Siamese twin traffic lights in Walthamstow
 

Traffic from Edmonton reaching the Crooked Billet Roundabout is greeted by
two adjacent sets of lights on a single pole.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...8. 67,,2,2.91
Both sets work in sync, both face the same way and none of the lights is a
filter arrow.

Traffic from Gants Hill gets the same thing on the other side of the
roundabout, although there seems to be a noticeable angle between this
pair...
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...96. 06,,0,6.8

What's that about? I've never noticed it anywhere else.

Siamese twin traffic lights in Walthamstow
 

John Rowland wrote:
Traffic from Edmonton reaching the Crooked Billet Roundabout is greeted by
two adjacent sets of lights on a single pole.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...8. 67,,2,2.91
Both sets work in sync, both face the same way and none of the lights is a
filter arrow.

Traffic from Gants Hill gets the same thing on the other side of the
roundabout, although there seems to be a noticeable angle between this
pair...
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...96. 06,,0,6.8

What's that about? I've never noticed it anywhere else.



Well in the second picture they are point in two directions, perhaps
because of sight lines.

--

Tony Dragon

Siamese twin traffic lights in Walthamstow
 

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
Traffic from Edmonton reaching the Crooked Billet Roundabout is greeted by
two adjacent sets of lights on a single pole.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...8. 67,,2,2.91
Both sets work in sync, both face the same way and none of the lights is a
filter arrow.

Traffic from Gants Hill gets the same thing on the other side of the
roundabout, although there seems to be a noticeable angle between this
pair...
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&so...96. 06,,0,6.8

What's that about? I've never noticed it anywhere else.

All the lights at those junctions appear to be duplicated, although the stop
line lights are in the more usual high and low combination, to give better
long distance visibility. I suspect it could be because of the width of the
approach road, it is felt that two red lights give better visibility than
one. It may also be to ensure that a single lamp failure does not leave the
junction without a repeater light.

Colin Bignell

Siamese twin traffic lights in Walthamstow
 

Paul Corfield wrote:

The Billet roundabout is bloody horrible anyway - it was awful without
lights and not much better with them!


I would submit that the Great Cambridge Junction (where the A10, A111
and A406) has been made much, much worse.

Conveniently, "Bing" is still showing the old layout on their aerial
view, whilst Google show the new layout.

If you plonk "N18 1ND" into the searches on http://local.live.com/ and
Google Maps, then go to Aerial View, turn labels off and zoom in so the
scale is 100 yards on "bing" and 200ft / 50m on Google Maps you can see
the difference.

Starting from the right-hand side:

The left-hand lane of Silver Street (entering towards the middle of the
frame) is now a bus lane, with a banned left turn onto the A406
Eastbound at the traffic lights, forcing any traffic wanting to join the
A406(E) to proceed across the lights, and all the way round the
roundabout. (Not that that stops people from making an illegal left turn
anyway, usually in front of a bus).

Every sliproad onto the roundabout now has traffic lights, two sets in
the cases of the A10(N), A406(E) and A406(W) due to the additional roads
before the roundabout on these approaches, with further lights on the
roundabout itself before each on slip. These are phased in such a way
that too much traffic builds up in the "holding area" before the
roundabout, which results in long waits most of the time.

The A111 (Hedge Lane), which comes off of the A10 (Great Cambridge Road)
Northbound at an approximate 45 degree angle, has been converted from
two way traffic between the junction with the A10 and Taplow Road (the
road linking Hedge Lane and the A406 East) to one way, as has Taplow
Road itself, so traffic heading from the A111 onto the A10 (North) and
from the A406 (East) to the A111 (North West) or A10 (North) has to go
round the roundabout.

All of these changes have resulted in the junction becoming unusable for
much of the day, unless you want to go straight through the underpass on
the A406.

And don't even get me started on the chaos that ensues when the
underpass is closed, which results in TfL Streets denying that there's
no warning of the closure. (First warning sign being located *after* the
last possible point at which you can exit the A406 before the roundabout!)

Cheers,

Barry

Siamese twin traffic lights in Walthamstow
 

Barry Salter wrote:

The left-hand lane of Silver Street (entering towards the middle of
the frame) is now a bus lane, with a banned left turn onto the A406
Eastbound at the traffic lights, forcing any traffic wanting to join
the A406(E) to proceed across the lights, and all the way round the
roundabout. (Not that that stops people from making an illegal left
turn anyway, usually in front of a bus).

Are you absolutely sure that banned left turn is a new thing? I recall it
being put in when the underpass was built, to stop people going from from
the A10 s/b to the A406 e/b using Kendal Parade to bypass the roundabout.

The A111 (Hedge Lane), which comes off of the A10 (Great Cambridge
Road) Northbound at an approximate 45 degree angle, has been
converted from two way traffic between the junction with the A10 and
Taplow Road (the
road linking Hedge Lane and the A406 East) to one way, as has Taplow
Road itself, so traffic heading from the A111 onto the A10 (North) and
from the A406 (East) to the A111 (North West) or A10 (North) has to go
round the roundabout.

....although there would be very little traffic doing those turns anyway.

Siamese twin traffic lights in Walthamstow
 

John Rowland wrote:
Barry Salter wrote:
The left-hand lane of Silver Street (entering towards the middle of
the frame) is now a bus lane, with a banned left turn onto the A406
Eastbound at the traffic lights, forcing any traffic wanting to join
the A406(E) to proceed across the lights, and all the way round the
roundabout. (Not that that stops people from making an illegal left
turn anyway, usually in front of a bus).

Are you absolutely sure that banned left turn is a new thing? I recall it
being put in when the underpass was built, to stop people going from from
the A10 s/b to the A406 e/b using Kendal Parade to bypass the roundabout.

The banned turn was brought in, with the bus lane at that end of Silver
Street, in April 2004ish. Of course, having *said* that, anyone with a
bit of local knowledge would drive to the *other* end of Silver Street
and pick up the A406 e/b there.

I will, however, agree that there *is* a (similarly frequently ignored)
"Local traffic" sign for Kendal Parade on the A406 s/b.

Talking of which reminds me that Cheapside (almost opposite Kendal
Parade on the other side of the A10, linking Taplow Road and Hedge Lane)
is explicitly One Way as well...Not that that stops people from entering
from the Hedge Lane end, mind you.

Cheers,

Barry

Siamese twin traffic lights in Walthamstow
 

On Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:48:11 +0100
Barry Salter wrote:


Paul Corfield wrote:

The Billet roundabout is bloody horrible anyway - it was awful without
lights and not much better with them!


I would submit that the Great Cambridge Junction (where the A10, A111
and A406) has been made much, much worse.

Its always been pretty bad dowm there. Just to get onto the roundabout itself
from the A111 you have to go through 3 sets of lights. To get onto the A406
eastbound you can add another set plus a pedestrian crossing and if you're
insane enough to want to get onto the westbound then you're looking at 6 sets
of lights in the space of 200 metres. Whoever designed that roundabout should
be nominated for the ****wit of the Decade award.

B2003