Traffic lights - sequences

justback83

Apologies if this has been done to death before...but what the hell is the story with traffic light sequencing in Dublin? It's incredibly frustrating and seems completely senseless.

As an example - take the Belgard road in Tallaght. At one stage yesterday, I looked ahead and saw 4 sets of traffic lights - some red some green. Traffic was constantly starting and stopping - with some sections of the road completely empty and other sections with people in yellow boxes.

Another example - driving to Dublin airport at 4.30 am on a Monday morning. Came across three pedestrian crossings en route where the pedestrian light was green. There wasn't a sinner in sight.

This only really frustrated me recently after driving in London, where traffic lights seem to go green in sequence...why the hell can't this happen here?!?!

LXFlyer

Bear in mind that on the Belgard Road, LUAS trams crossing will interfere with any sequencing.

justback83

lxflyer wrote: »

Bear in mind that on the Belgard Road, LUAS trams crossing will interfere with any sequencing.

How would the lights at the Luas line affect the lights around the retail park area?! There must be 3 or 4 sets of lights between these?!

LXFlyer

justback83 wrote: »

How would the lights at the Luas line affect the lights around the retail park area?! There must be 3 or 4 sets of lights between these?!

I meant at that crossing!! LUAS trams can change the priority of those lights.

justback83

lxflyer wrote: »

I meant at that crossing!! LUAS trams can change the priority of those lights.

I understand that you meant at that crossing but what's the reason for the idiotic sequence of lights on the rest of the Belgard Road?!

pclive

Im sure the OP has contacted SDCC to report this problem....

GBX

3 Different pedestrian crossings showing green lights at 4.30am? Are you sure or just exaggerating because you seem aggrieved to being frustrated at Dublin traffic ??

As for the Belgard Road, the section that runs from Mayberry Road to Ballymount Road can be a pain but there are worse sections of road in Dublin. Which retail park are you talking about?

justback83

GBX wrote: »

3 Different pedestrian crossings showing green lights at 4.30am? Are you sure or just exaggerating because you seem aggrieved to being frustrated at Dublin traffic ??

As for the Belgard Road, the section that runs from Mayberry Road to Ballymount Road can be a pain but there are worse sections of road in Dublin. Which retail park are you talking about?

No I'm not exaggerating, I'm not sure what I'd achieve from that?!

The three pedestrian crossings were Kimmage/Sundrive Road, Harolds Cross/Kimmage Road and Bolton Street.

I was using the Belgard Road as an example, I agree there are worse sections. So why is this happening?

justback83

pclive wrote: »

Im sure the OP has contacted SDCC to report this problem....

Who?

pclive

justback83 wrote: »

Who?

Can never understand why people will take the time to post here but rarely will they report it to anyone who can fix it for them

http://www.sdublincoco.ie/index.aspx?pageid=1279

godtabh

GBX wrote: »

3 Different pedestrian crossings showing green lights at 4.30am? Are you sure or just exaggerating because you seem aggrieved to being frustrated at Dublin traffic ??

For safety reasons pedestrians phases are generally green together. They call it a wrap around phase.

How they are designed and how they are controlled can have a big impact on how well the operated. Some have set sequences for the time of day. Some are based on queue lengths. Some are connected to a central control system that adjusts the sequences based on times.

The worse controller you can have is the one that has a set sequence regardless of traffic i.e. the pedestrian phase called and no pedestrians. People can easily justify breaking the lights in these cases

justback83

pclive wrote: »

Can never understand why people will take the time to post here but rarely will they report it to anyone who can fix it for them

http://www.sdublincoco.ie/index.aspx?pageid=1279

Really?!! I post here because it's Boards! It's where I like to vent, or discuss something. Also - I've now got somewhere to report it to!

oppenheimer1

justback83 wrote: »

Apologies if this has been done to death before...but what the hell is the story with traffic light sequencing in Dublin? It's incredibly frustrating and seems completely senseless.

As an example - take the Belgard road in Tallaght. At one stage yesterday, I looked ahead and saw 4 sets of traffic lights - some red some green. Traffic was constantly starting and stopping - with some sections of the road completely empty and other sections with people in yellow boxes.

