§ 6. Mr. Medlicottasked the Minister of Transport if he is aware that manual control by the police of traffic in busy centres is less successful than control by automatic traffic lights and that this appears to be due to the tendency of the police to hold the streams of traffic for approximately double the time allowed by the lights, with consequent loss of fluidity; and if he will arrange for an examination into this point.
§ Mr. G. R. StraussExperience has shown that where the movement of traffic at busy junctions is complex, manual control by the police is often more satisfactory than control by traffic light signals, and I have no reason to believe that the police do not do their job satisfactorily. If, however, the hon. Member has any particular case in mind where difficulties are occurring I shall be glad to consider it.
§ Mr. Parkerasked the Minister of Transport (1) whether he will make it clear that the operation of traffic lights should be regarded as a necessary evil, only justified where there is a clear gain to the safety of the roads, or to the efficient regulation of congested traffic; and that their effectiveness for these purposes should be regularly reviewed by the responsible authorities;
(2) whether, in order to mitigate the growing congestion of London traffic and to prevent unnecessary delays, he will give instructions that traffic lights at simple T junctions shall be operated only where they are demonstrably necessary for regulating congested traffic, and shall be switched off at times when traffic is not congested.
§ Mr. BarnesBefore authorising traffic signal installations, I require to be satisfied that in general the volumes of traffic on the main and side roads of the junction are such as to require control in the interests of safety and efficient traffic movement. In exceptional cases signals are authorised where traffic volumes are not in themselves heavy but the site has a bad accident record and other safety276W measures are not considered suitable or have failed to bring about improvement.
With modem types of equipment which are operated by the passage of vehicles over detectors, experience has shown that even under conditions of light traffic no undue delay occurs in the movement of vehicles, and, having regard to the potential traffic value of the junction, it has been found desirable to leave signals in operation under light traffic conditions.