Red light runner video at Monaro and Lanyon.

OpenYourMind said :

I’m really confused now. I was under the impression it was only cyclists who run red lights and car drivers were the paragon of road rule compliance.

Your confusion make come from the fact no one anywhere ever has actually said that.Or maybe the noise of you dragging this up kicking and screaming may have distracted you from the actual topic?

I’m really confused now. I was under the impression it was only cyclists who run red lights and car drivers were the paragon of road rule compliance.

Not to take anything away from this, but I’ve seen far far worse. You can see that light being amber and only just changing to red before they took off and the people who would be driving into him have had clear visibility of him for quite some time. So the probability of them seeing someone drive through the red directly in front of them while they are stopped and then pulling out in front of them is quite low to be honest. The scariest ones are where they do it when traffic is already moving in the other direction and with that traffic having low visibility of that car coming through.

astrojax said :

MrBigEars said :

Aaroncbr said :

I saw a fully licences driver run a red on Northbourne this morning.

My bus driver went through one this morning.

through a fully licenced driver?

HA
HA
HA

cranky said :

So many traffic light sets in the ACT are poorly timed that it seems inconceivable that any thought whatsoever has gone into their programming.

Most sets seem to be set up to deliberately interfere with traffic flow.

I appreciate that it would be difficult to make everyone happy, but it would also be difficult to make a bigger hash of current sequencing.

Green lights on major roads for way longer than necessary, lights set to deliberately stop turning traffic metres after a previous (long awaited) green, and very short green perio

The lights in Canberra work in a co-ordinated method during peak times and off peak most work in a demand driven mode.

During the peaks (from about 7:30 till 9am and 4:30-6 M-F) you do see what you are talking about where some directions have more flow than at other directions, but this is because someone has, contrary to what you believe actually thought about it and chosen to sequence the lights to benefit of the majority and to get the best flow from the whole road network. They do this modelling based on real historical data gathered by the lights. It can be adjusted in real time if there are congestion problems along the road.

As for the long wait, as mentioned it is based on historical data, with a bit of manual intervention thrown in, so whilst one day you may well be waiting a long time with no cars coming the other way, this is because history has shown that there is a greater chance of more vehicles coming the opposite way. So if you were in the same place at the same time the next day you may well be facing a line of cars. It may well cause minor inconvenience to people travelling in the opposing directions as they will get less time but as mentioned it is done that way to the benefit of most.

During the peaks it gets hard to put the lights into a purely demand driven mode as you will get constant demand from all directions, but not consistent flows.

Outside of peak hours the traffic lights go into a demand response type mode. In this mode they will have a default flow along what is considered the main traffic flow direction and if vehicles come to a red they will reasonably quickly change for them when demand drops on the main flow. They do of course have a flow sequence to follow, so it isn’t a case of first in best dressed, unless of course it is 3am and your the only vehicle around.

Outside of peaks some lights will also still operate to a program of sorts. A good example is the intersection of Catchpole Street and Belconnen Way. On Sundays, where there is lots of traffic going to/coming from Jamision for Trash and Treassure traffic turning right off Belconnen Way into Catchpole street gets extra time, and the sequence is change. The normal sequence is turns off Belconnen way, straight through, turn off Lathlain Street, turn off Catchpole Street. On Sundays the sequence is turns off Belconnen way, straight through, turn off Catchpole Street (extra time), turn off Lathlain Street.

Years ago when in school I visited the Sydney traffic management centre, who designed the system used in Canberra (I believe they also run the system here too) it was quite an eye opener to see what they can see and how they can adjust timings to match the flow.

So as mentioned I think your claim that no thought has gone into it is a bit wrong. There is a lot more though and science behind it than you may think and as you mentioned you cannot please everyone.

So many traffic light sets in the ACT are poorly timed that it seems inconceivable that any thought whatsoever has gone into their programming.

Most sets seem to be set up to deliberately interfere with traffic flow.

I appreciate that it would be difficult to make everyone happy, but it would also be difficult to make a bigger hash of current sequencing.