Another example - driving to Dublin airport at 4.30 am on a Monday morning. Came across three pedestrian crossings en route where the pedestrian light was green. There wasn't a sinner in sight.

This only really frustrated me recently after driving in London, where traffic lights seem to go green in sequence...why the hell can't this happen here?!?!

Pedestrian lights generally are only triggered by the button at night time. So what often happens is people puts the button when the road is clear and cross anyway. Some time later the lights will change. To the motorist this is frustrating as there is no one at the crossing, or anywhere near it.

As for other lights in the city, I understand that some are timed in such a way to hold traffic, at peak times. This is to control pressure on junctions closer to the city, which are currently massively over loaded.

GBX

justback83 wrote: »

No I'm not exaggerating, I'm not sure what I'd achieve from that?!

The three pedestrian crossings were Kimmage/Sundrive Road, Harolds Cross/Kimmage Road and Bolton Street.

I was using the Belgard Road as an example, I agree there are worse sections. So why is this happening?

Kimmage/Sundrive Road & Harold's Cross junctions have always been sequenced to allow for pedestrians given these are busy junctions - albeit at peak hours.

At 4.30am I would imagine the roads were fairly quiet in general so getting delayed going to the airport at that hour would not have caused you much delay.

justback83 wrote: »

Who?

You. Surely you will get better answers to road traffic management from the relevant councils.

oppenheimer1

justback83 wrote: »

Really?!! I post here because it's Boards! It's where I like to vent, or discuss something. Also - I've not got somewhere to report it to!

Roads and traffic section SDCC. Don't say there's nowhere to report it to, because the truth is you haven't looked to see if there was.

justback83

GBX wrote: »

Kimmage/Sundrive Road & Harold's Cross junctions have always been sequenced to allow for pedestrians given these are busy junctions - albeit at peak hours.

At 4.30am I would imagine the roads were fairly quiet in general so getting delayed going to the airport at that hour would not have caused you much delay.





You. Surely you will get better answers to road traffic management from the relevant councils.

Bit of a useless post there me thinks! I don't really care that I was delayed by a few minutes going to the airport at 4.30 am. My point was that there was nobody using the pedestrian crossings at that time so why were they green?

I was asking "who" SDCC are, not "who" should contact them...

markpb

justback83 wrote: »

I was asking "who" SDCC are, not "who" should contact them...

South Dublin county council, the local authority responsible for the roads you mentioned.

Carawaystick

justback83 wrote: »

My point was that there was nobody using the pedestrian crossings at that time so why were they green?

This one time, I was stopped by the red man from crossing the road. The lights were green for cars, but there was nobody using the road, so why were they green?

Dr_Colossus

godtabh wrote: »

The worse controller you can have is the one that has a set sequence regardless of traffic i.e. the pedestrian phase called and no pedestrians. People can easily justify breaking the lights in these cases

Dublin 7 is littered with pedestrian crossing of this order, phantom pedestrians given a green light in the middle of the night or early morning. Often break the lights in such instances.
Another terribly frustrating road to drive with lights out of sequence is the North Circular Road, it's so bad I often avoid it and re-route through the city centre and quays if going across the city.
Dublin is one terribly frustrating city to drive in. Terribly road surfaces and appalling management of traffic lights.

GBX

Because they are sequenced to do so - are you saying all lights should stay green because a car might come along?

South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council manage these roads.

godtabh

GBX wrote: »

Because they are sequenced to do so - are you saying all lights should stay green because a car might come along?

South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council manage these roads.

Lights shouldn't change unless there is demand on the other arms. Very often you'll see lights with cars waiting on one arm and nothing on the other arms. Then a car approaches and the signal changes and queuing now forms on other arms. Not very efficient.

Modern controllers can allocated green time based on queuing or to maximize performance. Performance only matters with high volumes.

justback83

Dr_Colossus wrote: »

Dublin 7 is littered with pedestrian crossing of this order, phantom pedestrians given a green light in the middle of the night or early morning. Often break the lights in such instances.
Another terribly frustrating road to drive with lights out of sequence is the North Circular Road, it's so bad I often avoid it and re-route through the city centre and quays if going across the city.
Dublin is one terribly frustrating city to drive in. Terribly road surfaces and appalling management of traffic lights.

