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Dead Lights = Live Traffic (Video)


Colin James

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Traffic is flowing perfectly this morning coming into Hereford on the A449 Belmont Road, guess why? The traffic lights are out! Which proves the point of our campaign.

 

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I was interviewed live on BBC Hereford and Worcester again this morning as they are running a feature on this whole culture of traffic lights and the problems they can cause in some towns and cities.

See the pictures and movie that I took at 9am this morning.

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Hi Colin

 

I saw you filming this morning and can be seen driving past in a black Learner car.

 

It was great to be able to go straight though with minimal delay and again, after picking up my student, returning down Belmont road not a queue in sight.

 

I am all for free flowing traffic however, I would like to make the following point. At the end of your video you will notice that cars have stopped on the A49 giving way to traffic that is arriving from the Ross Road. As there are no lights, then this junction becomes a roundabout and as such, we should not give way to traffic from the left, but from the right. It appears that some education may be required here to help drivers know priories in the event that your petition is successful. I can foresee a few shunts at this junction as drivers seem to be unaware of how to deal with this particular part of the ASDA roundabout.

 

All in all though, a good campaign and one that I would be happy to fully support

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Hi Colin

 

I saw you filming this morning and can be seen driving past in a black Learner car.

 

It was great to be able to go straight though with minimal delay and again, after picking up my student, returning down Belmont road not a queue in sight.

 

I am all for free flowing traffic however, I would like to make the following point. At the end of your video you will notice that cars have stopped on the A49 giving way to traffic that is arriving from the Ross Road. As there are no lights, then this junction becomes a roundabout and as such, we should not give way to traffic from the left, but from the right. It appears that some education may be required here to help drivers know priories in the event that your petition is successful. I can foresee a few shunts at this junction as drivers seem to be unaware of how to deal with this particular part of the ASDA roundabout.

 

All in all though, a good campaign and one that I would be happy to fully support

 

I did notice that myself but as you said, we should all know that we give way to traffic coming from our right, however, did you notice the yellow squared box? as I think that while they were not going into that area the traffic from the Ross Road took advantage is more like what really was happening.

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The box is to prevent traffic from Ross Road and A49 entering to belmont road in the event that the opposite is not clear and really should only be necessary if the traffic lights are working. Free flowing roundabouts should not have a box junction. the fact that they had stopped was muscle memory and I do not believe had anything to do with the box. TBH, how many herefordians obey the box rule. You need only look at the junction at Commercial Road to see that they don't pay it attention. :)

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The box is to prevent traffic from Ross Road and A49 entering to belmont road in the event that the opposite is not clear and really should only be necessary if the traffic lights are working. Free flowing roundabouts should not have a box junction. the fact that they had stopped was muscle memory and I do not believe had anything to do with the box. TBH, how many herefordians obey the box rule. You need only look at the junction at Commercial Road to see that they don't pay it attention. :)

 

Hi Craig and welcome to the site.

 

I tend to agree with Colin's theory about the yellow box, it is not limited to preventing traffic entering from the Ross Road it is there for a reason and that also includes traffic entering from the city (to keep traffic flowing), especially as there is a set of pedestrian lights right there, they would NOT want traffic from the city entering that box as this would then prevent traffic from the Ross Road be able to move around the junction. I also think there is a small amount of 'hang on, whats happening here' as under normal circumstances you would normally stop at that point so while they are slowing down some people may actually stop, anticipating the lights changing in front of them and being aware of not entering the yellow box at the same time but then the traffic from the Ross Road are just taking advantage and continue driving. This is not a roundabout yet it is a weird junction with lights that are out of order, if it was turned back into a proper roundabout I think it would then be treated as one in fairness.

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  • 6 months later...

I think that as long as people don't use the roundabout aggressively, it would work
I do think there would be a few crashes initially as people are used to be selfish and forceful around Hereford because often its the only way to more forward (St Nicholas Church junction for example allows about 2 cars out and backs up to Whitecross daily.)

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  • 1 month later...

I think that as long as people don't use the roundabout aggressively, it would work

I do think there would be a few crashes initially as people are used to be selfish and forceful around Hereford because often its the only way to more forward (St Nicholas Church junction for example allows about 2 cars out and backs up to Whitecross daily.)

 

This video shows exactly how a roundabout works perfectly without traffic lights. 

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I absolutely agree Bill!
I'm just saying that there a quite a few drivers around Hereford who, for whatever reason, like to red red likes, cut people up and drive like everyone else should get out of the way.

I think it would be worth having a police car sit on there for the first few days just until everyone gets used to it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The box is to prevent traffic from Ross Road and A49 entering to belmont road in the event that the opposite is not clear and really should only be necessary if the traffic lights are working. Free flowing roundabouts should not have a box junction. the fact that they had stopped was muscle memory and I do not believe had anything to do with the box. TBH, how many herefordians obey the box rule. You need only look at the junction at Commercial Road to see that they don't pay it attention. :)

Many people in Hereford do not know that they can enter a box junction when turning right or left 

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  • 1 year later...

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