Pedestrians Set to be Given Priority Over Vehicles at Crossings

[ktmbiker58]

They have at least admitted that the scheme could cause 'localised traffic congestion at times' - perhaps they should look down the page there's an article entitled 'Bristol is UK's second worst city for congestion'

 

[Andy in Germany]

I thought that meant they would default to green for pedestrians and red for cars, and drivers would have to push a button to change to green.

Ah, well...

 

[Andy in Germany]

They have at least admitted that the scheme could cause 'localised traffic congestion at times' - perhaps they should look down the page there's an article entitled 'Bristol is UK's second worst city for congestion'

You'd think that if we still have "congestion" after at least half a century of prioritising cars and giving them more and more space, governments would admit that this isn't working...

 

[Drago]

Governments can only see as far as the next election and anything that upsets a voting bloc as large as "motorists" is too hot a potato.

Doing the right thing for society takes a poor second to keeping themselves in a job.

 

[ktmbiker58]

Congestion has been affecting road networks since Roman days - for context almost a billion miles are covered by vehicles in the UK every day

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Congestion has been affecting road networks since Roman days

Evidence for this?

 

[roubaixtuesday]

I was astonished in NL last year to find ped and cyclist buttons worked immediately. Brilliant system.

 

[Baldy]

Here in the village we had one crossing right outside the co op. You pressed the button and the lights changed within seconds, great.

The council did away with that crossing, now we have two one at either end of the main street. From pressing the button to lights changing takes about ten minutes. Everyone has started to ignore the lights and just risks it.

 

[Drago]

Evidence for this?

There's plenty just a keystroke or two away...

https://jamescoverley.substack.com/p/did-the-romans-have-traffic-jams

 

[wiggydiggy]

Here in the village we had one crossing right outside the co op. You pressed the button and the lights changed within seconds, great.

The council did away with that crossing, now we have two one at either end of the main street. From pressing the button to lights changing takes about ten minutes. Everyone has started to ignore the lights and just risks it.

Press the button and cross anyway, sometimes I press the button even if I'm not crossing just to fark with the traffic lol.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Congestion has been affecting road networks since Roman days - for context almost a billion miles are covered by vehicles in the UK every day

That makes it worse.

We've known about Induced Demand (the phenomenon where adding roads creates more car journeys, and removing them reduces car journeys) for decades, so there's no excuse. In practice, we need to urgently reduce the number of car journeys, so a change of approach is long overdue.

Or as one planner said: You can build cities to favour cars, or you can build cities that are usable for people; you can't do both.

 

[mjr]

I was astonished in NL last year to find ped and cyclist buttons worked immediately. Brilliant system.

And where the lights don't change immediately, the button often starts a visible countdown timer that is accelerated in bad weather or if more people arrive.

In the UK, countdown timers are only used to hurry up people crossing, not to inform and shorten waits, as far as I've seen.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

And where the lights don't change immediately, the button often starts a visible countdown timer that is accelerated in bad weather or if more people arrive.

In the UK, countdown timers are only used to hurry up people crossing, not to inform and shorten waits, as far as I've seen.

Useful info!