Wednesday, December 30, 2015

BRIGG LIGHT JUMPERS MAKE OTHERS SEE RED

A contractor was out yesterday in Brigg, looking at traffic light controls on the A18.
We noted him looking inside the  lights' control box (near the nursery) and later doing likewise at the adjoining Pelican crossing. Just routine checks being made or altering  the sequence?
Yesterday morning we witnessed a car  waiting at a red light beside the vet's surgery. When the right-turn only green arrow came on and another driver set off for Wesley Road, the driver nearest the vet's also put her foot down. But she had just gone through a red light!
This was not an isolated instance. We've received many reports of drivers setting off while a red light is showing. Could it be that rather than being careless, these motorists are  confused by the way the light sequence now operates?
It's a fact that hundreds of drivers every day find no difficulty coping with the traffic lights along Barnard Avenue. Once you've got used to it being different, there's no issue.
It's difficult to know what more North Lincolnshire Council, as the highway authority, can do. Signs about the altered sequence were erected some time ago. 
There is, or was, an offence of driving without due care and attention. Could this be relevant to what's now happing too often in Brigg?



2 comments:

Unknown said...

me & my partner witnised two cars going through the red light when the right hand light going into old courts road was green.

Ken Harrison said...

It's happening very frequently, Pete.
I suggest that there's both a practical and psychological influence on the so-called light-jumpers...
Practically, while stopped at the lights, the lead driver's concentration, in a queue, will, I argue,favour the right.....he's sitting on the right: he's looking more towards the right quarter for pedestrians crossing....and the nearest traffic light is on the right.
Psychologically....we've been conditioned to know the sequence of TL and we have the human quality of being able to predict.....so when a driver gets a cue
of amber, from whatever traffic signal....he's got the car in gear...and with peripheral green, he could well hit the gas and he's off down Barnard Ave.....not appreciating that the green was for right-turners.
My suggestion is that the stop-line is moved further back....in general, this will bring the left-side TL more in the line of vision of a waiting driver....