Lit up three ways...

9:33am Tuesday 1st May 2012 in Letters

I HAVE been away for two months in Australia writing a book and investigating man sheds.

To share this information, I met up with ‘old’ school friends in town and travelled along Holgate Road. Does this stretch of road now come with user information and thinking time – I am referring to the excess of traffic lights. I assume other people have written about this latest City of York Council idea. I wonder if there is a six-page explanation on the website; it would make interesting reading. Perhaps it was an end-of-year-budget spend and we can expect a three traffic light system on all junctions.

Anne Church, Severus Avenue, Acomb, York.

• CONGRATULATIONS to the traffic management team who thought up the new traffic lights at the junction of Holgate Road and Blossom Street.

For the first time in the 30 years that I’ve lived on Holgate Road, I can now cross the road in safety, as the road has turned into a car park, with traffic heading into the city at a virtual standstill from morning till night most days.

It does take me a little longer to get across the road than it did, due to being poisoned by the exhaust fumes from all the standing traffic.

I should think the air pollution monitor at Holgate Villas must be working overtime.

Graham Willey, Holgate Road, York.

Comments(10)

Bo Jolly says...
10:49am Tue 1 May 12

Are the traffic lights on green for less time? Can fewer cars get out of the junction per green light?

If the answer is 'no' (and the council have resisted the temptation to create a bit of extra congestion) then the extended stop line seems a perfectly sensible way of allowing people on bikes a bit of priority to position themselves for the awkward three-lane bit of Blossom Street.

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Mr Udigawa says...
11:18am Tue 1 May 12

People won't stop using their cars until they become too expensive to run.

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purpletimbo says...
12:14pm Tue 1 May 12

The answer to lss cars per change is yes, from sitting in the queue, you will never get through the lights from outside the tyre place in one go now, you would before.

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Von_Dutch says...
1:09pm Tue 1 May 12

Same amount of green time, just the queue gets pushed a few car-lengths further back. No biggy. No extra 'congestion'. No conspiracy. Bo Jolly's spot on.

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Buzz Light-year says...
6:28pm Tue 1 May 12

Graham Willey wrote:
It does take me a little longer to get across the road than it did, due to being poisoned by the exhaust fumes from all the standing traffic.

Really? No. Thought not.

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purpletimbo says...
9:34am Wed 2 May 12

Same amount of green time, just like Clifton, 4 less cars at the front 2 less where the yellow box is, net result the time for 6 cars to go through is lost every change, they would have to have increased the green time to remain the same, and they in fact shortened it, to incorporate green man time as a separate phase every time the lights change.

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Von_Dutch says...
1:13pm Wed 2 May 12

Wrong. The first set of signals turns green a couple of seconds before the other one, so the empty- space for 6 cars is already filling up with moving cars by the time the Blossom St set turn green.

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purpletimbo says...
4:04pm Wed 2 May 12

Yes and the rear set turn red after a few seconds and the front set stay green until the 4 cars have cleared, a good theory if there is room for them to go into Blossom Street, I use this route many times an afternoon, and can assure you that the time is now less overall, simply ask any of my customers how much longer it takes to get through, they unfortunately bear the financial, cost I lose time and work.

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Firedrake says...
9:45am Thu 3 May 12

The opening line of this letter is almost worthy of a certain column in Private Eye!

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Magicman! says...
1:34am Tue 8 May 12

The only reason there'd be any further congestion is if the person sitting at the head of the queue is incompetant and doesn't know which green light to go on.

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