THANK YOU!!

justback83

GBX wrote: »

Because they are sequenced to do so - are you saying all lights should stay green because a car might come along?

South Dublin County Council and Dublin City Council manage these roads.

Yes, this is exactly what I'm saying. You win. You can stop now.

nailer54321

traffic lights are designed to slow traffic down, don't be fooled by anyone who tells you that it is designed so traffic flows better. if you drive around the Dublin city centre you will notice that when you get a green light within a few seconds the following light will turn red giving you no chance for the traffic to flow. Traffic lights are designed to slow traffic down and if you think it is bad now wait a few years and it will be much worse due to the luas been extended. in my opion you could get rid of 50% of the traffic lights in the city centre and the traffic will flow much better and the roads would be safer.

GBX

justback83 wrote: »

Yes, this is exactly what I'm saying. You win. You can stop now.

I can stop which?

FYI theres a thread going for motoring in the ranting & raving forum as well.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055690808

You're welcome.

ArmaniJeanss

Maybe the crossing lights should stay continually green for pedestrians and red for drivers. If a car comes along the driver can get out and press a button and then 25 seconds later they get a green light.

magicbastarder

yep, i'm wondering how many junctions the OP had to stop at red lights for, where there was no motorists around to avail of the green light for the traffic crossing his path. but they don't count.

AlekSmart

I've also recently noted a significant extension in "Green Man" time in the City Centre area.

I'm not sure if we have a Standard time for this phase,but it is a heck of a lot shorter than most of the London Pedestrian Light timings I came across last year.

Cookie_Monster

AlekSmart wrote: »

I've also recently noted a significant extension in "Green Man" time in the City Centre area.

I'm not sure if we have a Standard time for this phase,but it is a heck of a lot shorter than most of the London Pedestrian Light timings I came across last year.

I remember it being very short in Dublin and pretty long intervals as well.
But that's part of the motorist-centric attitude. Pedestrian lights just slow people down so we'll make sure they have a low priority. There should be a much greater frequency of pedestrian phase on all CC setups as part of the overall drive to try and improve the CC for people.

Muahahaha

oppenheimer1 wrote: »

Pedestrian lights generally are only triggered by the button at night time. So what often happens is people puts the button when the road is clear and cross anyway. Some time later the lights will change. To the motorist this is frustrating as there is no one at the crossing, or anywhere near it.
.

I've this problem with a set of pedestrian lights near my house. Its a busy road so as a pedestrian I press the button. But the wait is approx one minute, in that time the traffic has cleared up and you walk across on the red man. Then when you get to the other side the traiffic lights go red and the man green and you look back and theres people waiting with no-one crossing. On my motorbike I've often been caught at the same lights with no-one crossing. I emailed Fingal CC about a year ago but nothing was done. Its very annoying for both peds and motorists.

nailer54321 wrote: »

traffic lights are designed to slow traffic down, don't be fooled by anyone who tells you that it is designed so traffic flows better. if you drive around the Dublin city centre you will notice that when you get a green light within a few seconds the following light will turn red giving you no chance for the traffic to flow. Traffic lights are designed to slow traffic down and if you think it is bad now wait a few years and it will be much worse due to the luas been extended. in my opion you could get rid of 50% of the traffic lights in the city centre and the traffic will flow much better and the roads would be safer.

I notice this a bit as I'm on a motorbike and so have much better acceleration than a car. A light will go green and I'll be 100m in front of traffic within a few seconds, when I get to the next light it is often turning red just as I'm going through it so all the cars 100m behind me get stopped.

StreetLight

Remember when the 30km/h speed limit was introduced in parts of Dublin City Centre? The city mandarins claimed they would create a 'green wave' of traffic lights along the Quays to maintain traffic flow! We're still waiting for it.

Traffic does not 'flow' in Dublin City. It just seems to lurch from one red light to the next.

Marmit3

thanks for the information that the south dublin city council has a place to report these things to. I was coming here to ask where to report illogical traffic light sequence. I think the OP didnt know about this either. So there is really no need for the 'tude.

Cheers for the link to SDCC

joegriffinjnr

Dont even get me started with the whole traffic lights on a roundabout situation!!:D