£45m Liverpool City Centre Transport Scheme

[mr t]

RE: £45m Liverpool City Centre Transport Scheme

(12/08/2016 16:24)Enviro400 Wrote:  Some of them such as the St John's Lane and Lime Street lights are all part of a much larger synchronised system, which is why they appear to run through the cycle. Instead, what is happening is one light may be triggered and then in order to maintain sequence (designed to increase flow during congestion), the lights will seemingly change for no-one. This is a trade-off which unfortunately works against free-flow at night/quiet times, but works brilliantly during peak times. Other junctions which are standalone are 'smart' and respond to external triggers. Older junctions (generally the ones without pedestrian crossings) are get to timed sequences.

Smart traffic systems are much more complex than you'd think. The latest developments (not for Liverpool, but generally) are working on processing bus GPS and timetable data to work out which services require priority passage, then mixing this with traffic data and data from all the sensors within the system in order to work out which lights to trigger and for how long. It is clever stuff, all designed for good traffic flows and minimum congestion to all road users.

Absolute rubbish, they all used to work fine until this year, they cant be very "smart" given there are still queues daytimes peaks and evenings when there shouldnt be and traffic stops/starts all along Lime Street and The Strand and buses are constantly stopped at junctions for no reason, not very eco friendly, We dont need anymore fancy sensors on them, just for them to work correctly again like last year. There is no trigger for Queen Square bus station when its shut! OR the car park, and even the arm for the Royal Court changes to itself! There is a blip in the system software, There used to be 2 settings for junctions - simply for peak and off peak, so what has happened and what is wrong with these. There are junctions I travel through which I used to get through all green on my way home from town and have done for years, now i get stopped by at least 4 junctions (depending which route) which are doing there own standard thing all day and all night and no cars on the other arms anywhere to be seen, same as if I go shopping I notice there are umpteen others also doing it that never used to. This is not normal, but there is also "no problem"!? Absolutely pants. It is only since the computers were upgraded over night some months ago that they have gone absolutely awful. So please lets downgrade the computers back! We used to just be able to slow down approaching junctions knowing that in most places they would change as soon as you approach the stop line, now we have to stop, huff an puff, change radio stations, send a quick text message on phone and check our hair in the mirror, and then they might change. This is what causes stress and impatientness when driving, and jumping lights because people dont wanna wait another 2 minutes for them to change again.