On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:25:56 -0000, "Q" ..@.. wrote:

The Microwave sources on the tops of the lights, and now little boxes with
aerials are linked back into the local control unit, when a vaild coded
signal is recieved it triggers a cycle in favour of the lamp recieving the
signal.

Does it trigger it immediately, or just on the next change? The
European variety seem to trigger it immediately (i.e. as a bus
approaches all others go straight to red), which gives a nice feeling
to the bus passengers of real priority.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

"John Rowland" wrote :
There is one in Bloomsbury Street approximately opposite Bedford Avenue.
From here on the bus lane is on the right side, ready for the turn into
New Oxford Street. I think it used to work okay before the bendies, but
bendies usually end up stretching across all three lanes here.

Usually?
********; that's a
--

Andrew

"If A is success in life, then A = x + y + z.
Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut." ~ Albert Einstein.

On 23 Nov, 18:17, (Neil Williams)
wrote:

On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:25:56 -0000, "Q" ..@.. wrote:
The Microwave sources on the tops of the lights, and now little boxes with
aerials are linked back into the local control unit, when a vaild coded
signal is recieved it triggers a cycle in favour of the lamp recieving the
signal.

Does it trigger it immediately, or just on the next change? *The
European variety seem to trigger it immediately (i.e. as a bus
approaches all others go straight to red), which gives a nice feeling
to the bus passengers of real priority.


I'd like to reply to your substantive post point-by-point if I get the
time (as well as reading through the other replies), but I'm going to
wade in here in the meantime...

From this and other comments you've made about bus priority in the
past it almost seems as though you consider the issue of each
individual bus in isolation. In central London it's highly likely that
there will be numerous other buses carrying numerous other passengers
which also need to negotiate traffic signal controlled junctions, the
difference being that they'll be approaching from other angles. Factor
in the need to keep traffic moving through the complex web of road
junctions in central London and all the interconnected traffic signal
phasing - all of which is a fine balance, but of course can only ever
be a compromise - and then perhaps the notion of individual traffic
signals being held on green for a substantial time for a bus (or going
green significantly earlier etc etc) starts to look like one that
doesn't result in the best overall outcome.

(I'm tempted to say butterflies and tornados, though of course weekday
daytime traffic in London is something of a storm already - the
question is how well that storm gets handled, and I dare say it could
be dealt with far far worse than it is, though that's not to say it
couldn't be improved.)

"Mizter T" wrote in message
...

On 23 Nov, 18:17, (Neil Williams)
wrote:

On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:25:56 -0000, "Q" ..@.. wrote:
The Microwave sources on the tops of the lights, and now little boxes
with
aerials are linked back into the local control unit, when a vaild coded
signal is recieved it triggers a cycle in favour of the lamp recieving
the
signal.

Does it trigger it immediately, or just on the next change? The
European variety seem to trigger it immediately (i.e. as a bus
approaches all others go straight to red), which gives a nice feeling
to the bus passengers of real priority.

I don't recall - it was a long time ago the pilot was done where I'm based
and I was not directley involved. ISTR it was 'quite' quick.

I'd like to reply to your substantive post point-by-point if I get the
time (as well as reading through the other replies), but I'm going to
wade in here in the meantime...

*nod*

From this and other comments you've made about bus priority in the
past it almost seems as though you consider the issue of each
individual bus in isolation.

Is that directed at me ? I've only ever made a few posts (That I recall with
out goooooogle's help) on the subject and I always try and stay 'neutral' on
things like this.

In central London it's highly likely that
there will be numerous other buses carrying numerous other passengers
which also need to negotiate traffic signal controlled junctions, the
difference being that they'll be approaching from other angles. Factor
in the need to keep traffic moving through the complex web of road
junctions in central London and all the interconnected traffic signal
phasing - all of which is a fine balance, but of course can only ever
be a compromise - and then perhaps the notion of individual traffic
signals being held on green for a substantial time for a bus (or going
green significantly earlier etc etc) starts to look like one that
doesn't result in the best overall outcome.

