When does a road out of Leeds have priority over those into Leeds in the morning rush hour?

Post by **tyke bhoy** » Tue 15 Apr, 2008 2:29 pm

Ans: When its a motorway slip road.To the south east of Leeds just before the stourton gyratory the A61 and A639 converge just before also converging with the M621 West/North bound junction 7 off slip. That is 3 major sources of traffic heading to Leeds in the morning rush hour and the A639 is currently also carry a fair amount of traffic that used to use Pontefravt Lane until it was blocked.At Stourton gyratory they meet peak hour only traffic lights to permit traffic to leave the M621 East/South bound junction 7 off slip.You may be amazed to know, in the morning rush hour, the latter gets double the green time of the former in the traffic light cycle. Yes the amalgamation of 3 routes into Leeds is given half the time of one route out.A fault with the timings you might think, as I did. Not a bit of it I emailed Leeds Urban Traffic Control who forwarded my email to the contractors of the highways agency who actually have repsonsibility for the lights. They confirmed that although there was a slight fault with the lights it had nothing to do with the timings. They are worried that traffic on that slip road might back up on to the actual motorway thereby blocking one of 3 lanes of free flowing traffic. Meanwhile between 7.45 and 9.00 most weekdays there are 3 queues of traffic backlogged for about a mile if the A639 and M621 north bound offslip are consistent with the A61, taking over 20 minutes to negotiate a set of traffic lights just so traffic coming out of Leeds can get through the lights in one cycle or a maximum of just over 30 seconds if they get stopped!

LeeRatbag · Post by **LeeRatbag** » Tue 15 Apr, 2008 4:12 pm

I've long thought Leeds City Council have a policy of deliberately causing traffic congestion; I believe they're encouraging it in order to have an excuse when they inevitably bring in road charging.

Post by **tyke bhoy** » Tue 15 Apr, 2008 4:30 pm

I agree there do seem to be some light settings/lane markings under UTC (LCC) control that are aimed at causing congestion. This one isn't LCC though but its definitely causing congestion.As for road charging LCC (I think when it was under Labour control rather than the current LIB Dem/Tory alliance) did state road charging was a non starter until Leeds had a mass transport system (it was meant to be Supertram). I'm not aware the policy has changed even if the council has.

Leeds Lass · Post by **Leeds Lass** » Thu 17 Apr, 2008 12:08 pm

IMHO, the biggest cause of congestion in Leeds is the 2+ lane on Armley Road. That started out as an "experiment", but then lo and behold, the part of the sign that stated that at the side of Gotts Park, was removed! I don't remember being asked if it worked or not and whether it would be a good idea to make it permanent?! Surely it is for the commuters themselves to have a say in it and not just for LCC to decide? It flowed a damn sight better as it was imo.

LeeRatbag · Post by **LeeRatbag** » Thu 17 Apr, 2008 2:33 pm

tyke bhoy wrote: I agree there do seem to be some light settings/lane markings under UTC (LCC) control that are aimed at causing congestion. This one isn't LCC though but its definitely causing congestion.As for road charging LCC (I think when it was under Labour control rather than the current LIB Dem/Tory alliance) did state road charging was a non starter until Leeds had a mass transport system (it was meant to be Supertram). I'm not aware the policy has changed even if the council has. Frankly I think it's only a matter of time before the policy changes. I've expounded at length about the Belle Isle Road situation (take a major route into the city, a nicely free-flowing two-lane dual carriageway, and cut it down to one lane per side and put speed bumps the entire two mile length of the road); I think this traffic lights thing is another manifestation of the same idea. Make it as difficult as possible to drive into Leeds.