thirdcrank wrote:I'll pass, on the site visit.
I think you made the right choice. I've just been out and investigated. That's 20 minutes of my life I won't get back. There's watching the paint dry, watching the grass grow, and staring at the traffic lights on Leeds ring road waiting for them to change.
This is what there is now:
You can see there are "detector" type things (that's what I think they might be), pointing down at where somebody would be waiting by the bigger button. On the south side (Westbound) I waited there. Nothing happened. On the central bit I waited in the corresponding position and the lights did change, that's waiting to cross the north side. Presumably they think that if somebody's got as far as the central bit they want to cross. Except the automatic detection thing (if that's what it was) didn't happen when I came back an hour later and was waiting in the central section waiting to cross the south side. This only happens waiting to cross the north side. This is a bit silly for a cyclist, as that stretch of the ring road, especially from that position, has a fantastic sight line.
Anyyywaaayyy, I crossed over, got well out of the way and watched. The lights don't "default" to red, as suggested. They default to green. But sometimes, on the east bound carriageway, do go red for no apparent reason. There is a detector (in the blacktop), 2 actually, on Lingfield Drive, one of them quite well back, and it seems to respond quickly to cars coming out of Lingfield Drive, so good for cars/traffic flow. But rather obtusely it also makes the left turn onto Lingfield Drive red, which isn't necessary (as per last pic). But I'm fairly sure there were times when there was no car, no pedestrians, no cyclists, no nuffink, but the lights went red, on the north side (eastbound). I wondered if there's some setting where with a new set of lights on a fast road, they just turn them red every so often so that drivers get used to seeing them.
Who knows, I'll ask highways.
