Welcome to Canberra, the nanny city!

Me no fry said :

Two issues, I think: 1) removing from the driver the ability to judge for themselves when it is safe to turn, and 2) the possible need for lights to be more responsive to traffic (ie if you’re the only car at an intersection controlled by traffic lights at 2 am, why shouldn’t the light turn green for you immediately).

Surely both issues can be discussed?

Define immediately? Reason being at 2am if your the only car around the lights do change about as fast as they can, which is about 6 seconds, 3 for amber, 3 for red on other phases then green for you. Couldn’t do it any faster.

Pork Hunt said :

In many countries overseas, traffic lights flash amber in times of negligible traffic. This tells drivers to be alert, not alarmed and treat the intersection as if it had no lights, i.e. give way to the right.

I’m with Pork. They do it in Adelaide too, or they used to. Turn the lights on at peak hours and flashing amber the rest of the time. The fuel saving alone would have to be worth a few thousand cars. Where are the Greens?

housebound said :

You’re all looking at this the wrong way.

In these hectic times, the ACT Government has implemented a means of making us take those little breaks we all need.

LOL That’s true, but can you imagine what Australia’s GDP would be like if only those bloody Sydneysiders and Melbournians would get off their arses and go do some work instead of sitting in traffic jams all day?

troll-sniffer said :

In most countries turn on red is the norm, they only signpost it when you can’t. Most countries assume their drivers have passed their eighth birthday and can make some decisions for themselves.

Pity then that so many drivers in the ACT act as if they’re only 7.

I blame cyclists – it’s obviously their fault!

You’re all looking at this the wrong way.

In these hectic times, the ACT Government has implemented a means of making us take those little breaks we all need.

Think of it as slow travel.

We can sit and contemplate for a whole three or more minutes while we wait for that red traffic light to turn green, and we don’t even need to be nicotene addicts to gain social acceptance for the practice.

The ACT Government should be congratulated and encouraged to put more badly programmed lights in. The cost is easily covered by putting speed cameras down the road for anyone who feels they need to catch up to where they would have been if only the light were green.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Is this Whiny Exaggerating Little Pussies Who Like To Cry About Everything And Are Driven To Murderous Rage By Traffic Lights And If I Kill Somebody It’ll Be All Your Fault Anonymous?

Great! What’d I miss? You just started? Awesome. What’s first on the agenda?

WELPWLTCAEAADTMRBTLAIIKSIBAYFA 101 – Why We Have So Many Traffic Controls: Because You’re An Aggressive Wanker Who Drives Like An Idiot And You’re Proud Of It

Is there nothing you don’t like about the way traffic is regulated in the ACT, or has it reached a state of perfection?

Two issues, I think: 1) removing from the driver the ability to judge for themselves when it is safe to turn, and 2) the possible need for lights to be more responsive to traffic (ie if you’re the only car at an intersection controlled by traffic lights at 2 am, why shouldn’t the light turn green for you immediately).

Surely both issues can be discussed?

My mate has a theory that Canberra traffic lights work on the loneliness principle.

They hold you up until someone else comes along to keep them company.

He is right, and you know it.

Jethro said :

…The only reason I can think of them existing is that the government, like me, is fully aware of the general incompetence of ACT drivers, and has this has an extra safeguard against their generally negligent and incapable driving.

I’d say that’s pretty spot on.

Is this Whiny Exaggerating Little Pussies Who Like To Cry About Everything And Are Driven To Murderous Rage By Traffic Lights And If I Kill Somebody It’ll Be All Your Fault Anonymous?

Great! What’d I miss? You just started? Awesome. What’s first on the agenda?

WELPWLTCAEAADTMRBTLAIIKSIBAYFA 101 – Why We Have So Many Traffic Controls: Because You’re An Aggressive Wanker Who Drives Like An Idiot And You’re Proud Of It

So, is that all you have to winge about driving around Canberra?

I recently spent 3 hours getting from Darling Harbour to Pheasants nest & paid $3.80 for the priveledge of using a “freeway”.

I’m with youami. When I moved to Canberra the city had a reputation for being full of roundabouts, but TAMS seem to have found a discount by buying their traffic lights in bulk, and are moving towards installing them at every driveway and ant hill.

The point about California is a little misguided though. With more cars comes more risk, so they need more straightforward road rules to mitigate the risk. Here, where the risk is smaller, we can allow more confusion and frustration, and confusion about road rules means more money for TAMS to spend on unnecessary traffic lights. At least, I think that’s their reasoning.

One positive, at least the road sensors work properly on our lights and the lights change accordingly, well early morning and late night anyway.

I think the idea of turn lights is sound, but maybe what we need is more where the red arrow turns off after a little while, making it a right turn with care light. But alas most of the drivers in this town are too stupid or drive too fast for this to happen hence why we have the lights they way they are.

I’m surprised how many people are defending this ridiculous system. In no other Australian city do you have to wait for a green arrow at virtually every traffic light. It’s a purely Canberra version of f***wittery.

After returning from overseas I ran a few red lights when turning the corner several times before I got used to sitting and waiting at a perfectly clear road with good visibility.

If the arrow is red and the road is deserted and a tree fell in the wood but nobody saw it…is that wrong?

Just make sure there’s no red light camera lurking.

Geez what a bloody rant. The number one reason that most intersections are controlled by separate turning signals is that there are a large number drivers/riders on our roads that do not understand give way rules and end up crashing into people when they fail to give way turning through these traffic lights. As the number of accidents increase, TAMS ends up changing the traffic lights to control turning and lower the number of accidents.

