Those of you at yesterday's Open Meeting will be aware that we have been asked by the CSS Transport and Environment Committee to effectively come up with a number of 'wacky ideas' which might (say) help to relieve congestion in our towns & cities or make them safer/cheaper to run etc. This is based on the fact that we are no longer building new roads so we need to make better use of those we've already got. The hundreds of ideas (?) we come up with will be sifted by TCUG Committee before passing a 'short' list on to the Environment Committee later in the summer. To start off this process, here is a 'not so wacky' idea (actually in use in one part of UK - Northern Ireland): 'Magic ambers' The 'early start' sequence at signalled junctions, to provide right turning vehicles with priority, has some advantages over the (more widely used) 'early-cut-off' sequence. 'Early starts' can reduce confusion for pedestrians (one direction of traffic does not suddenly stop leaving the other still running - as with 'early cut-offs'), and it can handle more right turners per cycle (since vehicles can not only turn right during the 'early start' stage, but also later during the intergreen following the 'two-way running' stage). In some cases (depending on junction spacing & cycle time) it can also fit in better with UTC coordination. But the 'early start' suffers from accident potential, due to uncertainty for right turners on the change from 'early start' stage to 'two-way running' stage. This safety problem has, in recent years, often been relieved by the use of an 'indicative right turn arrow' during the 'early start' stage, but despite this the technique is little used outside NW England. The exception to this is Northern Ireland where (as I understand it) they routinely add an extra AMBER signal specifically to address the uncertainty issue - sited above the indicative green arrow and appearing for 3 secs after the termination of the associated green arrow. The fact that Northern Ireland have written such use of an amber (ie without an associated red) into their own version of TSR&GD, would appear to be an endorsement for the use of this technique - indeed they commonly refer to the signal as 'Magic Amber'. Arguably the rest of the UK should have access to this facility and furthermore (at some risk of delaying its use the odd decade!) it could possibly be enhanced by the use of 'amber arrows' instead of 'full ambers'. So, for the avoidance of doubt, the 'Magic Amber' sequence I am suggesting could be selectively trialled (outside NI) is: RED (direction 1), RED (direction 2) RED (direction 1), RED/AMBER (direction 2 - using the 'normal' amber) RED (direction 1), FULL GREEN + RT ARROW (direction 2) RED (direction 1), FULL GREEN + RT AMBER ARROW (direction 2 - using the 'magic' amber') RED (direction 1), FULL GREEN (direction 2) RED/AMBER (direction 1), FULL GREEN (direction 2) FULL GREEN (direction 1), FULL GREEN (direction 2) AMBER (direction 1), AMBER (direction 2 - using the 'normal' amber) But I'm sure y'all can come up with much 'wackier' ideas than this! Mervyn Leeds 0113 2476750 (Embedded image moved to file: pic09741.pcx) ________________________________________________________________________ The information in this email (and any attachment) may be for the intended recipient only. If you know you are not the intended recipient, please do not use or disclose the information in any way and please delete this email (and any attachment) from your system. Service of legal documents is not accepted by email ________________________________________________________________________ -- Binary/unsupported file stripped by Ecartis -- -- Type: application/octet-stream -- File: pic09741.pcx ----------------------------------------------------------- A message from the TCUG mailing list. For information about the list visit //www.freelists.org/webpage/tcug