Linn Barringer
3 September 2009
Today is a big day for road traffic. The schools are back. The school runs are up and running. And today of all days, the main traffic lights in Woodbridge were not working!
You might think this would make the traffic disaster even worse. But no. As predicted by me for years, the pointless addition of traffic lights at the junction of Lime Kiln Quay Road and Thoroughfare only cause traffic problems and increased pollution; they do nothing to improve traffic flow. How often have you seen vehicles sitting at a red light with no traffic going through the green lights?
Councillor Cocker has been concerned about the air quality around the junction for some time. It is quite obviously caused by queues of stationary traffic that didn't occur there before the traffic lights were installed. These queues often reach right back to the other pointless traffic lights at the junction of Quayside and Hamblin Road.
These traffic lights should be removed and replaced with a single mini-roundabout. It would save electricity, save on maintenance, keep traffic moving, reduce driver frustration, clean up the air, and reduce fuel wastage.
Traffic lights might be green some of the time but mini-roundabouts are permanently greener.
And they don't break down!
But what about pedestrians? First, many pedestrians totally ignore the “red man” signs that are intended to stop them crossing. They use their common sense and judgement to cross when the road is clear. Secondly, it would be possible to leave pedestrian-controlled lights in Lime Kiln Quay Road, which would be left at “green” for traffic and only changed to “red” when a pedestrian needed to cross, not simply at an arbitrary timed interval.
About twenty years ago in Brentwood, Essex, a complex mis-aligned crossroads at Wilson's Corner had traffic lights. The day they failed, the usual long queues of traffic on the four approaches dissipated. The responsible authority was bold enough to listen to the grapevine suggestions that the traffic lights had been causing the congestion, not alleviating it.
They installed experimental double-mini-roundabouts and the traffic continued to flow reasonably and "fairly" – allowing the volume of traffic to automatically adjust priorities. And the multiple-mini-roundabouts are still working successfully today, with far higher traffic volumes than twenty years ago.
Come on Woodbridge/SCDC/SCC – get our traffic moving again - replace both sets of traffic lights with mini-roundabouts.
Of course, I am not a traffic engineer, so perhaps Angie Rapley would like to post a response explaining how traffic lights work better, cost less in installation and maintenance, improve traffic flows, and provide cleaner air, compared to mini-roundabouts.