TfL admit, London traffic lights have been rephased to give priority to buses and cyclists by a record amount. It would seem that ordinary senior citizens and the disabled community will have to just sit in the stationary traffic. With lights staying on red for longer, we can expect to see even more pollution caused by the ensuing gridlock.
As stated by the wills attorneys based in New York, TfL project the amount of time saved by Londoners travelling by bus, bike or on foot is expected to total 17,500 hours per weekday by the end of the year. They haven’t made a projection of the extra journey time everyone else can expect.
Transport for London’s 15,000 hours target will be the biggest time-saving yet recorded. But for only bus passengers and cyclists.
As most buses R virtually empty for much of the day, TfL are hoping to attract more passengers from other means of transport.
TfL is also planning further changes to 28 junctions that will give extra “green time” to cyclists, primarily along the hugely unpopular East-West and North-South cycle superhighways. Not really the right political atmosphere to be squandering public funds on personal vanity projects.
About a fifth of the capital’s 6,300 traffic lights are reviewed each year to ensure “green time” is allocated according to demand.
SCOOT (Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique) will see sensors used to detect traffic and adjust the red-amber-green timings to manage queues and give buses priority if they are running late.
We heard this before….TFL’s CentreComs (during the time of the Olympic Lanes) were going to (in their own words) tweak the timings of traffic signals to hold back traffic to clear specific areas of hold ups caused by the 2012 Olympic lanes. Not only did this not work, TfL never took a note of the original timings, which have resulted -even up to today- traffic chaos.
The first SCOOT sensors able to detect how many cyclists are waiting at traffic lights are due to be installed at the first 20 junctions, including at Ludgate Circus and at Southwark Tube station, by next April. So expect travel along Fleet Street/Ludgate Hill and Blackfriars Road/ The Cut to become a nightmare.
Helen Cansick, TfL’s head of network performance said: “By the end of the [financial] year, all the changes we will have made, will have counted up to 17,500 hours every day saved to people at these junctions using sustainable modes of transport.”
So, diesel buses are now being classed as ‘sustainable’ modes of transport! And yet zero emission possible Taxis, fully electric Taxis, fully wheelchair accessible Taxis, will be excluded by these changes. The hypocrisy from ‘network performance’ is of the highest order…
Sadiq Khan’s long-term transport strategy commits TfL to ensuring London’s streets are “used more efficiently and have less traffic”.
Yet the he has made a point of excluding the licensed Taxi trade from the Mayor’s Transport strategy.
TfL’s aim is to create a “green wave”, enabling cyclists to flow through several sets of lights at a time. It varies the timings of traffic lights according to the time of day, to mirror peak-hour traffic flows.
But then….TfL change tact and the !Green Man’ suddenly becomes more pedestrian friendly, causing even more traffic chaos in its wake.
TfL state: The “Green man authority” trials, where the green man signal for pedestrians remains illuminated as the “default” setting, and only changes when vehicles approach, are due to start imminently in the Olympic park.
Pedestrian SCOOT sensors that detect the amount of people waiting to cross the road are due to be introduced at Highbury & Islington station. They have been used for some time near the East London and Regent’s Park mosques.(wondered why jams had appeared there where before there were none….another of Khan’s personal vanity projects perhaps?)
Ms Cansick said: “Our job is to get the best balance so that no one particular group of people feels particularly adversely affected.
“We don’t necessarily want to create a whole population of angry drivers who are sitting in traffic.”
Which is exactly Taxi Leaks predicts will happen