Indeed, and this is why better UTC is what's needed. LTCC do a fairley
alright job, and someone has already posted a link to a TfL document talking
about IBus and SCOOT and UTC ideas/plans.

(I'm tempted to say butterflies and tornados, though of course weekday
daytime traffic in London is something of a storm already - the
question is how well that storm gets handled, and I dare say it could
be dealt with far far worse than it is, though that's not to say it
couldn't be improved.)

Indeed there are many things that *could* be done to make things better, but
that I feel is for another thread.

Andrew Heenan wrote:
"John Rowland" wrote :
There is one in Bloomsbury Street approximately opposite Bedford
Avenue. From here on the bus lane is on the right side, ready for
the turn into New Oxford Street. I think it used to work okay before
the bendies, but bendies usually end up stretching across all three
lanes here.

Usually?
********; that's a

Okay, thanks for

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
Andrew Heenan wrote:
"John Rowland" wrote :
There is one in Bloomsbury Street approximately opposite Bedford
Avenue. From here on the bus lane is on the right side, ready for
the turn into New Oxford Street. I think it used to work okay before
the bendies, but bendies usually end up stretching across all three
lanes here.

Usually?
********; that's a

Okay, thanks for
That's
--

Andrew

PS - I have to slip up occasionally, to prove I'm not perfect!

On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 11:56:10AM +0000, Neil Williams wrote:
David Cantrell wrote:
When I use a taxi, I don't want to have to find the nearest taxi layby
and wait there until an available taxi just happens to go past, I want
to walk to the nearest place that I know lots of taxis drive past, hail
one, and jump in with the taxi stopping for maybe all of 20 seconds.
This part does, admittedly, show a bit of personal bias in that I more
or less never use taxis unless there is no other option, which in
central London is basically never.

It's worth noting that Singapore does have "taxi stops" of this
nature, though.

How are they distributed?

We have something broadly similar in London anyway - minicabs, where you
go to a particular place and get a car ride. But they serve a different
purpose, at least the way I use them.

I use a minicab late at night to get home, when the train service has
started to wind down. I use a black cab earlier in the day for situations
where, eg, I've left work later than expected and am in a hurry to get
to the theatre.

--
David Cantrell | Godless Liberal Elitist

If you have received this email in error, please add some nutmeg
and egg whites, whisk, and place in a warm oven for 40 minutes.

A question about the traffic lights:

I've noticed that some lights have a board with a white lining on its edges,
whereas others do not.

What's that about?

On Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:57:40 +0000, David Cantrell
wrote:

How are they distributed?

Good question... I forget. ISTR there are quite a lot of them but I
can't recall how many.

We have something broadly similar in London anyway - minicabs, where you
go to a particular place and get a car ride. But they serve a different
purpose, at least the way I use them.

Taxi ranks are a bit different in that they tend to be used for
pick-up only. The big problem is that it's drop-off that takes time
and causes far more of an obstruction than pick-up, as the taxi user
has to fumble for change etc, rather than just driving straight off as
the user gets in.

Idea: Why can't taxis accept Oyster? It would obviously have to be
outside the cap etc, but it would seem a good idea? No fumbling for
change, and taxis not blocking the bus lanes for too long?

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.

On Sun, 23 Nov 2008 05:09:43 -0800 (PST), Mr Thant
wrote:

[bus priority at traffic lights]

The system is called "extended green" and keeps the lights from
changing in the face of an approaching bus. There's no visible
indication a set of lights has it.

Not at the lights, no, but the old system uses beacons attached to
nearby lamp-posts on the approach. They look like the beacons used
for Countdown Mk 1 but apparently usually have a power supply whereas
the vehicle location beacons are usually battery-powered.

They don't know whether a bus is late or not, of course. The
replacement system, part of iBus, can fix this - but although it was a
requirement to be able to consider lateness I don't know whether it
will work like this initially.

Richard.