I always used to think that at junctions with pedestrian lights they were only activated when someone pushed the button. i.e. if nobody was waiting to cross the road then the lights wouldn't change to red to let (the non-existent) person cross.
Driving through central Manchester every morning to work I see that this isn't the case. Even if nobody is waiting to cross, all the lights at a four way junction turn red & the pedestrian lights turn green. This holds up traffic for no reason & increases journey times and pollution unnecessarily. This is known as a 'full pedestrian stage'.
This has been picked up on by the RAC Foundation...
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Full pedestrian stages are now normal across the nation, a new measure which has been official policy since 2005, and the DfT itself admits that "of all the options it has the worst effect on junction capacity ... Also it can produce a long cycle time and a pedestrian arriving at the end of the invitation period has a lengthy wait".
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Quote:
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The introduction of full pedestrian crossing stages at traffic lights represents a major policy shift which has taken place without any analysis of the benefits in terms of accident reduction and time savings for pedestrians or the costs in terms of delay to traffic.
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Link
Drives me mad!
