Unique Traffic Signals

[traffic-light-man]

Not quite unique (as I'll prove in a moment), but I spotted this arrangement in London, and wondered how common it is for there to be three signals in a line where there are essentially two closely associated secondaries on the same side of the carriageway, one behind the other?

Another two I'm aware of (without doing too much thinking) are here on the A6 in Chorley, and here on the A666 in Blackburn.

[OliverH]

Not quite unique (as I'll prove in a moment), but I spotted this arrangement in London, and wondered how common it is for there to be three signals in a line where there are essentially two closely associated secondaries on the same side of the carriageway, one behind the other?

The one head with two different styles of surround Shurley is unique. It looks a bit weird though

[Nathan_A_RF]

Got this in Southampton
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.93618 ... ?entry=ttu

[Sirsquinn]

Not quite unique (as I'll prove in a moment), but I spotted this arrangement in London, and wondered how common it is for there to be three signals in a line where there are essentially two closely associated secondaries on the same side of the carriageway, one behind the other?

Another two I'm aware of (without doing too much thinking) are here on the A6 in Chorley, and here on the A666 in Blackburn.

Did have that here A658
https://maps.app.goo.gl/E4ZMqvXbUcruceeZ9 but the junction has recently been upgraded and I'm not sure if all have been replaced. Alot of people do go through that red light though so maybe that was the need for so many.

[Darren]

These must be pretty much unique, I'd imagine. The scenario - you're coming out of here, in Aylesford in Kent:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LfqwcRvyXRTypo4z8

and here's the traffic signals that you see:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/fytHcCsy3NadHQVr7

Light-up "no left turn", "no right turn" signs and straight ahead "no motor vehicles". What a great choice!

(I think the idea is that the no right/no left turn signs turn on and off depending on the state of the traffic lights controlling the High Street, but it seems an inelegant way of doing it!)

[ReissOmari]

Not quite unique (as I'll prove in a moment), but I spotted this arrangement in London, and wondered how common it is for there to be three signals in a line where there are essentially two closely associated secondaries on the same side of the carriageway, one behind the other?

Another two I'm aware of (without doing too much thinking) are here on the A6 in Chorley, and here on the A666 in Blackburn.

I've been meaning to ask this question, so I'm glad you've brought it up! There is a junction here in Birmingham that has 2 nearside secondaries, and I've always wondered why?

Did have that here A658
https://maps.app.goo.gl/E4ZMqvXbUcruceeZ9 but the junction has recently been upgraded and I'm not sure if all have been replaced. Alot of people do go through that red light though so maybe that was the need for so many.

Wow, what a messy junction, this is the perfect example of where red and amber arrows would work like a dream. I can see there used to be a second 'left and ahead' secondary signal too, I can imagine it being quite confusing without a central refuge.

[MotorwayGuy]

This has three but the one to the right was probably added due to visibility issues with the bend.

[freebrickproductions]

These must be pretty much unique, I'd imagine. The scenario - you're coming out of here, in Aylesford in Kent:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LfqwcRvyXRTypo4z8

and here's the traffic signals that you see:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/fytHcCsy3NadHQVr7

Light-up "no left turn", "no right turn" signs and straight ahead "no motor vehicles". What a great choice!

(I think the idea is that the no right/no left turn signs turn on and off depending on the state of the traffic lights controlling the High Street, but it seems an inelegant way of doing it!)

Also kinda strange how the bridge opposite there still has a functioning pair of traffic lights facing it, despite rather obviously having long since been closed to vehicles!

[L.J.D]

This one used to have 3. But recently updated and took the 3rd one away. I imagine it's down to red light running. Installations with lots of heads tend to have RLCs I've noticed.
Though odd at that location because the RLC was taken out of use when they added the extra arrow phases. I imagine configuring them with the RLC was confusing so it was taken out of use. If you look at the RLC it's just an empty shell.

[wallmeerkat]

Here's a pedestrian crossing with 3

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.6713589 ... ?entry=ttu

It's a 40mph 4 lane road, but it makes up for the one about a quarter of a mile later which has 1 either side

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.6741012 ... ?entry=ttu

[OliverH]

Not quite unique (as I'll prove in a moment), but I spotted this arrangement in London, and wondered how common it is for there to be three signals in a line where there are essentially two closely associated secondaries on the same side of the carriageway, one behind the other?

Another two I'm aware of (without doing too much thinking) are here on the A6 in Chorley, and here on the A666 in Blackburn.

Did have that here A658
https://maps.app.goo.gl/E4ZMqvXbUcruceeZ9 but the junction has recently been upgraded and I'm not sure if all have been replaced. Alot of people do go through that red light though so maybe that was the need for so many.

Use that Junction a lot when getting the bus at the top of the hill and when in the back of the car. and yes they have all been replaced and I believe they also added ground detectors to control some of the phases such as vehicles using a turning lane; if there are no cars in the turning lanes then the arrow won't light up and traffic in the other direction will have a slightly longer green. also noticed that the direction from Bramhope has now three arrows as opposed to the previous ball and arrow(the arrow was added later on after the signals were first replaced) this allows as I've said to make it so the right turners can be on read whilst other traffic can move on green without conflicts with oncoming traffic. also to note that the mast arms were removed too with the concrete bases being capped off.

another update is that the sign with the patch I posted in another thread has been replaced as part of the works. I wonder if they ever revealed what was underneath.

