Longest wait at traffic lights?

[Rambo]

Ok, i've not come across a specific thread for this so excuse me if one already exists.

I nominate the swing bridge over the Manchester ship canal to Wigg island, Runcorn. https://www.google.com/maps/@53.3443632 ... 312!8i6656
The lights aren't for the swinging of the bridge but to control the traffic over it as it's only wide enough for single file only. You can wait here up to 2/3 minutes and not even see a vehicle come the other way ! And the sign is pretty accurate.

[Fenlander]

Alexandra Road, Wisbech. The exit of a one-way street into a busy junction that includes a bridge and it only gets a green every other cycle of the lights and that lets only 3 or 4 cars out each time. If there’s any sort of delay in the junction and you miss your turn for whatever reason (even a slow pedestrian walking across the road) you will sit there for several minutes with no other way to escape.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Ang ... 81c8f23362

[Johnathan404]

This is going to be difficult to judge because most people subconsciously exaggerate how long they are stopped at red lights for.

I used to spend ages waiting for these lights to change. I think it registers as about 3 minutes on the car's trip computer. Understandable given the location, and they will be set to deter people from using the LAR to beat the rush hour traffic. What used to annoy me is that they'd be timed to go green just before the following lights went red!

There is a video of fixed-time temporary traffic lights in Galway with a countdown until they go green. It starts at 190 seconds.

[jervi]

In the recently released TSM CH6 6.2.1 it says:

At junctions, cycle times greater than 120 s are not recommended.

So I'm trying to think of somewhere I've waited longer than 2 minutes for the lights to change. And I can't think of a single time, except at temporary lights.
* Right turn takes a while (maybe 90 seconds, enough to always be able to drop people off) https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.99953 ... 312!8i6656
* Right turns here also take a long time, probs no longer than 100 seconds, but as a whole cycle it may be 120 seconds. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.24231 ... 312!8i6656
(although it is talking about the whole cycle, so it should be counted as (change to green -> change to green) rather than (change to red - > change to green)

[Johnathan404]

A32 Gosport Road is another one where I reckon I've been held for five minutes, but I've never thought to measure it.

It is a difficult junction because the mainline is extremely congested all day, and people will complain that all the traffic lights aren't helping. If they were cycling through quickly then that would be making things worse.

The other problem is the speed humps on the side road mean that a lot of people miss the detector. You often see vehicles reversing up and down thinking that will help.

[Nathan_A_RF]

How about the 1/3 mile single-lane tunnel entrance to Samphire Hoe country park? (former works road for construction of the Channel Tunnel). Takes 3 1/2 minutes.

[ravenbluemoon]

Thinking of tunnels, I recall having to wait an awful long time for the traffic lights at the tunnel to Europa Point in Gibraltar. This was before the whole thing was closed for a while, virtually rebuilt, and then reopened again to two way traffic. We had to use it as we were working at the old water catchments in 2001, we were advised to lean on the horn and flash headlights on the blind corners, apparently the moped riders there don't care much for red traffic lights...

[Ambosc79]

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@52.7 ... .14p,1.24z
That one can take seemingly forever to go green. That whole network of lights (part of a horrible mess of a "gyratory" that sends the maximum amount of traffic under a low arch bridge, forcing many delivery lorries on circuitous routes) is infuriating as it is very badly timed. Exiting the railway station is also awkward because the lights there let 3 cars through at a time, (when a busy train comes in 50+ cars can turn up there at once) but coming out of Howard St can sometimes not seem to not have a green phase at all, as the lights on Castle Foregate and Cross St hog them (only to hit a red at the next one). It seems to be partly done to discourage use of New Park Rd/Beacalls Lane/Howard St as a ratrun to miss out queues that can extend a mile up towards Heathgates (caused mostly by all the badly timed lights...); but it doesn't succeed. It is still often quicker to do that, the problem light just clogs up narrow side streets as well.

[WHBM]

Do you still need DfT approval for an overall cycle time greater than 2 minutes at a junction ? With a statutory minimum of 6 seconds green that seems to give a potential maximum of 114 seconds. Doesn't seem to apply to TTLs, or to various single lane alternations as described above.

[Duple]

Here!

The wait some evenings can feel like forever!

It is most peculiar because the other part of the junction Here! is almost an instant change..

I have reported the issue.. it looks like there is some form of sensor in the road, which may not be working ?

[TS]

Often 2 minutes 38 seconds at rush-hour, pulling out onto Whitelegg Way A347 here:
https://goo.gl/maps/Ln6fVrxjrMxTkBUa6

...and it's not like there are a lot of approaches to cycle through; it's only this and the mainline (two-way green).

I know it's 2 minutes 38 seconds because I've timed it to the seconds on the music track on the radio!

It's also got a disproportionately short green for this approach - often only 7 or 8 vehicles get through, especially if a bus is at the front!

[Alderpoint]

Tunnel Munt la Schera has got to be the longest wait. It's a single track tunnel in far SW of Switzerland giving access to the Italian town of Livigno (which does have another year-round access for the south via a high pass).

On Saturday mornings in winter, it is open in the direction from Switzerland to Italy from 6am to 9am. It is then closed for an hour whilst the traffic clears in that direction, and then opens from 10am to 6pm in the other direction. So (worst case) you can end up waiting max 4 hours in one direction, or 9 hours in the other!

