I am broadly in favour of roundabouts; much more effective than traffic lights at shifting metal along efficiently. However, Irish approaches to Irish challenges:

• It is a Yield Sign, not a Stop Sign; the “car in front may be a Toyota” but it will pull more braking g than Lewis Hamilton at Monaco to give way to a non-existent emergency vehicle. Perhaps because of:

• Local direction signs at the Yield line on the roundabout, on poles so short that they actually block your view of the huge Scania that is about to make your car L shaped.

• Top Tip: Town councils, why not plant lots of tall trees in the middle to limit visibility even more?

• Roundabouts on minor junctions that you could build 3 semi-detached houses on the middle circle. With gardens. There are moons of Jupiter with less diameter & more intelligence behind them.

• Don't indicate, 'cause that would be telling...

OR

• Indicate right (often in the left hand lane), then go straight-on like the meathead that you are.

Recently (Summer 07) a very busy 4-way junction near me was apparently positively affected by a traffic light failure. Initially and for about 2 days after, the old bulb-lights were left in place (albeit off), followed by a similar period where the light fittings were removed in their entirety.

Before these were replaced with brand new LED units, for that 5 day period the traffic never moved as well. Between us, my wife and I must have passed through this junction 25 times in total, & were never delayed, or even stationary. There was also no sign of queuing on the 2 minor roads on either side. Nor was there any accidents or evidence thereof. Now that they have been restored, traffic queues are a regular occurrence again.

Why even have lights there? At least, why not get a bean-counter with a clipboard to monitor traffic build up with & without them & scrap them if the benefit is indeed apparent? How many more junctions like this must exist??

Unless there is a pissing contest of some sort going on with neighbouring towns regarding how many traffic lights they each have, this does not make any sense.


Arrggh!!


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