[OliverH]

ow about these poles.

[L.J.D]

Whilst not unique as such but definitely poor in planning this junction has been through 4 sets of whole head replacements in 15 years! Why it went through so many heads I don't know.
Seems very wasteful considering they were only partial refurbs in some cases as well.

[freebrickproductions]

ow about these poles.

Reminds me of some of the more ornamental masts cities and towns will sometimes install in their (historic) downtown areas here in the US. Given that Belfast's City Hall is right there, I suspect they were installed/kept for a similar reason.

[wallmeerkat]

ow about these poles.

Reminds me of some of the more ornamental masts cities and towns will sometimes install in their (historic) downtown areas here in the US. Given that Belfast's City Hall is right there, I suspect they were installed/kept for a similar reason.

The crossing/bus crossover behind city hall has regular grey posts https://www.google.com/maps/@54.5960451 ... ?entry=ttu

[traffic-light-man]

Whilst not unique as such but definitely poor in planning this junction has been through 4 sets of whole head replacements in 15 years! Why it went through so many heads I don't know.
Seems very wasteful considering they were only partial refurbs in some cases as well.

No conclusive answer, but what sometimes happens is that sites are refurbished as part of routine works programmes, but then an unforseen improvement scheme ends up coming along (unfortunately) further down the line and makes significant enough changes that the newish equipment is retired. Developer-promoted schemes are a common case of this sort of thing. That's possibly an explanation of the 4Gs being replaced with more 4Gs. It seems wasteful, but on the plus side, all of the equipment is then the same age and uses the same technology, which is not a bad thing from an asset management point of view, and the retired equipment is still in good enough condition that it can be redeployed elsewhere or broken down for spares.

It's something that is apparent in areas where the LHA made the move to LED in larger numbers, because the signals will often feel 'new' owing to the fact they're LED. I think this sort of thing will become more and more common with LED retrofit programmes and signal optimisation type schemes, too. Those might replace the signals heads and sometimes the controllers, but ultimately they're not usually addressing problems with poor design, infrastructure, accessibility and capacity (for any category of road user), so there's always the potential for those sorts of schemes to come along.

What looks a bit odd here was the change from 3Gs to 4Gs, which included the poles and controller, by the looks of things. It's difficult to say without the context, there could be all sorts of reasons for that.

[L.J.D]

What looks a bit odd here was the change from 3Gs to 4Gs, which included the poles and controller, by the looks of things. It's difficult to say without the context, there could be all sorts of reasons for that.

I think when they replaced the 3Gs with the 4Gs the poles were just painted black because you can see signs of wear here and the cranked pole around the corner is still the same just black. I was thinking maybe the 3Gs were taken out of service perhaps for spare parts elsewhere in the district because Wakefield City Centre has alot of 3G installations infact its nearly all 3G. Given how the 3G isn't made anymore I'd say that's probably the reason.

I agree that the new installation which may seem wasteful is much better than the old 4G one because it caters for pedestrians all arms and given the location it's needed. I'm all for adding pedestrian faculties where possible it's annoying to see newly refurbished junctions without them.

It would be interesting to know how long the MSH were in service too. I bet that installation had Mellors at one time.

[OliverH]

Whilst not unique as such but definitely poor in planning this junction has been through 4 sets of whole head replacements in 15 years! Why it went through so many heads I don't know.
Seems very wasteful considering they were only partial refurbs in some cases as well.

No conclusive answer, but what sometimes happens is that sites are refurbished as part of routine works programmes, but then an unforseen improvement scheme ends up coming along (unfortunately) further down the line and makes significant enough changes that the newish equipment is retired. Developer-promoted schemes are a common case of this sort of thing. That's possibly an explanation of the 4Gs being replaced with more 4Gs. It seems wasteful, but on the plus side, all of the equipment is then the same age and uses the same technology, which is not a bad thing from an asset management point of view, and the retired equipment is still in good enough condition that it can be redeployed elsewhere or broken down for spares.

It's something that is apparent in areas where the LHA made the move to LED in larger numbers, because the signals will often feel 'new' owing to the fact they're LED. I think this sort of thing will become more and more common with LED retrofit programmes and signal optimisation type schemes, too. Those might replace the signals heads and sometimes the controllers, but ultimately they're not usually addressing problems with poor design, infrastructure, accessibility and capacity (for any category of road user), so there's always the potential for those sorts of schemes to come along.

What looks a bit odd here was the change from 3Gs to 4Gs, which included the poles and controller, by the looks of things. It's difficult to say without the context, there could be all sorts of reasons for that.

For these, they only replaced the controller and the heads everything else was kept. The two poles on the left and the push button units were replaced, I think, when a vehicle collided with the poles. think originally this junction was a Mellor pelican one but was replaced with a Microsennse Puffin because of a similar accident with a bus.

[Nathan_A_RF]

Button for horse riders to extend the green time at this junction
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.3978991 ... ?entry=ttu

[L.J.D]

Button for horse riders to extend the green time at this junction

I imagine these do the same thing I'm yet to test them but on a bicycle.