Is it time to get rid of traffic lights?

[Guest MattP]

Does it factor in the number of roads where the traffic is at an absolute standstill due to roadworks and inner city gridlock?

If you can find a better reference point for road safety by country I'm all ears.

[Guest MattP]

I don't know about 'ain't broke'. Less broke, maybe. The best part of 3000 deaths a year strikes me as a lot of people - if that many folk were dying in plane crashes you'd never hear the end of it. What this bloke proposes may or may not be the answer, but I think we should be looking for one

When you have 35million people on the road every day driving at 70-80mph I think 3,000 is an outstandingly low figure.

Planes are controlled and driven by experts, we can't afford the same luxury in cars unless you want to make a test so hard most of the country wouldn't be able to complete it.

[Daggers]

What's 80mph got to do with anything? It's not the going fast, it's the stopping.

[Bellend Sebastian]

35 million people travelling at motorway speeds every day?

When you have 35million people on the road every day driving at 70-80mph I think 3,000 is an outstandingly low figure.

Planes are controlled and driven by experts, we can't afford the same luxury in cars unless you want to make a test so hard most of the country wouldn't be able to complete it.

Why should any of them get killed? We seem very relaxed, as a nation, about this level of attrition

[Guest MattP]

What's 80mph got to do with anything? It's not the going fast, it's the stopping.

Exactly, the higher the speed the longer it takes to stop. Get a lorry pull out in front of you on the Motorway at 80 and you far more likely to be fcuked than on a side road going at 25.

35 million people travelling at motorway speeds every day?

Why should any of them get killed? We seem very relaxed, as a nation, about this level of attrition

Maybe not 35million then but a considerable amount, I think people just take it as it happening now, I mean what else can you do, I suppose you could limit the whole country to 30mph but people wouldnt stand for that, remove the limit like the Germans do on the bahn? Have a higher death rate than us so that doesnt work.

I suppose to get a proper look you would need to see the causes of those 3,000 and see what the main problems are, fact is though when you have people travelling at speed at close distances accidents are going to happen and you can have a radar or air traffic control unit for Automobiles.

[davieG]

There may not be an argument to get rid of all of them but there's certainly evidence that they're not always the right solution and there's definitely an argument for turning them off at night in lots of locations.

[Gold Coast Fox]

Aren't you told to wear goggles when playing conkers here?

I can't see the government getting rid of traffic lights any time soon.

[David the Caveman]

Being among the best in the world is not good enough on foxestalk remember. There should be no deaths, of any kind. Ever. It's perfectly reasonable to expect flawless perfection in everything that other people do. So the highways agency haven't figured out a way to remove human error from the roads? Why exact not? Clearly not good enough. The system isn't working. It's time for radical change!

[Rincewind]

It's not the traffic lights but the number of them. Having three or four sets of lights on a stretch of road with no junctions may not always be needed. I don't drive but as a passenger in cars and buses I know how much it holds traffic up and causes queues. But I suppose if you are a driver wanting to turn from a side street in to an ever flowing stream of traffic you would not to want to wait 15-30 minutes for a driver to let you in.

[Daggers]

Considering everyone else on the roads seems to be a total willy puller I'd vote for any measure to increase the death tolls.

Ban lights? I'd ban speed limits, MOTs, road tax, insurance and make it compulsory that every vehicle should look like it has featured in a Mad Max movie.

Each driver should be rewarded financially for every life they take - double if the victim was an MP, estate agent, traffic warden, cat lover, banker, Daily Mail reader or Royalist.

[davieG]

I drove from Glenfield to Oadby and back this morning and had to stop at 3 Pelican crossings (light controlled) on two of them there wasn't a pedestrian in sight they were long gone having got fed up with waiting I suspect and crossed when the road was clear a total waste of time, fuel and polluting the atmosphere unnecessarily.

[Carl the Llama]

Considering everyone else on the roads seems to be a total willy puller I'd vote for any measure to increase the death tolls.

Ban lights? I'd ban speed limits, MOTs, road tax, insurance and make it compulsory that every vehicle should look like it has featured in a Mad Max movie.

Each driver should be rewarded financially for every life they take - double if the victim was an MP, estate agent, traffic warden, cat lover, banker, Daily Mail reader or Royalist.

Death Race Croydon.

[danny.]

They definitely need turning off after say 10pm. Completely pointless at night.

[Guest]

Planes are controlled and driven by experts, we can't afford the same luxury in cars unless you want to make a test so hard most of the country wouldn't be able to complete it.

I would welcome such a move, however given the amount of revenue cars generate for the Government in the form of VAT and taxes, it's never going to happen, and brain-dead morons will be encouraged to drive their oversized, overpriced Chelsea Tractors for all but the extremely shortest of journeys.

[Captain...]

There's nothing wrong with foreign traffic regs....

