It's been reported that there has been a 30% rise in the number of traffic lights.

According to a recent article in The Daily Mail, motorists who feel like they are spending more and more time in gridlock caused by red lights are probably right.

A recent study by the RAC Foundation, ‘Every Second Counts’ shows that the number of traffic lights has increased to more than 25,000.  This is an increase of nearly a third during the last eight years and the report calls for many of them to be ripped out.

Instead of being used as a road safety device to stop accidents, it appears that they have increasingly been deployed by authorities to deliberately slow down traffic, create artificial jams and ‘prioritise’ buses and pedestrians. The report says the time has come to review their use ‘and consider whether some could be removed’.  It also calls for radical changes to the way in which traffic lights are used.

These include trials to allow cyclists to turn left at a red light; constant continental-style flashing amber lights at quieter times of the day; and reducing the ‘green man’ phase for pedestrians from ten seconds to a standard six seconds (as has already happened in London) to help traffic flow more freely.

The 30% increase in the number of lights between 2000 and 2008 has occu rred in parallel to a rise in speed cameras, which critics say have also been exploited by anti-car activists in local government.  The report also calls for radical changes to the way in which traffic lights are used.  London alone has 6,000 sets of traffic lights, accounting for nearly a quarter of the nation’s total.

Nationwide, some 8,500 sets, including around 3,200 in the capital, are programmed to give buses priority over cars.  But too often the decisions about their use are taken secretly by council chiefs and planners ‘behind closed doors’, says the RAC report.  The 36-page dossier, written by former Transport and Planning Chief Irving Yass, says the number of traffic signals equipped to give priority to buses rose from 3,801 at the start of 2007 to 8,425 at the end of 2008.  As well as looking to remove traffic lights the report says local authorities should see if they can replace them with alternatives such as mini-roundabouts. 

RAC Director Professor Stephen Glaister said: "Lights have an important role to play but with ever more-congested streets they need to be very finely tuned to ensure they are not doing more harm than good.”