Not only for drivers (From York Press)

Seems to me I've heard this song before?

Hepblather

Here we go again!!!
Give it a rest PP/PH

Our own village idiot boring on and on again, the same old c r a p.

sheps lad wrote:
Seems to me I've heard this song before?

That's true, but by the same token we've all heard the "traffic flows better when the lights are out" nonsense just as much.

It is Hepblather (TM) but he's right on this point.

last night at 11.30pm ish as I was approaching the lights on Blossom Street they turned red when I was about 30m away
( no problem with that if someone wants to cross the road or cars waiting at the other junctions )

Nobody crossed the road, no other vehicles crossed the junction and the lights did a full daytime cycle !
that's the technology that drives computer-based traffic signals.

That's intelligent

The best thing is, he won't comment on this letter. In either of his guises.

The Great Buda wrote:
The best thing is, he won't comment on this letter. In either of his guises.

Oh no ,what's my doppelgänger been up to now?
Given ichabod76's comments, perhaps we should be asking whether York has the latest version of this technology and whether there are any gaps in the current provision.

I agree 100% with the letter. The lights on Heworth Green are a complete waste of time and money.

And I also agree with the post above. Perhaps we should be asking to turn off the lights during quiet periods of the day.

As I said to PP on an earlier article when SCOOT was mentioned, and I shall repeat it again "Either SCOOT has not been installed for York's traffic lights or it has been installed by a bunch of morons".

My example comes from Monk Bar junction, any time after 10pm... you can approach it from any direction except St Maurices Road and the lights either are on red or they go to red as you approach. You then sit there for ages whilst nothing comes, the lights then switch to Monk Bar whilst nothing comes from there, and then if you're on a bike they go back to St Maurices Road as the sensors don't work, or if in a car you are finally given the chance to go. So what about from St Maurices Road? well if you enter the road from Peasholme Green the lights are on green at the Monk Bar junction for you, but as you approach they go red.

Also if SCOOT was installed properly you wouldn't have the 'red wave' situation whereby you come from Gillygate after waiting at a red light, only to see the lights at Museum Street just go red as you approach them, so when you finally get a green there the lights at the bottom of Lendal Bridge go red - and then as you go by the train station not just one but BOTH crossings go to red lights, normally aggrivated by pedestrians crossing on red man which then delays road vehicles being given a green light.

As for Heworth green's hooded lights, that junction does not need traffic lights. A roundabout would suffice, as it would for the next junction along the proposed link road at Layerthorpe. On Heworth Green there are traffic islands just a few yards either way from the junction, the one near St Johns Close (or whatever it's called, the new houses) could become a zebra crossing and everything would be self-regulating. And then if there were a roundabout there we could then build a complete barrier along the center of Heworth Green right from Mill Lane to the roundabout to prevent people making dangerous illegal U-turns just so they can 'turn right' from Mill Lane.

Magicman! wrote:
As I said to PP on an earlier article when SCOOT was mentioned, and I shall repeat it again "Either SCOOT has not been installed for York's traffic lights or it has been installed by a bunch of morons".

My example comes from Monk Bar junction, any time after 10pm... you can approach it from any direction except St Maurices Road and the lights either are on red or they go to red as you approach. You then sit there for ages whilst nothing comes, the lights then switch to Monk Bar whilst nothing comes from there, and then if you're on a bike they go back to St Maurices Road as the sensors don't work, or if in a car you are finally given the chance to go. So what about from St Maurices Road? well if you enter the road from Peasholme Green the lights are on green at the Monk Bar junction for you, but as you approach they go red.

Also if SCOOT was installed properly you wouldn't have the 'red wave' situation whereby you come from Gillygate after waiting at a red light, only to see the lights at Museum Street just go red as you approach them, so when you finally get a green there the lights at the bottom of Lendal Bridge go red - and then as you go by the train station not just one but BOTH crossings go to red lights, normally aggrivated by pedestrians crossing on red man which then delays road vehicles being given a green light.

As for Heworth green's hooded lights, that junction does not need traffic lights. A roundabout would suffice, as it would for the next junction along the proposed link road at Layerthorpe. On Heworth Green there are traffic islands just a few yards either way from the junction, the one near St Johns Close (or whatever it's called, the new houses) could become a zebra crossing and everything would be self-regulating. And then if there were a roundabout there we could then build a complete barrier along the center of Heworth Green right from Mill Lane to the roundabout to prevent people making dangerous illegal U-turns just so they can 'turn right' from Mill Lane.

Moron: a common insult used to indicate one who is stupid. When your sober Magiciman, read your post again.

I still can’t believe that some people have not noticed that all of York’s traffic lights work against road users all the time. It is more noticeable when there is less traffic so some who only travel at peak may not have noticed the fact that the light change to red as you approach them or stay at red as you approach if they are red. I used to travel through the city at 4 am every day and I clearly remember the day this was introduced. I had become accustomed to the lights changing to green as I approached at that time of day as there were no other road users around and you hardly had to slow as the lights changed and you just coasted through you certainly never need to brake and I could almost guarantee a non stop journey. Then one morning all that changed – every set of lights I came to went red as I approached. I must admit I found myself emergency stopping at each set that morning as this was so unusual. When I got to pick up my colleague I mentioned this as I was 10 mins late. From that day on it has been the same. This change was made years ago. I noted that the Press proudly announced around the same time that a new computer based traffic light system had been installed in the city and I thought at the time it must be teething problems. About 2 years later I realised that this must have been the start of the councils campaign to rid the city of cars as it was still happening and still does to this day.

Unfortunately it also affects cyclist unless you know what is happening and like me, avoid the sensors if the lights are at green.

Just keep your eyes open. If you are approaching lights in the distance that are green and no one is in front of you they will stay green until you hit the first sensor then they will change to red and the poor folks who have been sitting at red for ages with no traffic passing in front of them will finally get to go. The shame is they could have been going as you approached your light and would be clear by the time you got there ready for the lights to change in your favour when you arrive.

You may think that the people who designed this system are a little short on grey matter I happen to believe that the lights are working just the way our council have asked for them to work. Let’s face it the debacle at Clifton Green, which was largely caused by the new phasing of the lights and not the cycle lane which hardly had any effect of traffic at all, ended up with the residents of Salisbury Terrace being subject to high levels of pollution created by having a queue of standing traffic on Water End all day and more traffic avoiding the queue passing down their street. The result of this was that our Council gained a huge sum of money to tackle the problem they had created.