If you want to have something decent to rant about, have a go at TAMS’ complete inability to manage traffic by synchronising different sets of traffic lights to enable traffic to flow smoothy and not stop and start at every set like Northbourne Ave, Yamba Dr, Drakeford Dr etc..

Thoroughly Smashed said :

Geez Louise, if you people are going to rant about something engage the grey matter first will you?

Aside from the OP’s apparentl belief that they know better than the people whose job it is to set up and maintain the roads, there’s this:

arescarti42 said :

Blah etc.

You must not have noticed that the intersection to which you refer isn’t even a T. Barrier Street is 30m down the road so it necessarily operates as a four way intersection.

I’m perfectly aware of Barrier street 30 metres away, it still doesn’t stop the traffic light signaling from being retarded.

Newcastle street is 2 lanes in each direction, there’s even a big long slip lane to help vehicles turning from Barrier street onto Newcastle street. There’s no reason traffic from Barrier street couldn’t merge into the right lane of Newcastle street whilst people from Collie street are turning left.

The slip way and giveway/lane markings wouldn’t exist if traffic from Collie street wasn’t meant to be turning at the same time.

Thoroughly Smashed said :

Geez Louise
etc etc…

I never said I knew any better, hence my comment on last line of my OP: “I want to know the real logic behind these ridiculous decisions”. As other posters have mentioned nowhere else in the world do what ACT do! And besides, how do you know if I am not an engineer or a cartographer or town planner?

I agree with your comment about Collie/Barrier, but why still have red arrows?

Ah yes, the Australian Standards. Standards that are typically behind the rest of the world and then some. Heck, the Australian standard for vehicles in this country still allow chronically unsafe vehicles on the road.

But aren’t the red arrows meant to stop cars turning right into oncoming traffic? A head-on at 80km/h is usually fatal, isn’t it?

“Most countries assume their drivers have passed their eighth birthday and can make some decisions for themselves.

As for this post, I agree 110%. Canberra’s after hours traffic lights are a joke, a waste of public money and time, and to be quite honest, often dangerously frustrating. “

OMG! The lights are causing me to… what? Get angry about their colour? It must be so difficult to wait for a change and if it’s really that frustrating then leave home earlier. The additional money must really sting – is that the reason we don’t have annual vehicle inspections? Was the money spent specifically to annoy ACT drivers with extra lights?

If, while driving, you get dangerously frustrated AND you have passed your 8th birthday you may need meds and a aluminum bennie and to hand back your licence.

Geez Louise, if you people are going to rant about something engage the grey matter first will you?

Aside from the OP’s apparentl belief that they know better than the people whose job it is to set up and maintain the roads, there’s this:

arescarti42 said :

Blah etc.

You must not have noticed that the intersection to which you refer isn’t even a T. Barrier Street is 30m down the road so it necessarily operates as a four way intersection. The right turn from Collie St runs at the same time as the right turn from Barrier St, and other than some slight differences due to the second control line on the northbound carriageway it is much the same operation as almost every other intersection with dedicated right turn lanes.

But you’d already know all that if you’d bothered to go out and watch it operate.

Yes you are totally justified, the traffic lights in Canberra really, really bug the shit out of me.

My most hated traffic light is the one at the T intersection of Collie Street and Newcastle street in Fyshwick, next to Bunnings. When the right hand turn signal goes green to let people turn right onto Newcastle street, the left one stays red, which is totally retarded given that all the traffic travelling south on Newcastle street has been stopped by the people turning right onto it. There are other ones like this around town.

I can only assume whoever is responsible for setting up the lights is either totally incompetent or can’t be bothered setting them up correctly for the intersection.

I’d like to encourage people to bitch to TAMS about these crappy lights, maybe they will do something.

screaming banshee said :

At least we can turn left on a red sometimes.

In most countries turn on red is the norm, they only signpost it when you can’t. Most countries assume their drivers have passed their eighth birthday and can make some decisions for themselves.

As for this post, I agree 110%. Canberra’s after hours traffic lights are a joke, a waste of public money and time, and to be quite honest, often dangerously frustrating. The number of times I have been stopped on a deserted road for seemingly ages while some moron-designed lighting setup goes through a pre-programmed set of idiotic greens is past counting, and quite often I will make up the lost time by muttering fuck you to the authorities and flooring it for a kilometre or two in spite.

I have lived in many overseas countries, this is the only one that I do this in. I and plenty of others. Any supposed gains in safety are well and truly overridden by the actions of frustrated motorists. If we were only controlled by traffic lights at times and places where they were actually safer and of some use, I can guarantee the road toll would drop. And all you pedantically equipped arseholes lurking here pontificating about how it’s a voluntary tax when we speed on a deserted road etc, you can sit at home imagining that your level of absolute perfection pervades the whole of society, well I got news for you, it doesn’t and I’m glad because living in a nanny state is debilitating to one’s self-esteem

At least we can turn left on a red sometimes.

In many countries overseas, traffic lights flash amber in times of negligible traffic. This tells drivers to be alert, not alarmed and treat the intersection as if it had no lights, i.e. give way to the right.

I completely agree. I have thought about making the same rant on here a number of times. The red arrows are an absolute joke. The only reason I can think of them existing is that the government, like me, is fully aware of the general incompetence of ACT drivers, and has this has an extra safeguard against their generally negligent and incapable driving.