This video is apparently of two consecutive days.
note: I think there is some discrepancy regarding the actual dates/day though.
Irrespective of that, it is still interesting.

I have my doubts about traffic control efficiency using lights.

The left screen NO traffic lights – The right screen working traffic lights

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hFOo3e0nxSI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

I’ll wait until The Wookster Report before passing water and judgement

Oh, the intersection in the video is in Auckland NZ

need more than just two data points i would imagine.

Aquila said:

This video is apparently of two consecutive days.
note: I think there is some discrepancy regarding the actual dates/day though.
Irrespective of that, it is still interesting.

I have my doubts about traffic control efficiency using lights.

The left screen NO traffic lights – The right screen working traffic lights

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hFOo3e0nxSI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>

traffic lights aren’t about efficiciency they are more about power and control

traffic lights are more the product of the mind that believes that micromanagement on level is needed because people need to be organised, some people gravitate to gov positions to satisfy these fetishes

a traffic lights can be set up because the alternative would mean spending more money to create a workable road system , the traffic lights are something that give people the illusion of efficiency.

the last time i visited canberra whole forests had sprung up

you won’t see me back in canberra, the place is bloated joke at the expense of the tax payer

They are driving very fast, too fast for safety IMO.

wookiemeister said:

you won’t see me back in canberra, the place is bloated joke at the expense of the tax payer

Canberra is lovely.

Skunkworks said:

wookiemeister said:

you won’t see me back in canberra, the place is bloated joke at the expense of the tax payer

Canberra is lovely.

My daughter loves it.

roughbarked said:

Skunkworks said:

wookiemeister said:

you won’t see me back in canberra, the place is bloated joke at the expense of the tax payer

Canberra is lovely.

My daughter loves it.

each to their own

Come on peeps, focus

Chat is over there <<<<

hahaha

Aquila said:

Come on peeps, focus

The soundtrack is excellent.

Here’s some more King Dubby

http://www.jamendo.com/en/list/a3638/chapter-ii

Peak Warming Man said:

They are driving very fast, too fast for safety IMO.

i’d set the max speed on the highways at 160 and 100 of a night

it would encourage people to travel of a day rather than of a night when people tend to fall asleep

travelling faster would also mean that thye are more likely to get to their destination during the day rather than suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous radar traps based on an outdated model

if you get busted doing something silly you get to wear a big 100 sign on your car front and back, if the police find you speeding over 100 they throw the book at you.

if you have a head on at 100 you are just as likely to survive as if you have a head on at 160

Replacing lighted intersections with roundabouts greatly improved traffic flow but, in Brisbane anyway, they seem to have gone red light happy particularly around schools where a simple walkover bridge would be safer and less expensive in the long run.

To be honest, they are both about the same. The only difference is the one lane of almost stopped traffic heading to the top left which is out of this set of traffic lights control.

Peak Warming Man said:

Replacing lighted intersections with roundabouts greatly improved traffic flow but, in Brisbane anyway, they seem to have gone red light happy particularly around schools where a simple walkover bridge would be safer and less expensive in the long run.

Our town/city was hailed as the roundabout city until recently.. Now we have three sets of traffic lights. Two of which that completely stuff up traffic flow. One assists it.

we have roundabouts with traffic lights.

i turkey they have traffic lights with a count down so you can see when they will change

very useful

they’ll never have it here

wookiemeister said:

i turkey they have traffic lights with a count down so you can see when they will change

very useful

they’ll never have it here

We have them at the Perth Motorplex.

Boris said:

we have roundabouts with traffic lights.

and the awesomeness of that has to be seen to be believed.

I like roundabouts, or traffic circles as some people call them. One day when I win lotto I’m gunna build one of my very own and pay uni-students to drive around it aimlessly. I’ll have my own viewing platform complete with mini-bar overlooking it, so I can just sit back with a coldie and watch the cars go round and round all day.

>>they’ll never have it here<<

Wrong. Used to have them in Melbourne in the 1950s/60s. Round clock faces, hand travelled through the red/amber/green section of the face. If you want to see one, there is one at the RACV club in Bourke Street, in the outdoor eating section of the bistro. I remember them on Whitehorse Road around the Balwyn area when I was very young.

i remember those buffy.

>>I like roundabouts, or traffic circles as some people call them. One day when I win lotto I’m gunna build one of my very own and pay uni-students to drive around it aimlessly. I’ll have my own viewing platform complete with mini-bar overlooking it, so I can just sit back with a coldie and watch the cars go round and round all day.

I can still remember years ago when you were normal, well normalish.

I can still remember years ago when you were normal, well normalish.

when was that?

I like roundabouts, or traffic circles as some people call them. One day when I win lotto I’m gunna build one of my very own and pay uni-students to drive around it aimlessly. I’ll have my own viewing platform complete with mini-bar overlooking it, so I can just sit back with a coldie and watch the cars go round and round all day.

you need people entering and leaving, maybe with some merging, to make it interesting.

There are six roundabouts in the area where I live.

Two specific ones that I need to travel through daily for work
Both dual lane and part of the highway road system.

Under normal conditions these two r/abouts function quite reasonably
However in peak hour their ability to allow smooth, efficient travel flow is diminished significantly.
The major problem then is congestion, flow becomes a crawl-stop-crawl situation.
It’s frustrating and time consuming.
Traffic can also bank up for over half a kilometer, back past an intersection with traffic lights installed…haha
Also, at ‘one entry point’ on each r/about they have had to install a stop light which is automatically activated during peak hour.
This is because, without it, the adjacent entry lane can never get onto the r/about due to the sheer volume of traffic flowing on to it.

When I reach the CBD it is just traffic lights and there are several intersections which back up traffic and add to this a 40km school zone which kicks in at 7am FFS and there is never any kids around, this is on part of the highway network leading through the CBD!

School locations and the town planning/roadways associated with them, in my opinion are very poorly thought out.

We live in a modern age where ‘cars rule’, cars are literally choking our city centres, we keep getting taxed more and more but still have inadequate public transport and roadway systems.
Central banks and governments mandate for growth and expansion but don’t seem to have the capacity (or will) to actually deal with it adequately.
Clearly we can do much better but for some reason we get bogged down in politics, with suits in power plays and paybacks.

**I know this last paragraph is political in nature and some may not agree with me adding it in, but these two entities seem to be the one’s controlling infrastructure and the economy, hence, transport systems.

Is there a better way? Can we do better?

wookiemeister said:

the last time i visited canberra whole forests had sprung up

Thats global warming for you. The same thing happened to the mammoths. All the grasslands turned into forests. We will all have to migrate towards Hobart and eventually we will be confined to a small islands near Antarctica.

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

the last time i visited canberra whole forests had sprung up

Thats global warming for you. The same thing happened to the mammoths. All the grasslands turned into forests. We will all have to migrate towards Hobart and eventually we will be confined to a small islands near Antarctica.

hehehe
You’re a classic morrie!

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

the last time i visited canberra whole forests had sprung up

Thats global warming for you. The same thing happened to the mammoths. All the grasslands turned into forests. We will all have to migrate towards Hobart and eventually we will be confined to a small islands near Antarctica.

oh ha ha morrie

everythings just one big joke to you

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

the last time i visited canberra whole forests had sprung up

Thats global warming for you. The same thing happened to the mammoths. All the grasslands turned into forests. We will all have to migrate towards Hobart and eventually we will be confined to a small islands near Antarctica.

oh ha ha morrie

everythings just one big joke to you

Sorry wookie. I have failed to realise the importance of being earnest.

traffic lights give the non aggressive/assertive drivers a turn too.

Arts said:

traffic lights give the non aggressive/assertive drivers a turn too.

That’s a good point.
Some drivers don’t have a lot of confidence behind the wheel.
Maybe they feel more comfortable letting ‘something’ decide when it is safe to go or stop.
I think too, some people don’t have satisfactory capacity for judging relative distance & speed for oncoming traffic or how to merge.

It’s hard to imagine what it might be like on Australia roads without traffic lights.

Do you think we could adapt without causing to much kaos or carnage?

No, I don’t. Traffic lights were invented to control traffic at cross roads to reduce the number and intensity of vehicular crashes. This is their primary function and they are very good at it. They are usually not there to improve traffic flow.

Michael V said:

No, I don’t. Traffic lights were invented to control traffic at cross roads to reduce the number and intensity of vehicular crashes. This is their primary function and they are very good at it. They are usually not there to improve traffic flow.

Well, that does make sense, ‘cos traffic lights are quite shit at improving traffic flow!

)

I do like your use of the word ‘vehicular’.

One thing that has been very noticeable here in France is the huge number of roundabouts, installed I believe to replace traffic lights at intersections and improve traffic flow.

Lights are only there because the gubmint is too cheap to build bridges.

Aquila said:

Michael V said:

No, I don’t. Traffic lights were invented to control traffic at cross roads to reduce the number and intensity of vehicular crashes. This is their primary function and they are very good at it. They are usually not there to improve traffic flow.

Well, that does make sense, ‘cos traffic lights are quite shit at improving traffic flow!

)

I do like your use of the word ‘vehicular’.

i prefer infernal combustion perambulator myself

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/15336485/new-cameras-cut-crashes/

New cameras cut crashes

Integrated speed and red-light cameras have cut serious crashes 72 per cent, changed driver behaviour and saved the community at least $2.2 million, a review has found.

Authorities have installed the cameras at 30 busy metropolitan intersections since July 2010 and the Curtin-Monash Accident Research Centre has evaluated the effect of the devices at 11 sites upgraded from red-light cameras.

Report co-author Huei-Yang Chen said preliminary results found the combined cameras reduced all reported crashes at those intersections 19 per cent – with crashes where people were killed or hospitalised cut 72 per cent, right-angle/turn-through crashes falling 41 per cent and rear-end crashes dropping 20 per cent.

“After accounting for the initial project costs of $1.65 million ($150,000 per site) and operating and maintenance costs, the net cost savings to the community was estimated at $2.294 million,” the report found.

Mr Chen said there was likely to be an improvement at intersections where previously there was no camera. Authorities say the results, which are in line with a similar Victorian study, are more evidence of the devices’ role in reducing road trauma.

Sen. Sgt Tony Carabetta, from infringement management and operations, said the results put paid to the complaint that the cameras were revenue raisers.

“They’re revenue-saving and they’re life savers – they reduce crashes and speed through intersections,” he said.

“Another benefit is a reduction in a cost that cannot be calculated – the emotional trauma suffered by families who have loved ones killed or injured in crashes.”

The study also showed a fall in the number of speeding and red-light infringements issued at the intersections, with speeding tickets falling about 25 a week from an initial spike and red-light offences down about one a week.

The report found the “significant” drop in speeding might partly explain the substantial decrease in crashes at those sites. The “small but significant decrease” in infringements for running a red light at sites upgraded to the combined cameras highlighted the potential for changing driver behaviour, the report found. Road Safety Minister Liza Harvey said the results were encouraging but would not say whether any more integrated cameras would be funded.

“Any further funding for the program would be considered as part of the normal budgetary process,” she said.

Mr Chen said the integrated camera sites needed to be re-evaluated when more post-installation crash and speeding data were available.
The report recommends identifying other potential metropolitan and rural sites for the devices.

They should have them on roundabouts too. IMHO, people tend to speed up to beat the lights and sometimes finf that they are not fast enough but too fast for their victims.. Roundabouts are rife with people either being blatantly piggish or just don’t know how to drive.

I wish they’d put lots more red-light cameras in Brisbane. First thing I noticed when I moved here was the local notions:

“amber” means “speed up”

“just changed to red” means “it is quite OK to continue, provided you are within 5 car-lengths of the red light”.