The KFC Family bucket means something else out there.

Back on topic, I think there is certainly evidence to prove that traffic lights can cause more delays, but shoud being delayed be sacrificed in place of safety?

In European countries it is often legal to turn right (what would be left over here), if it is safe to do so even on a red light, I also understand the argument about turning them off at night, especially at round-a-bouts, they should only be needed at round-a-bouts when it is busy and people are unable to pull onto the round-a-bout safely.

the comparison with Asian traffic and safety rates is unfair, the amount of small vehicles on the road in asia means that what would be a minor collision here could result in a number of fatalities over there.

I think the article has a lot of good points, and we should look into it, has anyone driven along the A6 between Loughborough and Leicester recently, there is a nonsense of traffic lights round there, including a bus lane with its own traffic lights, or Belgrave road and Abbey Road, how many sets of lights are there.

I would certainly support a look at reducing the number of lights and proposals to switch them off at night, or more pelican crossings for pedestrians rather than full on traffic lights, but not at the expense of safety.

[James.]

the comparison with Asian traffic and safety rates is unfair, the amount of small vehicles on the road in asia means that what would be a minor collision here could result in a number of fatalities over there.

What I was saying was that even though the roads are complete bedlam in India I rarely if ever saw any incidents. Admittedly that proves absolutely nothing. However anecdotally speaking just because you don't have traffic lights or any particular road laws at all doesn't necessarily mean everyone starts dying.

I think the article has a lot of good points, and we should look into it, has anyone driven along the A6 between Loughborough and Leicester recently, there is a nonsense of traffic lights round there, including a bus lane with its own traffic lights

Coming in to Birstall right? Seems completely over the top. Lived round there for years with no traffic lights and I don't recall there being shitloads of accidents at all...

[Captain...]

What I was saying was that even though the roads are complete bedlam in India I rarely if ever saw any incidents. Admittedly that proves absolutely nothing. However anecdotally speaking just because you don't have traffic lights or any particular road laws at all doesn't necessarily mean everyone starts dying.

Coming in to Birstall right? Seems completely over the top. Lived round there for years with no traffic lights and I don't recall there being shitloads of accidents at all...

I didn't see any accidents out there either, I was referring more to their safety record, and number deaths on the roads compared to over here.

Thems the ones, coming into Birstall from Loughborough, I think it is partly to do with the new housing development and the park and ride amongst other things but it is just complete overkill.

[Bellend Sebastian]

Being among the best in the world is not good enough on foxestalk remember. There should be no deaths, of any kind. Ever. It's perfectly reasonable to expect flawless perfection in everything that other people do. So the highways agency haven't figured out a way to remove human error from the roads? Why exact not? Clearly not good enough. The system isn't working. It's time for radical change!

Whenever I run over and kill people in my car I always make a point of telling their loved ones that Britain's roads are actually some of the safest in the world, and invariably they take great comfort from that

[stez]

[they] can get rid of traffic lights on roundabouts, they're annoying.

[Mike the Metal Ed]

I agree with people who say they should be turned off from midnight til 5 or 6 AM. When I owned a car, the amount of time I had to stop in the centre of Leicester to wait for nothing to pass was ridiculous.

[Guest]

Getting rid of traffic lights at roundabouts would be great if people actually knew how to use them.

[stez]

that's the trouble, since they started using them, a lot, roundabout etiquette has gone out of the window. the thurmaston roundabout is ridiculous; one knows every set will stop one, unless you razz it up to the next set.

[David the Caveman]

Whenever I run over and kill people in my car I always make a point of telling their loved ones that Britain's roads are actually some of the safest in the world, and invariably they take great comfort from that

So what's your plan for the absolute removal of any human error on the road then? Seems quite the impossible task to me. I think I'm just going to take the glass half full stance and decide that having the safest roads in the world is, in fact, a good thing.

[Captain...]

So what's your plan for the absolute removal of any human error on the road then? Seems quite the impossible task to me. I think I'm just going to take the glass half full stance and decide that having the safest roads in the world is, in fact, a good thing.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking to improve on that, accidents and lapses in concentration can be caused by being late and by getting frustrated at having to wait in a queue because all of those "stupid, bastard, cvnting lights" as my dad calls them. Unnecessary traffic lights are a source of frustration and delays and in that way can contribute to accidents, they also encourage people to race to beat the lights. If, as the article says, removing some traffic lights can ease congestion at no added risk to safety then it should be looked into.

Of course removing all lights would be a big mistake, but we could certainly look at removing unnecessary lights, switching some lights off during non peak times and allowing turning left when it is safe.

One option could be to change the meaning of the red and green light, green light means you have right of way, red light acts like a stop sign, you don't have right of way and you have to stop, but if it is clear and safe to do so you can go.

[Guest]

If you want to stop RTA's, get rid of vehicles. Simples.