Annabel Smyth wrote:

thoss wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 11 Oct 2004:

In article , Boltar
writes
Who are the idiots who program traffic lights these days? I tend to
drive quite a lot late at nights when the traffic is quiet and the
amount of times I'm stuck behind a red light for 2 minutes when there is
zero traffic coming in from the other direction (and there was no
traffic even before the light went red). Not only does this waste fuel,
cause extra pollution and waste peoples time but its VERY irritating. A
good example is the lights on Purley Way in Croydon where the A23 runs
through a deserted (at night) retail area and there are about 5 sets of
braindead lights showing green to the feeder roads of large closed
stores. But they're everywhere it seems in London. Is this done on
purpose just to slow traffic

Isn't the real question "what idiot allowed traffic lights to be
installed without the accompanying metal detectors"?

Yes. That's Ken Livingstone's policy.

Are you sure about that? I thought the trafficslowing effects of his
policy were due to a combination of giving pedestrians more time to
cross, using the wrong kind of buses, and sometimes keeping the phases
very short to prevent jams forming at the next set of lights along. Is
there really more to it than that?

The maddening thing is it seems to be just South of the River. Last
night, unusually, we had occasion to drive out of London to the M4 and
beyond. The major hold-ups were at the lights South of the River - once
we crossed Chelsea Bridge our journey (via South Kensington, reaching
the A4 at Gloucester Road) was very quick indeed, and we arrived at our
destination a good 30 minutes earlier than we thought.

I think that's mainly to do with the positions and capacity of the
bridges - IIRC Chelsea Bridge usually produces long tailbacks in both
directions.

What does Ken Livingstone have against South Londoners?

Am I right in thinking the mayor's completely lost popular support?