Traffic Lights everywhere

[TimO]

Having previously counted all the traffic lights on my commute, I've been meaning to do it on my new, longer commute.

I managed to remember today, and counted 52 (at least).  Since my commute is 11.6 miles, that's about 4.8 lights / mile, although it does include about 1.3 miles of off road cycle path across Clapham and Tooting Bec Commons.  Arguably then you could say that the on road traffic light rate was slightly over 5 sets of lights per mile.

I seem to suffer from more lights near Croydon than nearer into the centre of London, for the first 3.5 miles or so, I had about 6 traffic lights per miles...

How good or bad are other peoples in comparison?

[Regulator]

I shall count on my way home tonight, but on a 4 km commute I go through at least 30 on the way in and about 25 on the way home (via a slightly different route.  On one part of High Holborm there are three sets of traffic lights within the space of 200m.

[LEE]

I once commuted the full 43 miles to Havant office (and 43 back) as Audax training.

I hit traffic lights at:

1) 17 miles -  Winchester city centre (2 or 3 sets I think)
2) 42 miles - Bedhampton 1 set and Railway Level Crossing

5 sets I think (to be perfectly honest I RLJ'd the ones in Winchester at 6am, I was the only person in town I reckon).

Returning to Manchester always reminds me how bad traffic lights can get.  I imagine most cities are now slaves to 'street furniture'.  It's impossible to get into 3rd gear before another red-light or speed bump and the amount of signage and railings is bewildering.

[Greenbank]

Probably less than yours per mile.

*counts*

28 sets of lights in 7.2 miles (commute all on the road).

They occur in little clumps; Nothing for 1 mile, then 3 in 300m, then none for a mile or so, etc. One 1km section has 7 sets of lights.

[αdαmsκι]

My route is great because I only have to go through nine sets between hackney and gower st (wc1e).  slightly more on the way home due a slightly different route due to one way systems.

[pdm]

My commiserations!
My 15 mile run to work has a grand total of 4 sets of lights; the 20 miles home: 3.
I am truly poorly enlightened.

One does feel that a level of traffic control requiring lights EVERY 100 yards must be ultimately counterproductive 

[rae]

Anyone else do Slough in the morning?    About 20 sets of lights on the A4 though that miserable shit hole in the space of 5 miles, and every single one seems phased to stop all traffic as soon as it has started.   To paraphrase Betjeman: "dust off and nuke the site from orbit.   It's the only way to be sure".

[teethgrinder]

When I commuted from Milton Keynes to Dunstable, I had one set of traffic lights. If I still did that route now, I would have 3 sets (2 if I use the A5 through Milton Keynes or have they put some up on the big roundabout with the A5 and town centre roundabout?)
I have no traffic lights on my mile and a half commute now, nor did I on my previous 4.5 mile commute.
They are becoming more common though.

[Wendy]

95 sets of lights on my commute, one way, including pedestrian crossings.

[fuzzy]

10 mile flat commute = 7 sets (well, 8 with the roadworks) inc. 3 ped crossings wheich are hardly ever red.
10.4 mile lumpy commute (yay!) more than that but they areb so rarely red that they don't bother me. (Most are ped crossings).

[Maladict]

~5 mile commute, from memory, including peccilans, from memory:

Peccilan on High St.
Lights at RT to Colhams Lane
Lights on Coldhams lane by new business park
Peccilan on Coldhams lane just after Sainsburys roundabout
Peccilan further down Coldhams lane
Lights at Cromwell Road/Coldhams lane junction
Toucan on joining Newmarket Rd after crossing Coldhams Common
Peccilan on Green End rd
Lights at Milton Road/Green End Rd junction
Peccilan on Kings Hedges Rd

Lights at end of the commute are bypassed by crossing the disused railway, but this is turning into a Misguided Busway so that will probably add a set of lights.

10 in 5 miles.

If I go the cyclepath (slightly longer) route, more pleasant because Coldhams Lane is an arse to cycle down, then it's 3xPeccilan, one x lights in ~5.5 miles, so less than one a mile.

Can you tell I don't live in London?

[Chris N]

1 set in 20 miles and in the six months I've been riding that route, it's only been red once: it's triggered by high vehicles driving the 'wrong way' over this bridge to avoid a low tunnel.

[gordon taylor]

Six sets in twelve miles.

[TimO]

1 set in 20 miles and in the six months I've been riding that route, it's only been red once: it's triggered by high vehicles driving the 'wrong way' over this bridge to avoid a low tunnel.

You'd think that MIRA would have a few more sets of traffic lights, if only for purposes of testing repeated braking within a short distance!

[Deano]

On my 24-mile round trip, zero traffic lights.

Now I just need to plot a route without roundabouts...

[Cudzoziemiec]

Depending on what route I take, my commute of about 4km has between 3 and 5 sets of lights, but only one set is ever on anything other than flashing yellow or turned off completely.

[mike]

erm..  there isnt a set of lights within 5 miles of here. The local town has one set, there's another one near the M11.  Must be good practice for sprint starts & an incentive to learn to trackstand I suppose.

[matthew]

17 miles home (suburban/rural) 20 sets of lights and yes they very much come in clumps, aso I have only counted the roundabouts as one set if I had to count the stop lines then there would be 2-3 more.

Matthew

[TheLurker]

I count myself very lucky. Only have two light controlled junctions workbound and one homebound and they're all within half a mile of the office.  The majority of mornings I can do the trip non-stop and I can usually count on getting a minimum of 13 to 13.5 miles in either direction without having to stop at all. 

[darkpoint]

My comute into london has 42 sets of lights, within 9.5 miles.. 

Which is nearly 4.5 sets per mile,  but that doesn't count the 5 zebra crossings.

and some days I can get stopped at nearly all of them..

[clarion]

I must remember to count, though I know it's a lot.

[spesh]

Four in just over three miles - two Pelican crossings, two road junctions. Though one set of lights only applies for me when I'm riding home.

[MSeries]

I have 2 sets of TLs in 4.5 miles. 1 pelican crossing, one zebra crossing

[clarion]

I must remember to count, though I know it's a lot.

44 on my route into work; 41 on the way home.  That's an average of about one every 45 seconds.

Dreadful, isn't it?

[Mr Larrington]

Excluding pedestrian crossings, I could probably reduce mine to three five sets in 28.5 km, though that would entail the use of the underpass at the Crooked Billet roundabout and getting lost in the maze of psychlepaths in Harlow.

Previous commute in Londonton was about 13 km, and I lost count at around 85