While whizzing on empty roads tonight from Embankment to Becontree with
only one stop for a red traffic light by Tower Hill, I was thinking what
a stupid idea night tube is. Express night buses is a better idea.

On a weekend night, the N29 takes 42 minutes northbound from Trafalgar
Square to Wood Green (full) and 32 minutes southbound (largely empty).
The Piccadilly Line first train from Wood Green to Piccadilly Circus
takes 21 minutes. Since the N29 goes out of its way to serve Camden, a
more direct route which only served major stops would come within a few
minutes of matching the Piccadilly Line.

Lets try another. N155 Morden to Elephant 27 minutes most nights, 36
minutes weekends. Elephant to Morden 34 minutes most nights, 42 minutes
weekends. Northern Line 25 minutes northbound, 28-29 minutes southbound.
So basically improved traffic management in Clapham High Street at night
and the bus might even beat the tube.

Conclusion:
1) Forget about night tube
2) For most of the traffic lights, one direction gets a flashing green
to tell them they have the priority, and the other direction gets
flashing red and amber alternately to tell them they have to give way.
Obviously they would be converted to LED if they had not already been
converted.
3) Introduce express night buses - example, instead of the N29 running
every three minutes from Traf Sq to Wood Green and then every 10 minutes
to Enfield, make the 29 run 24/7 to Wood Green and have a N329 at night
which takes some different route through Central London, then runs
non-stop to Turnpike Lane, and then serves every stop to Enfield. I
suspect this would require slightly fewer buses and drivers at weekends
than current operation.