New Pedestrian Crossing

josip

So this morning I had a chance to test out the new lights. I was crossing from the Ballybrack side to the Tassie side. Nothing coming down the slip road so I pressed nothing there and jay walked. Nothing going south on the N11 and there's a good line of sight so I pressed nothing and jay walked. A lot of traffic northbound on the N11 so I pressed the button and waited. I could have jaywalked before the green man but I feel bad doing that after I've pressed the button. I waited maybe 30 seconds for the little green fella, possibly because the cars had recently had ago from the road beside the Tassie.
On the way back, I needed to press the button at the Tassie side again. This time, I got my green man after about 10 seconds. Now I'm on the island between the north and southbound lanes again. Once again I didn't need to press the button to stop southbound traffic, this time there was a wave of cars coming, but they were a long way off. The same for the slip road, a few cars just entering at the top.

Now, here's the bit I was disappointed about. About half a minute after I'd crossed the lights for the traffic on southbound N11 and the slip road went red stopping all traffic. Even though I hadn't pressed the specific buttons for those crossings.

Both southbound N11 and the slip road went red at the same time. I didn't watch until they went green and kept walking but it appeared that both sets of lights went green at the same time after about a minute.

Gripes

1. Approx 30 cars/vans were stopped waiting for around a minute where there was no need to.
2. They were stopped for longer than they needed to because the pedestrian light must remain green long enough to get across the link road also, although there is an island in between.
3. They had been stopped at the bottom of a hill and before the beginning of another rise. Thus any momentum built up is converted to hot brake discs. Hybrids excepted. Worst place from an environmental perspective to be needlessly stopping traffic.
4. At least 30 people lost at least 1 minute. That's half an hour of national productivity gone.

All because these pedestrian lights have been stupidly programmed

Fratton Fred

josip wrote: »

I believe the official term is "capitalise the projected surplus"

“DUN LAOGHAIRE RATHDOWN COUNTY COUNCIL
2013 Budget Meeting
Transfers to Capital 2012 Estimated Outturn
There is a projected surplus of €1.25m on the 2012 Budget. Provision has been made in the Estimated
Outturn to capitalise this projected surplus as follows:
DIVISION NATURE OF EXPENDITURE AMOUNT
B0405 Part fund minor enhancements in Blackrock Village 50,000.00
B0603
Part fund traffic management improvements/laneway upgrades in Stillorgan
Village 180,000.00
B0603
Traffic management works to facilitate improved access to European
Foundation, Loughlinstown 40,000.00

Heaven forbid they should use it to fill in a few potholes.