Bizarre Report Suggests The Scrapping Of 80% Of Traffic Lights
Friday, 26. February 2016
Did you know that 80% of traffic lights could be scrapped without any detrimental affect on traffic flow? So says a report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). They could be replaced by filter-in-turn or all-way give way layouts at junctions (no I haven’t a clue either).
According to the report if we ditched all the unnecessary traffic lights we would avoid unnecessary delays and if this saved 2 minutes per trip it is estimated that the move would save the economy £16 billion a year. The study found that the number of traffic lights had increased by a staggering 25% since 2000.
In addition the report suggested that many bus lanes, cycle lanes, speed cameras and parking restrictions should go also – wow I’m with them on these thoughts. Cities in Germany and the Netherlands have already ditched 80% of their traffic lights successfully and the IEA believes that we could do the same.
The IEA finishes by saying, ‘The affect of these measures puts an enormous burden on the UK economy, It also imposes huge costs on road users, tax payers and communities.’ And I for one agree! By Graham Hill