Awkward #13 | Doing The Correct Thing Caused The Issue

Another awkward situation to deal with that @smilerbob has kindly sent in. Would you have thought doing the correct thing can cause the issue?

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[smilerbob]

Thank you Ashley for your advice on this clip. It really was an awkward one and after seeing no traffic from the right (which is a busy main road) sort of made me suspicious the lights were broken. These roadworks were part of overnight closures so the lights were moved at 2000hrs and then returned before 0600hrs and as this was a Saturday, I wondered if they returned the wrong lights to be at the front as the lights turning away were also on and our green light coincided with pedestrians walking along the pavement - I could be completely wrong with that one. The lights were working as normal later so either they got fixed or were reset by someone. Or perhaps that awkward one causing trouble wasn't around anymore so traffic started flowing properly!

As for reversing and moving forward, unfortunately I had a Transit van tagged behind me expecting / hoping I would follow through on the green light. I was also thinking about getting out and waving my arms like I was in a 90's club at the sensors (big fish, little fish, cardboard box) ...but didn't want to end up on a different sort of dashcam channel 😉

This has happened a couple of times since where I have been unable to clear the roadworks on green but I left more "wiggle" room before the sign so once the lights change to red I could shuffle forward and get detected by the sensor. Seems to work OK so far

One thing I would mention to others, a red light is a red light regardless and proceeding through one is risky as much as it is technically still a traffic offence. I had a dashcam to show "mitigating circumstances" if it was required to show the lights appeared to be broken, although I think broken is only defined as "No lights" rather than stuck on red. There are times where roadwork lights are held on red for safety when crews are moving machinery or making changes to the temporary layout (video to follow on that one for you Ashely). If you do decide to proceed, always do so with extreme caution, as Ashley says you have no priority at all going through a red light, even in these circumstances

[djwindhoek]

The exact same thing happened to me earlier this year. I arrived at a 4-way temporary lights situation and just our light turned green an ambulance came from the road to our right. The car at the lights understandably didn't proceed to give the ambulance priority and unfortunately, the lights went back to red before the first car could move. The lights cycled through two more times without giving our side a turn and so - having seen a previous AN video about temporary light - I got out and told the two drivers in front of what has happened and that to get our side going again, I was going to drive up the short gap on the inside to get the trigger the sensors; I also made it clear that I wasn't simply trying to jump ahead of the cars in front of me and I think they both knew that. It worked and off we all went when our turn came on again during the next cycle. Thanks, Ashley :)

[frogandspanner]

It used to be that a senior traffic engineer signed off all temporary traffic signal installations, and would require cycling of phases like normal lights (approx 2 minutes). (This info was from a pal who was a regional traffic controller and who advised Heseltine in the DoT). It seems that this requirement was removed, and now any contractor can set up lights.

Whenever I approach such lights I position the car to be visible to the sensor (in my estimation, from looking at where it is pointing), and would not stop outwith that range. But that's the problem - the experts no longer look at the light setup and check that the stop-line is within sensor vision.

[SunshineSuze]

I experienced this literally yesterday at a normal set of traffic lights. It was a right filter turn out of main Asda in town across a main a road. I couldn’t go because an idiot was in the way and I would have caused more mayhem had I gone. However, the cycle was then stuck. Luckily the car behind me moved so I could reverse back and approach again which reset it. But I also couldn’t have gone as too busy to cross the lanes. Took a while but people cottoned on and reversed.

[mattwoodford]

I've been in this situation with 2 way lights. After over 5 mins of no green, I put my hazards on and proceeded with caution. Lights were red on the other side when I got there too. I think they may have both been red

[radishpea]

I respectfully suggest the cammer stopped to close to the lights. They could not clear the junction, they were nowhere near it. What danger would they have created if they had proceeded in the first place? The red car in front of the cammer clears the junction without any other traffic being effected. The cammer went through a red light and had to fit in with other traffic which in this case was not there, if they had proceeded and other lights would have gone green, the cammer would have had to fit in with other difference being, they would not have jumped a red light. We do not know how the lights were not set, perhaps they were set so the traffic between the cammers lights and the junction would clear before other lights go green? As I said, the red car cleared the junction!

[JurivonStolzenberg]

Lucky your driver " smiler Bob" had a brain and was not some new " autonomous " vehicle...😅