Green lights on major roads for way longer than necessary, lights set to deliberately stop turning traffic metres after a previous (long awaited) green, and very short green perio

MrBigEars said :

Aaroncbr said :

I saw a fully licences driver run a red on Northbourne this morning.

My bus driver went through one this morning.

through a fully licenced driver?

Aaroncbr said :

I saw a fully licences driver run a red on Northbourne this morning.

did they show you their license on the way through

the we get pop up bollards at intersections the better.
http://youtu.be/mRPEW2OMIU8

roshen said :

Speaking of red light runners, I was at the last traffic light intersection on flemington road yesterday going towards the gungahlin shops, when this motocycle rider in shorts and tshirt without a helmet ran through a red about 2 seconds after it was red. Then he proceeded to turn around at the roundabout and did the same thing going back the opposite direction.

Looked like he was after a death sentence.

Obviously up for a Darwin Award.
The fewer of them that survive, the greater the benefit to humanity.

Speaking of red light runners, I was at the last traffic light intersection on flemington road yesterday going towards the gungahlin shops, when this motocycle rider in shorts and tshirt without a helmet ran through a red about 2 seconds after it was red. Then he proceeded to turn around at the roundabout and did the same thing going back the opposite direction.

Looked like he was after a death sentence.

switch said :

watto23 said :

Although they could sync the lights a little better,

No they can’t. Haven’t you seen the graph over on the Drakeford Drive thread?

Drakeford drive is synced well IMO. I will have to find this thread!

watto23 said :

Although they could sync the lights a little better,

No they can’t. Haven’t you seen the graph over on the Drakeford Drive thread?

I’ve seen this particular intersection get red light runners often, but that is because the drivers are idiots. Although they could sync the lights a little better, I’ve got green on the turning right lights only to see the green change red on the second set to cross the right lane.

Aaroncbr said :

I saw a fully licences driver run a red on Northbourne this morning.

My bus driver went through one this morning.

I saw a fully licences driver run a red on Northbourne this morning.

Whoa, hey, this was actully my video, but hey, no worries. If you play the video full screen you can see the red light better.

c_c™ said :

goggles13 said :

there is nothing wrong with the intersection, so its not the road that needs fixing, it is the stupid p-plater

Presumably your goggles are the type that obscure vision then.

no they enhance my vision.

but tell me, what is wrong with the intersection as it is?

none of the roads I have travelled on in nearly 25 years of driving have been perfect, you just need to adapt to the situation.

again, the intersection had nothing to doing with the idiot running the red light.

oh not at all, and I didn’t mean to infer that the intersection at all contributed to running the red.

Red light running is something that I’m now seeing on an almost daily basis as I slowly chug around Canberra in my old bus. And not just marginal stuff either, but deliberate decisions (as in this case) to go through a red light many seconds after it’s changed from yellow, and with all the time in the world to stop.

Pretty soon we’re going to start seeing injuries or fatalities where people move into an intersection after receiving the green and are collected by these arsehats. It’s almost happened to me already.

c_c™ said :

goggles13 said :

there is nothing wrong with the intersection, so its not the road that needs fixing, it is the stupid p-plater

Presumably your goggles are the type that obscure vision then.

That intersection could definitely use fixing, it’s as dodgy as hell.

I think that’s a completely different issue to what we’re seeing here though. I don’t for a minute think that poor intersection design contributed to this driver failing to stop for a red light – it’s just a P-plater in a hurry driving poorly.

It’s intersections like this that really need red light cameras – the government could honestly, for once, justify them as safety measures rather than revenue raising.

goggles13 said :

there is nothing wrong with the intersection, so its not the road that needs fixing, it is the stupid p-plater

Presumably your goggles are the type that obscure vision then.

Even more dangerous than speeding.

there is nothing wrong with the intersection, so its not the road that needs fixing, it is the stupid p-plater

That intersection should have been upgraded when they duplicated Lanyon Dr. It should be a proper grade separated interchange like all the subsequent ones between there and Morshead (which I believe will become grade separated as part of the Majura Parkway works)