WELLINGTON Waterloo Quay Junction. Too much traffic for the light change interval

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › WELLINGTON Waterloo Quay Junction. Too much traffic for the light change interval

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afe66

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#1614340 19-Aug-2016 13:09

Missed my first ever flight a couple of weeks ago when it took 45 minutes to drives from Te Papa to the airport on I thought would be a lazy sunday afternoon...

TinyTim

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#1614357 19-Aug-2016 14:15

Frustrated with traffic lights, I kept a record of the number of red and green lights I got when driving around central Wellington for a period of a week or so. I had 80% red and 20% green. (This excludes rush hour stop-start traffic when traffic is stopped beyond the intersection - then it doesn't matter if the light's green or not, you gotta stop.) Even driving from the motorway to Aro St and back at 9pm was something like 1 green to 8 or 9 red. The only time I had consecutive greens was in the flow on Jervois Quay.

Our car reports it does about 5L/100km on the open road, and about 15L/100km on the bypass through Te Aro. So there's a real environmental incentive to get traffic flowing.

Bung

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#1614379 19-Aug-2016 14:41

How could it take that long? The highway signs at Paekakariki and Porirua regularly have a <10 min difference between times to CBD and airport. You must have gone around Oriental Bay for an ice cream or joined the queue for one.

Having been very sceptical about the estimated time signs I've just asked how they are calculated. Apparently the system tracks actual journeys by matching the Bluetooth signatures passing sensors.

MikeB4

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#1614403 19-Aug-2016 15:25

Lower Hutt got rid of a lot of it's traffic lights and replaced them with round abouts, for the most it has greatly improved traffic flow with the exception of the Rutherford Street/Queens Drive intersection on Saturday morning which is a nightmare due to the Riverbank Market.

However I don't think there is much scope for doing this in Wellington city, it would be a nightmare for pedestrians.

sbiddle

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#1614415 19-Aug-2016 15:38

MikeB4:

Lower Hutt got rid of a lot of it's traffic lights and replaced them with round abouts, for the most it has greatly improved traffic flow with the exception of the Rutherford Street/Queens Drive intersection on Saturday morning which is a nightmare due to the Riverbank Market.

The Hutt loves putting pedestrian crossings right next to roundabouts which is just crazy traffic planning.

Kyanar

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#1614750 20-Aug-2016 09:54

sbiddle:

MikeB4:

Lower Hutt got rid of a lot of it's traffic lights and replaced them with round abouts, for the most it has greatly improved traffic flow with the exception of the Rutherford Street/Queens Drive intersection on Saturday morning which is a nightmare due to the Riverbank Market.

The Hutt loves putting pedestrian crossings right next to roundabouts which is just crazy traffic planning.

I guess The Hutt borrowed Brisbane traffic planners, we have clever ideas like freeway offramps (80km/hr) exiting onto roundabouts.

Behodar

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#1614834 20-Aug-2016 14:59

sbiddle: The Hutt loves putting pedestrian crossings right next to roundabouts which is just crazy traffic planning.

Sounds like bliss to have that assurance. In Whakatane we have a mixture of real pedestrian crossings next to roundabouts, and "courtesy crossings" next to other roundabouts. You never know whether the car in front is going to stop at the crossing, or indeed whether a pedestrian is going to barge out without looking...

On the other hand, we don't have the traffic volume of Lower Hutt :)

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CJC

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#1655114 20-Oct-2016 14:35

Don't know if anyone else has noticed this yet, but I think the light sequence changed overnight at the Waterloo Quay - Bunny Street intersection (the original subject of this thread).

All the lights were red to allow pedestrians to cross Waterloo Quay, once they were clear(ish) the Bunny Street lights went green. This allowed more cars to leave Bunny Street than is normally the case.

After that the arrow for turning across Waterloo Quay into Bunny Street cycled to green (possibly with the rest of the northbound traffic). As usual it went red again before all the cars got thru - don't enter if you can't get thru people! But the main difference was the pedestrian crossing light had more of a delay. So people weren't waiting for a car to get thru (at least those obeying the lights).

I think it's better. Hopefully that wasn't a default setting and will revert to the old sequence later.

dfnt

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#1655140 20-Oct-2016 15:17

Hopefully it stays that way..

I don't understand why they still continue to have pedestrian crossing at the same time as turning traffic

They should run on separate phases altogether, you always end up with people who think it's ok to cross when the pedestrian light is flashing red

mattwnz

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#1655146 20-Oct-2016 15:24

I am surprised there aren't more crashes and pedestrian injuries around those roads. It was always a pedestrian nightmare when crossing those roads to get to the station. I think they are really pushing the limits on the amount of traffic those roads can hold during rush hour, with traffic light control. I suppose at least they aren't round abouts.

jimbob79

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#1655158 20-Oct-2016 15:26

nas:

Hopefully it stays that way..

I don't understand why they still continue to have pedestrian crossing at the same time as turning traffic

They should run on separate phases altogether, you always end up with people who think it's ok to cross when the pedestrian light is flashing red

I guess the only reason for having the current phasing is for optimization for traffic flow.

jimbob79

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#1655159 20-Oct-2016 15:27

mattwnz:

I am surprised there aren't more crashes and pedestrian injuries around those roads. It was always a pedestrian nightmare when crossing those roads to get to the station. I think they are really pushing the limits on the amount of traffic those roads can hold during rush hour, with traffic light control. I suppose at least they aren't round abouts.

In ten years I've have had three bumper to leg contact by taxi drivers. Lucky nothing serious.

mattwnz

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#1655164 20-Oct-2016 15:42

MikeB4:

Lower Hutt got rid of a lot of it's traffic lights and replaced them with round abouts, for the most it has greatly improved traffic flow with the exception of the Rutherford Street/Queens Drive intersection on Saturday morning which is a nightmare due to the Riverbank Market.

However I don't think there is much scope for doing this in Wellington city, it would be a nightmare for pedestrians.

It is the worst for driving IMO. Especially as some of the roundabouts are too small for buses to get around. So you can often get buses who get stuck on the roundabout, and require drivers to back up so they can get all the way around. Problem with roundabouts is that they assume people all know the road rules and know how to signal correctly for roundabouts, but most people don't know the signal rules.

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