Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Wightman road traffic lights - when did at a red light stop becoming compulsory?
So time for a bit of a rant / try to find out the best councillor to write to.
The traffic lights (or more specifically crossing them) by Harringay station have become my complete bugbear, No matter the time of day or night the pattern is thus:
Push button at traffic lights
See car in distance
Lights turn from green to yellow immediately on button press
Car in Distance speeds up
Car goes over the bump in the road as the green man starts flashing
So my questions is, when did a red light stop meaning that the car should stop, and when did yellow start to mean speed up?
A car actually had to skid to a halt the other day when I walked out when the green man was flashing, and then had the audacity to have a go at me. I've simply taken to shouting its a red light at drivers, if you see a crazy man shouting, that's me...
Now, if we were in the middle of the country, with a speed limit of 60mph on a main road I'd understand stopping might be difficult, but it's a 20mph limit, and going through the red light only gets you to the next queue of traffic maybe 10 seconds earlier.
Who is the best person to write to with regards to this? The council could make an absolute killing, so it would be in their interest of putting a camera there?
And.... relax...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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Odd that as a pedestrian I don't stand at the crossing cussing because the light is against me crossing but that some motorists do when it's their turn to wait.
Pedestrians are the ones with quite soft and easily breakable bodywork and we tend to come off somewhat worse in a collision so I don't actually care one jot if motorist feel they are in a Big Brother state by being filmed as they mow someone down. BTW. I think the same applies to those two footed idiots who think they will chance it by crossing when the traffic is moving legitimately and the little red bloke is showing.
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Permalink Reply by Philip on
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Have to agree with that bugbear of mine. Zebras are better by far. Often the controlled crossing means pedestrians waiting while the road is clear or drivers having to stop while no one is crossing
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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It depends upon the amount of traffic, pedestrians v motors. At some sites there is a constant stream of pedestrians and motor traffic is backed up. A controlled crossing manages this better by " batching " one lot and then the other.
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Particularly as traffic lights cost a huge amount of money to maintain - whereas zebras don't.
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Permalink Reply by KP on
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Sorry I couldn't disagree with you more Mostly Harmless. I use that crossing regularly and am convinced that if there weren't lights there would have been lots of very serious accidents by now. Cars used to regularly speed down there like it was a motorway. Now that the speed bumps are there this has reduced somewhat as they are forced to slow down, but I am disturbed that some people think it's ok to jump red lights. What you say about a "driver has to sit there, swearing at a red when there's nobody crossing" says more about the driver than anything else. The lights there don't stay red for very long. You just have enough time to cross and then they change so I really don't see much reason to stew about that.
Also on your point about zebra crossings, again, that has not been my experience in this area. As has been raised many times on this site the crossing on Endymion Road is a hazard. Drivers regularly race through. I have stood at that crossing many times, when its been perfectly obvious that I am waiting to cross (not chatting to people or strolling along), and drivers have just raced on oblivious. If I had crossed I would have been knocked over, plain and simple. I am convinced having traffic lights there would make it much safer for pedestrians than a zebra crossing which many drivers choose to ignore. Although it might raise the blood pressure of drivers who can't stand waiting at red lights!
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Permalink Reply by Geoff on
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To add a fourth point where there are blatent infringements by many drivers - at the top of Wightman Rd, the junction with Turnpike Lane. Cars travel up Wightman, then turn left at the lights and are forever making U-turns before the railway bridge so that they can travel east along Turnpike Lane, because there is 'No Right Turn' in to Turnpike Lane.
This is fundamentally a very dangerous manoeuvre and an infringement that will no doubt cause accidents (or may already have done so), and most annoying for drivers proceeding in an easterly direction as well as those going west, often in heavy traffic, who at a certain point have no alternative but to let the U-turners in to the flow.
It is high time that the Traffic Planners at Haringey got to grips with this unresolved and dangerous problem before there is a serious road accident at this junction. Perhaps this could be rolled in to a total Wightman Rd review which also takes in the three pedestrian crossings.
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Permalink Reply by Alison P on
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Technically I'm not sure U-turns are illegal unless there is a sign saying you can't do one. Does anyone know for sure?
BUT having watched people do this many many times, agree it is a really dangerous place to try, both for you and for those travelling behind you.
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Recently, I crossed the road - on a zebra crossing - coming from Moorfield's St Ann's and the crossing was just outside the police station on St Ann's Road. A police car had stopped on the far side of the road to let someone cross but I was too far behind to take advantage of that, so stepped out just as the police car moved off - there was nothing coming from my right. The car immediately behind the police car also took off, so I had to stop very quickly to let it pass. I said "thank you" in an extremely loud voice into the driver's window as it went past me and received in reply "oh god, I'm so sorry". How the driver didn't see me I don't know - and I hate to think what would have happened if I'd had children with me!
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Perhaps you should speak to the Met's Local Neighbourhood Team. There's nothing better to stop bad driver behaviour in my book than to have an occasional blitz by real policeman gently "having a word". The mini campaign against pushbikes jumping the lights at Manor House station was certainly effective.
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Permalink Reply by HarringayBirder on
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In what way?!?
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It doesn't stick. Unless you keep the enforcement pressure up for a really long time, so that respecting that particular law becomes cultural, it just reverts back to normal.
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