"John Rowland" wrote in message
...

SNIP
I have noticed that a number of traffic lights have long phases late at
night. Long phases at busy junctions during rush hour increase capacity by
removing the dead time when nothing is moving, but long phases late at
night
are pointless. There are some traffic lights in Harrow town centre which
remain red for up to four minutes late at night, while approximately one
vehicle per minute passes in the other direction. Is this design or
incompetence? Maybe it is supposed to deter vehicles from going through
Harrow centre - but it also delays buses, and increases taxi fares by two
pounds.

SNIP

Why doesn't Britain extend the "flashing amber" signal from meaning "you
can
go if no pedestrians are crossing" to also mean "you can go if no cars are
crossing"? This could then be used on numerous traffic lights late at
night.
It would also improve safety on roundabouts which currently have the
traffic
lights switched off outside the peak - at the moment there is no way of
telling whether the traffic light is switched off or the red bulb is
blown.

Why has Britain never copied the Japanese idea of having a digital
countdown
above traffic lights? Surely it would increase capacity, and also give
drivers free time to have drinks or change CDs instead of staring at the
red
light.

--
John Rowland

Oh how I agree with you !!!! Nothing more annoying than being stopped for
several minutes in the early hours of the morning by a red light when you
can see quite clearly that there isn't another vehicle on the road for
miles.
Cheerz,
Baz