Traffic Light Timing A4123/B4169 Junction

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Dear Sir or Madam,
I have noticed in some newspaper reports ( eg;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/news... )that it is speculated that some councils deliberately set traffic lights to delay traffic.Under FOI,please advise if any traffic lights in Sandwell are programmed this way intentionally,and if so please list them.Secondly,I require information about the timing of the traffic lights at the junction of the A4123 and B4169 Causeway Green.For reasons of road safety the changing sequence of traffic lights should be predictable and reliable, but I have noticed an issue at NIGHT where the lights seem to change erratically and periodically only allow 8 seconds of Green Time between changes.The problem only occurs at night and I would appreciate an explanation to this potentially dangerous occurence.Are the traffic lights controlled automatically in the same way both day and night,or is a preprogrammed timing interval arranged at night or other times?Thanking you in anticipation for your help.

Yours faithfully,

dennis fallon

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Thank you for contacting Sandwell Council.

Your request has been passed to the relevant service area, who will contact you shortly.

Please quote your reference number INT1-80508992 on all future correspondence.

Regards

David Jux
Corporate Contact Centre Manager
Transform Sandwell

www.sandwell.gov.uk

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serviceinsight_team, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr Fallon

Thank you for your enquiry under the Freedom of Information Act received
by Sandwell M.B.C. on 11 June 2009.

Please be advised that your request has been forwarded to Angela Goddard,
the manager of the service involved, who will look into this matter on
behalf of the Council and provide you with a response by no later than 08
July 2009. If you would like to discuss the progress at any time please
do not hesitate to contact Angela Goddard direct on 0121 569 3194.

I hope we can resolve this matter to your satisfaction. However, if I can
be of any further assistance please do not hesitate in contacting me.

Yours sincerely

Service Insight Team

Angela Goddard, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

1 Attachment

Good Afternoon Mr Fallon

Please find attached the response to your freedom of information request
regarding traffic signals

Kindest Regards

Angela Goddard

Data Protection/Freedom of Information Assistant

Democratic Services

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Sandwell Council House

Dear Angela Goddard,Thank you for the TR2500 traffic light data.I would appreciate if you could forward this enquiry to Daryl Barnett and post his reply on this site.REFERENCE Traffic Lights A4123 Causeway Green. Question 1.Does the data within the TR2500 indicate that,OFF PEAK in the absence of demands,the green light time on the MAIN ROAD is programmed to periodically be reduced to 7 seconds,and if so, how often should it occur?Question 2.The MODE PRIORITY is Selected Manual Control, with selected FT,VA or CLF as secondary.What does Manual Control mean,does it mean that a preprogrammed setting automatically kicks in to over-rule Vehicle Activation, and if so,why is it implemented?Question 3.THE MASTER TIME CLOCK TIME TABLE seems to show that at `off peak`times Setting C applies.Are these non-VA times and should the green times be consistent,giving priority to the MAIN ROAD?Secondly, the master time clock-day type shows(mon-fri)common 7,8,9 BUT also an additional number that differs for each day.What is the explanation for this?Where is the master time clock located, and is manual control implemented from a control centre?THE PHASE MINIMUM,MAXIMUM AND EXTENSIONS section shows the green time can vary from 7 seconds to 47 seconds.Please advise if the MAIN ROAD,under an off peak low demand scenario, could have variable or unexpected green light times as this would be disruptive to good traffic flow.I have noticed some strange light change frequencies at several places along this stretch of road and wonder if it is preplanned for some reason.

Yours sincerely,

dennis fallon

Nigel Parr, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr Fallon,

I refer to your most recent Freedom of Information enquiry concerning
traffic light timing at the A4123/B4169 junction.

You will be aware that you submitted a Freedom of Information enquiry via
the [1]www.whatdotheyknow.com website on 10th June 2009 and a response was
provided on 19th June 2009. This response also included an offer to send
you the Traffic Signal Data Sheet for the junction.

You requested this data by telephone on 21st July 2009 and it was
forwarded to you on the same day. Your most recent email, again submitted
via the [2]www.whatdotheyknow.com website, asks a number of questions in
respect of the Data Sheet.

I should stress that the Freedom of Information Act 2000 provides you with
a right to request recorded information held by public bodies, such as
data sheets etc. However, this most recent request appears to be asking
for clarification as to how the lights operate and such issues are not
covered by the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. The
Council is not, therefore, obliged to respond via this website.

However, I can confirm that the Council's Traffic and Road Safety Manager,
Nigel Wilkins, would be prepared to meet with you at the relevant junction
to address the queries you have raised. Mr Wilkins can be contacted on
0121 569 4148.

Yours sincerely

Nigel Parr

Data Protection/Freedom of Information Officer

Democratic Services

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Sandwell Council House

References

Visible links
1. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/
2. http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/

Dear Nigel Parr,Thank you for your reply.It is not helpful to meet with Nigel Wilkins at the junction because my concerns are regarding apparent very short green times off-peak(around mid-night)on my way home from work.You will note that my query was stimulated by a newspaper article that suggested that some Authorities were deliberately imposing inappropriate green times in order to disrupt traffic.This raised my concerns about the lights in question.I do not think it is helpful to meet any official at midnight, but I consider it reasonable to expect an interpretation of the data to advise if the 8 second green time is preprogrammed into the sequence or is evidence of a longstanding fault.It`s either planned in or not planned in.Presumeably you are also curious to know if a fault exists and hence I would appreciate a hard copy reply which can be followed up.This site is very useful because it is concise and minimises delays and expenses,which should be a Council priority.If you agree my questions posed are reasonable,please advise how you wish to proceed with providing your response.

Yours sincerely,

dennis fallon

Angela Goddard, Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Dear Mr Fallon

Please find below the response to your recent query from the Group
Engineer for Traffic and Road Safety:

As stated in previous correspondence this particular traffic signal
controlled installation is fully vehicular actuated (VA), giving a minimum
to a maximum green time depending upon demand. VA is a very efficient and
effective form of control for the movement of vehicles during off peak
periods. Basically this means that wait times for all users will be
reduced and demands are serviced as quickly as possible. I can further
confirm that the minimum vehicle green time for each stage is 7 seconds
and this will occur on a regular basis during off-peak periods when
traffic flows are reduced. This enables the signals to operate on low
cycles and therefore reduce overall vehicle delay at the junction.

With regards to some authorities deliberately imposing inappropriate green
times I am unable to provide comment. However, I can confirm that Sandwell
Council do not implement such measures.

Finally, the point you have made regarding the possibility of there being
a long outstanding fault at this intersection. The site is inspected on a
regular basis and has recently been inspected by our traffic signal
maintenance contractor. The inspection identified no faults and further
monitoring confirmed that the signals were operating as per the design
specification.

Kindest Regards

Angela Goddard

Data Protection/Freedom of Information Assistant

Democratic Services

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council

Sandwell Council House