I usually take the Bernina Pass instead - weather permitting - which I think is the highest pass in Switzerland which is kept open all winter.

[crb11]

Potentially several hours at the end of Chaucer Road, Cambridge, if you're on a bicycle (unless they've fixed it). It's sensor-controlled, so only gets a green cycle if there's a vehicle waiting, but the sensor the council installed doesn't detect most bikes. I ended waiting a few minutes at 1am before realising the other roads had had multiple green lights and that the likelihood of a car going through before about 6 wasnt high...

[scragend]

Tunnel Munt la Schera has got to be the longest wait. It's a single track tunnel in far SW of Switzerland giving access to the Italian town of Livigno (which does have another year-round access for the south via a high pass).

On Saturday mornings in winter, it is open in the direction from Switzerland to Italy from 6am to 9am. It is then closed for an hour whilst the traffic clears in that direction, and then opens from 10am to 6pm in the other direction. So (worst case) you can end up waiting max 4 hours in one direction, or 9 hours in the other!

I usually take the Bernina Pass instead - weather permitting - which I think is the highest pass in Switzerland which is kept open all winter.

Unsurprisingly I can't beat that, but I remember having to wait a long time at the traffic lights to enter the Homer Tunnel on the way to Milford Sound (NZ). I think the wait is something like ten minutes.

It wasn't helped by the fact that the driver of the tour bus at the head of the queue let all his passengers off to take photographs of the keas (I think) that were milling around. When the lights changed to green the bus didn't move off because its passengers weren't on it. Everyone had to manoeuvre round it (and through all the passengers) which wasted a fair bit of the green phase.

[traffic-light-man]

I remember having to wait a long time at the traffic lights to enter the Homer Tunnel on the way to Milford Sound (NZ). I think the wait is something like ten minutes.

It wasn't helped by the fact that the driver of the tour bus at the head of the queue let all his passengers off to take photographs of the keas (I think) that were milling around. When the lights changed to green the bus didn't move off because its passengers weren't on it. Everyone had to manoeuvre round it (and through all the passengers) which wasted a fair bit of the green phase.

The GSV of Homer Tunnel shows a sign mentioning a 15 minute wait, but more alarmingly that they just turn the signals off at night!

Edit: The GSV at the other end appears to show an update with new signals and a sign suggesting that they're now on VA rather than fixed time, with the 15 minute wait sign having disappeared. Still turning them off at night though.

[scragend]

The GSV of Homer Tunnel shows a sign mentioning a 15 minute wait, but more alarmingly that they just turn the signals off at night!

Edit: The GSV at the other end appears to show an update with new signals and a sign suggesting that they're now on VA rather than fixed time, with the 15 minute wait sign having disappeared. Still turning them off at night though.

It's mad isn't it! I wouldn't have liked to encounter a vehicle coming the other way, in a narrow, bare rock tunnel, in the dark. At least the new sign at the top end of the tunnel seems to indicate that they have shortened the time the lights are off for from between 6pm and 9am, to between 8pm and 6am.

[jervi]

Potentially several hours at the end of Chaucer Road, Cambridge, if you're on a bicycle (unless they've fixed it). It's sensor-controlled, so only gets a green cycle if there's a vehicle waiting, but the sensor the council installed doesn't detect most bikes. I ended waiting a few minutes at 1am before realising the other roads had had multiple green lights and that the likelihood of a car going through before about 6 wasnt high...

Unfortunately a lot of arms of junctions with really low traffic throughputs like driveways controlled by lights only give that arm a green when it detects a vehicle waiting, I feel like there needs to be some sort of push button or camera that can be used in conjunction with an induction loop for allowing cyclists and horses to pass through without waiting hours or breaking the law

[AndyB]

All other things being equal, I find that cycling along the edge of an induction loop usually does the trick.

[IAN]

Indefinitely!

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been unlucky but there have been several occasions when I’ve been waiting at temporary lights that have ‘stuck’ on red at both ends. The question when this happens is what to do? Presumably it's never legal to drive through on red no matter how long the wait. The reality is that after a few minutes waiting, the urge to get moving wins!

Ian (M5 Driver)

[jervi]

Under normal conditions, these lights (right turn) take over 2 minutes to change.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.99964 ... 312!8i6656
So yesterday, these lights were red and a cyclist in front of me stopped at them. I was in the other lane and (going ahead/left), drove around the corner and parked 120 metres up the road. Got out of the car, and walked back in that direction and across in front the cyclist who was still waiting there. It must of been over 2 minutes, shortly after (maybe 20 seconds) they turned green and let traffic through.
By the looks of it, there are three loops in the ground, when the furthest back one detects a waiting vehicle, it probably forces a green (otherwise it blocked traffic heading eastbound on the B2272).
I'd imagine when this gyratory was built in the mid 1990s, it used to have traffic going around the gyratory and A272 westbound (now B2272) having green and the same time and having to switch lanes in the 70 metre section here. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.99922 ... 312!8i6656 but that probably caused a lot of accidents as the weaving distance isn't that long so they changed it that it only releases gyratory traffic when B2272 westbound it stopped by crossing pedestrians or at an set interval.