, in 1995 in which he used the expression. In London recently, this has mainly been attempted to be put into practice using things like SCOOT and 'pedestrian countdown'.

I'm certainly not familiar with every detail of how traffic signal phasing may have changed.

What we have heard, mostly anecdotally, is that at numerous locations where 'pedestrian countdown' has been implemented, the time during which the green man has been displayed to pedestrians has been shortened and part or all of this time transferred to the 'countdown' time. This has in most cases made much shorter 'intergreen' times (it should be self-explanatory what they are) possible, and non-'All Green Pedestrian Phase' (green man for pedestrians across all arms of a junction) timings have been changed as a result. However, as I say, this is only anecdotal and may not be correct. We don't normally have to go into this kind of detail when discussing traffic schemes. SCOOT does various other things to do with signals 'optimisation', too.

In the end, 'smoothing the traffic flow' is essentially self-defeating, as its entire effect is a mild form of induced demand.

I'd say in terms of crossing timing peds have got it better now. Ped-Xs

Do you mean All Green Pedestrian Phases or are you talking about crossings away from junctions?

puffins that, well no one aprt from the DfT knew what they were about.

They are thought to have various advantages--there was a video a while back in which someone explained the reasoning. I can't seem to find it right now. I might find it later, pretty sure it was posted on here.

^The first bit of that is a fair understanding. The second half needs clarification.
The countdown is part of the intergreen, if time has been transfered from the green invitation to the countdown then the intergreens logically cannot be going down or at the very least at the result of this.

I can reassure you pedestrian to vehicle intergreens (or the other way round) have not been reduced and certainly not as part of a policy.

The countdown is part of the intergreen, if time has been transfered from the green invitation to the countdown then the intergreens logically cannot be going down or at the very least at the result of this.

Fair enough, I didn't know that 'intergreen' and 'countdown' weren't treated as separate concepts.

I can reassure you pedestrian to vehicle intergreens (or the other way round) have not been reduced and certainly not as part of a policy.

Yes, following the conceptual clarification, what we've heard is that the 'green invitation' phase had been shortened, and by consequence the overall phase for pedestrians. As I said, it's anecdotal and may not be correct. Also, where optimisation might mean that pedestrian times should be increased, that is, of course, also a possible consequence.

It's immigrants anyway, they're causing the congestion, let's not lose focus on the real issue here. Going about delivering yams and weaves in their tipper trucks.

There are no traffic lights on the M4.

Next >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There are certainly Germans on bikes though.

Only if they're doped.

Amazon is going to save the bike courier industry, sort of in NYC. Insta delivery.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-tests-bike-messengers-for-one-hour-delivery-in-new-york-city-1418071863?tesla=y&mod=djkeyword&mg=reno64-wsj

chemtrails o clock: twitter now being accused of censoring #cameronmustgo hashtag.

When the congestion charge came in, the traffic drop was greater than expected and the knock on was lower than expected revenues.

and...?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/08/prince-william-attacks-wildlife-trade-corruption-new-york-us-tour

royals lecturing us on the killing of animals ....

how was the balmoral shoot this year your inbredness ? how was your nazi grandfathers trip to south africa to shoot game ?

please do tell
don't they say charity begins at home

the royal family is in New York? this'll really put it on the map!

i thought fergie did that a decade ago ... or were you talking about the royal family

Ed's right. Red Ken destroyed the traffic flow in many parts of the city prior to the Congestion Charge. I lived in Bermondsey at the time and prior to Red's antics the traffic flowed smoothly and predictably, once he got his hands on the light sequencing, closed lots of back streets, made roads one way, it all went to pot pretty quickly

Red Ken destroyed the traffic flow in many parts of the city

That's good isn't it? Disrupting traffic flow ie smoothness of travel for people in cars, making it harder to drive is one of the things that will get people out their cars. Cyclists traffic flow is improved, especially with bus lane enforcement and the ability to filter through the closed (to motors) streets. Bus lanes help to ensure bus traffic flow. The next phase in making it harder to drive is less likely to happen, making driving much much more expensive, fuel escalator, VED hike etc and even banning some vehicles like the french are doing.
(oh and it's drive to work day on Thursday)

I'm not sure 'good' is the right word. As a motorist and a cyclist I don't like to see this division of us and them. As a car driver, when I do drive which is only at the weekends, I like to be able to get where I am going without sitting in traffic for hours on end going nowhere. That helps no one.
It is the complete reliance people seem to have on their cars which needs to be targeted and I don't think making driving more difficult will necessarily put a stop to that. Especially with public transport costs going up each year. Single occupancy cars should be banned, and for me the biggest culprits are people driving their kids the 1 mile or less to school. I thought the whole idea of going to a school was to go to one near you, in your catchement area. So why the fuck are you driving there? That's where I would start anyway

I like to be able to get where I am going without sitting in traffic for hours on end going nowhere

So say most drivers and when they do end up sitting in 'traffic' they feel others are to blame for the traffic.

Single occupancy cars should be banned,

And according to DfT modeling it's exactly single occupancy cars that a predicted to increase which is why they need more roads #unbuckleingbelttotackleobesity

the biggest culprits are people driving their kids the 1 mile or less to school.

The majority of car trips in the UK are around 2-3 miles. why single out school runners?

I really think that (as we have learned from Stevenage -ask @fox or @skülly ) even if the best ever provision for cycling is created people will drive. Hit their pockets and they may consider not driving