Sometimes a traffic light that you know very well seems to have a Windows
moment and will inexplicably remain on red for ages. If you are in a one-way
road and a traffic light breaks down showing red, you can't back out out of
it and so would have to go through it eventually. Does the law say anything
about how long a traffic light has to stay on red before you are allowed to
go through it? Or are you legally required to sit there for days with the
cars behind beeping at you until an engineer fixes it?

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.

The traffic lights at Cricklewood Lane / Claremont Road are a particular
conundrum, because they only allow about 4 vehicles to emerge from busy
Cricklewood Lane before quiet Claremont Road has a full minute of green
phase. This has the effect of punishing traffic which sticks to the main
Cricklewood Lane, and rewarding traffic which rat-runs down The Vale and
Claremont Road or Minster Road and Lichfield Road.

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 - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes