Amber before green - join the movement !

peasant

This is a personal bugbear of mine and has been annoying me every single day for the ten years I'm driving here ...no amber light before green ...all traffic lights go straight from red to green.

This causes the following:

People taking ages to wake up, putting their car into gear, releasing handbrake etc and by the time they finally drive off there's room for another car or two before the light changes again.

I believe that because of this congestion in our towns and cities is increased significantly, resulting in frustration, overall slower flow of traffic, lost time and on top of it all, tons of unnecessary CO2 produced by more cars idling.

(For those who have never been off this Island, in other countries the traffic light phases work as follows:

Green - Amber - Red - Red & Amber - Green)

My question is ...how many boardies will join me in the campaign for amber before green?

Let's get a popular movement going to have it introduced. With rising fuel prices and all that CO2 concern chances have never been better to actually achieve something here

listermint

It is a better system me thinks. They should go amber > green.
But i resent your "normal countries" remark

peasant

listermint wrote: »

But i resent your "normal countries" remark

fixed to "other countries"

listermint

Agreed!! Now lets roll this cookie :cool:

Cmar-Ireland

+1

Where do I sign

L1011

Off this island? Its used in Northern Ireland. To good affect.

I'm all for it.

Gran Hermano

I 100% support this as I've seen the benefits in the countries that have it in place.

My only concern is I feel we have a higher percentage of 'ambler gamblers'
in Ireland, might be wise introducing a clampdown on those who think an
amber light means pedal to the floor as opposed to stop before changing
traffic lights.

peasant

Cmar-Ireland wrote: »

+1

Where do I sign

I' sure, if there is a real sign that people actually want this, we will be able to come up with some form of petition or contact form that we then can send off to the relevant decision makers.

chris85

have said this before as well and I am all for it. Works well.

chickenhawk

Yep it's a good idea.

But it will never work in Ireland. People will go on amber or the people who don't go on amber will be blasted by some goon driving behind for not going.

Keith186

It's a great system, I've seen it in a couple of places and it seems to work well.
Unfortunately I think you'll be banging your head off a brick wall as the RSA/Gov just released a new Rules of the Road book in the last year so I don't think they'll want to amend any rules. I'm not sure but maybe there may have been some changes or will be, i.e. legal alcohol/blood level. Is this in the ROTR?

You might have a chance then.

eringobragh

I prefer the Simpsons Mensa solution!!!

In an interview with Kent Brockman:

Professor Frink:
"We studied traffic patterns and found that drivers
move the fastest through yellow lights, so now we
just have the red and yellow lights, mm-haiai."

colm_mcm

a LED counter like they have at pedestrian crossings would be a good idea.

maybe make it go blank after 9 or 8.

crosstownk

Tis a good system.

It would also cut down on "amber gambling" - after a fair few shunts

peasant

thread now with added poll

L1011

chickenhawk wrote: »

Yep it's a good idea.

But it will never work in Ireland. People will go on amber or the people who don't go on amber will be blasted by some goon driving behind for not going.

Drivers in the North are virtually the same as drivers in the Republic and don't do this - although the lead cars are usually creeping a little bit when it goes orange.

From experience of when learning to drive it also reduces the chance of the front car stalling...

mthd

To the 3 people who've voted no so far, why?

Cionád

mthd wrote: »

To the 3 people who've voted no so far, why?

They thought it was a re-hash of the Lisbon treaty

I think it's a good idea alright. How much would it cost to re-program all the traffic lights though? - should have brought it up last year when the Government was rich.

peasant

Cionád wrote: »

How much would it cost to re-program all the traffic lights though? - should have brought it up last year when the Government was rich.

I'm pretty sure that a software patch/upgrade could be had for very little money

Seth Brundle

IIRC the government (can't remember which dept or agency) ruled it out a few years back but I don't recall why.
Its a good idea alright.

Cionád

peasant wrote: »

I'm pretty sure that a software patch/upgrade could be had for very little money

Maybe so, but the cost of these kind of things nearly always explodes when the government is paying the bill.

Steve

I'm with you brother Peasant.

One question though that always comes to mind - and I never think to look when abroad:

When your light is at the G+A stage, is the other light already R?

Or is there some overlap?

IIRC, here, there is about 1 sec between the other side going red and your side going green.

unkel

MYOB wrote: »

the lead cars are usually creeping a little bit when it goes orange.

From experience of when learning to drive it also reduces the chance of the front car stalling...

That's the biggest advantage. And the shorter the green on a particular set of traffic lights, the better this system works

Needless to say, the "amber + red before green" system has my 100% support

Lord Nikon

Gran Hermano wrote: »

those who think an
amber light means pedal to the floor as opposed to stop before changing
traffic lights.

Oh you'll learn

unkel

SteveC wrote: »

here, there is about 1 sec between the other side going red and your side going green.

It seems shorter here than in almost any other country I've driven.

massivemagumbos

a countdown clock? are u kidding? it'll be like an F1 Murray Walker GO GO GO every mile! haha.

I'd be up for amber before green, but, it would cut down on the green time. If you think about it, currently our green lights go almost immediately after the red light goes on a + junction. If you brought in amber before green, you'd see the red light on the perpendicular road, then ur lights would go orange (proceed with caution) before going green. At the moment, u get green straight away, which means (joke before anybody hangs me) FLOOR IT!

staker

Waste of money. We gotta tighten those belts!! Those things cost a friggin bomb ffs. Why not turn the opposite lights a tad, and just floor it on their red??:D

Steve

unkel wrote: »

It seems shorter here than in almost any other country I've driven.

You're right, the more I think about it, it seems like about 0.5sec here.

I'm trying to visualise watching the other set turning red and the set in front going green. Definitely not enough time to say 'one thousand one'

Anyway, my original question, does anyone know what the overlap is in the UK between the other 'red' and the 'green' in front?

cyclopath2001

No, there are plenty of existing rules (speed limits, box junctions, stopping at amber lights, parking restrictions, lane discipline, driving the correct way on roundabouts), which if properly observed and enforced would lead to more efficient traffic movement.

L1011

massivemagumbos wrote: »

a countdown clock? are u kidding? it'll be like an F1 Murray Walker GO GO GO every mile! haha.

I'd be up for amber before green, but, it would cut down on the green time. If you think about it, currently our green lights go almost immediately after the red light goes on a + junction. If you brought in amber before green, you'd see the red light on the perpendicular road, then ur lights would go orange (proceed with caution) before going green. At the moment, u get green straight away, which means (joke before anybody hangs me) FLOOR IT!

The lights do not "go orange" - the red light is *still lit* and the amber light lights as an advisory. It is still an offense to proceed until the green light is lit. It doesn't decrease green time at all.

L1011

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

No, there are plenty of existing rules (speed limits, box junctions, stopping at amber lights, parking restrictions, lane discipline, driving the correct way on roundabouts), which if properly observed and enforced would lead to more efficient traffic movement.

And this is a justification against bringing in something which wouldn't require any extra enforcement than there is already how?