Traffic Lights – Sequence Timing

I've been told that you cannot get a ticket for going through temporary traffic lights on red. Anyone know more about this?

Very observing BMMF. I spoke to a GLA consultant about a year ago and he mentioned that this is one of BJ his plans to reduce congestion. During the Livingston years pedestrians got more time to cross and lights stayed longer red in order to make it less appealing to drive into town and encourage people to use public transport etc.
Boris Johnson & Co realised this and saw an excellent opportunity to ease congestion without excessive costs.
Boris calls this 'smoothing the flow' we don't know how many lights have been changed or by how much. Their computer models are unable to deal with cyclists or motorcyclists so our needs are ignored. The basic concept is bollocks, increasing the green time for motor traffic will only increase the number of cars on the road making congestion worse. 'Smoothing the Flow' aka 'Swelling the Flood'.

I have noticed that you tend to end up with more cars stuck in junction boxes (where they are not meant to go if of the yellow hashed variety)

its such a shame that we were forced to choose between that cunt ken and that cock boris

It's incredibly dangerous, compounded by the impatience of many road users.

Help us, oh-be-Schick, you're our only hope...
The law says you should give way to traffic already on the junction, even if the lights have turned to green. The worst case is when you are turning right and are blocked by the other amber gamblers coming the other way..
oh-be-Schick is on a train, going away for christmas.

It's not just cyclists that have to worry. I remember when Boris started this there were a few stories in the papers about small children/old people getting caught out halfway across the road when the traffic starts moving. Some stop lines were moved forwards, and combined with shorter gaps between the red man coming on for peds and the green light for traffic, this results in a much more efficient driving experience, and a much more exciting life for peds.

oh-be-Schick is on a train, being put away for christmas.

About time too. He's been outrunning the fashion police for too long

The law says you should give way to traffic already on the junction, even if the lights have turned to green. The worst case is when you are turning right and are blocked by the other amber gamblers coming the other way..
oh-be-Schick is on a train, going away for christmas.

Get on it then, Charlie. Everyone knows you're the one that gets things done anyway.

how to make friends and influence people.

Tommy is absolutely on the button, as ever.

It brings to mind Ken having all the traffic lights re-timed on the day that the congestion charge started so that he could have some good figures for PR purposes.

Which was a pack of bullshit made up by someone.

Signal timings are ultimately the responsibility of the highway authority for the junction, but are usually worked up by the Department of Traffic Operations, a section of TfL. They apply lots of complex maths and statistical / flow analysis / modelling to provide the optimum timings based on the relationship to the other nearby junctions / streets etc.

They are reviewed on a constant rolling program - all this talk of Boris "I'm going to review all traffic lights in London" is just BS, that's what the DTO do anyway on a day-to day basis.

If you think the timings / phases need to be altered, get in touch with the relevant highway authority - thats the Local Borough, unless it's a Red Route then it's TfL.

Sometimes it can be a fault that has gone unnoticed - a lot of key junctions are linked up to something called SCOOT, which is a type of Urban Traffic Control or UTC - this is where signals are linked by computer and will adjust their timings in real time according to traffic conditions - SCOOT relies on induction loops buried in the road surface (you may have noticed these showing through when the road surface is worn) and if they are faulty of miscommunicating it can fuck things up.

Best thing to do is contact TfL street faults on 0845 305 1234 or londonstreets@tfl.gov.uk to check it's not a fault first.

If it's not, then go to the highway authority and get them to check it out.

Thanks.

With regard to green ped aspect timings, these are, generally speaking, dictated by the width of the crossing, according to DfT minimum standards.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roads/tpm/ltnotes/esignofpedestriancrossin4034.pdf

I've emailed TFL and Camden Council, BTW.

Thanks, Charlie and dommyracer. Squeezing additional motor traffic capacity out of junctions is a favourite game of traffic engineers and, as Charlie said, one of the most self-defeating pursuits known to man. I haven't noticed changes to the junction BMMF describes, but signal timings in that area have always been tight. There are plenty of phases you can reduce in favour of people driving their spare sofas around--the pedestrian phases, the intergreen timings, the timings for side roads, etc. It's an extremely retrograde step. 'Smoothing the Flow' is essentially a combination of two separate techniques: SCOOT and Pedestrian Countdown, and as dommyracer said, there's a bit of hot air about stuff that's going on, anyway, and has done since before the days of Ken. Some of it is new--new stuff gets trialled all the time.

The Mayor should of course commit to motor traffic reduction. Currently, the rule, though, is to maintain motor traffic capacity in new TfL schemes.