Bus lanes
These started spreading across the UK in the 90s and are now an intrinsic part of urban infrastructure. Much loved by London mayor Ken Livingstone, they're more hated by most drivers and, particularly, cyclists, who often find themselves marooned between double-decker and lanes of fast-moving traffic.
The idea was that they would help buses run on time and therefore make them more appealing to commuters. The reality is that the buses now speed down their empty lanes, with empty seats, while the drivers sit nose to tail in the one lane they have left. Then it only takes one idiot to pull over to the kerb and nip into a shop or use a cashpoint and the whole cunning plan falls by the wayside – lazy driver in Stockwell, traffic queuing back through Brixton to Streatham. The problem is compounded by the new 'bendy' buses, which take up even more roadspace and look even emptier.
And now there's a bus lane on the M4, as well...
These started spreading across the UK in the 90s and are now an intrinsic part of urban infrastructure. Much loved by London mayor Ken Livingstone, they're more hated by most drivers and, particularly, cyclists, who often find themselves marooned between double-decker and lanes of fast-moving traffic.
The idea was that they would help buses run on time and therefore make them more appealing to commuters. The reality is that the buses now speed down their empty lanes, with empty seats, while the drivers sit nose to tail in the one lane they have left. Then it only takes one idiot to pull over to the kerb and nip into a shop or use a cashpoint and the whole cunning plan falls by the wayside – lazy driver in Stockwell, traffic queuing back through Brixton to Streatham. The problem is compounded by the new 'bendy' buses, which take up even more roadspace and look even emptier.
And now there's a bus lane on the M4, as well...
Roundabouts
Guaranteed to induce terror in learner drivers, but (usually) an effective means of traffic management around tricky junctions.
'Traffic circles' or gyratories have been around for over a century; early one-way circles included Columbus Circle in New York (1904) and that at the Place de l'Etoile, Paris (1907 – although there were no consistent rules for rights of way. Some gyratories had traffic lights and stop signs, some had through roads across an intersection and most gave priority to entering traffic. Invariably, they jammed up, motorists got confused, accidents happened and they fell out of favour in preference to traffic light-controlled junctions.
The modern-style roundabout, with priority to traffic already in the circle coming from the right (or left, in left-hand drive countries) made its debut in 1966 after much analysis by the Road Research Laboratory (now TRL) and is now commonplace worldwide; it has even been re-exported back to the US.
The 'Magic Roundabout' in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire – a large main circle with six smaller 'satellite' roundabouts around it – remains a rarity, thankfully.
Guaranteed to induce terror in learner drivers, but (usually) an effective means of traffic management around tricky junctions.
'Traffic circles' or gyratories have been around for over a century; early one-way circles included Columbus Circle in New York (1904) and that at the Place de l'Etoile, Paris (1907 – although there were no consistent rules for rights of way. Some gyratories had traffic lights and stop signs, some had through roads across an intersection and most gave priority to entering traffic. Invariably, they jammed up, motorists got confused, accidents happened and they fell out of favour in preference to traffic light-controlled junctions.
The modern-style roundabout, with priority to traffic already in the circle coming from the right (or left, in left-hand drive countries) made its debut in 1966 after much analysis by the Road Research Laboratory (now TRL) and is now commonplace worldwide; it has even been re-exported back to the US.
The 'Magic Roundabout' in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire – a large main circle with six smaller 'satellite' roundabouts around it – remains a rarity, thankfully.
Speed limits
An innovation with great impact – if not a popular one.
In the earliest days of motoring, it didn't really matter how fast you were going – it was still quicker to go by horse, bicycle – or even on foot. Speed limits actually pre-date the car itself: the Locomotive Act of 1865, aimed at steam traction engines, set a legal limit of 4mph in the country and 2mph in towns, and required a man with a red flag to walk ahead to warn pedestrians, riders and carriage-drivers that a self-powered vehicle was coming. The first speeding ticket – and a fine of one shilling – was issued to a Mr Walter Arnold in 1896, for doing 8mph in a 2mph zone. The “Red Flag Rule” was lifted in 1896 and drivers promptly celebrated with the Emancipation Run from London to Brighton, an event now repeated each year as a veteran car rally.
With cars getting faster and accidents increasing, a 20mph limit was imposed in 1903. This was abolished in 1930, but different limits were set for different types of vehicle. Cars carrying fewer than seven people could go as fast as they liked – until 1934, when a national limit of 30mph was set for built-up areas, a limit which still stands today. When the M1 opened in 1957, it quickly became a place for drivers to see how fast they could go, and to try and break the magic 100mph barrier: the 70mph motorway speed limit was introduced to put an end to such activities in 1965, along with a 50mph limit for rural roads. Both limits still stand.
The first permanently-positioned speed cameras arrived in 1992. But whatever your opinion on cameras, the appropriateness of certain speed limits or the way they are enforced, remember this: one in 10 pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 20mph is killed. Five in 10 pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 30mph are killed. Nine in 10 pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 40mph die.
An innovation with great impact – if not a popular one.
In the earliest days of motoring, it didn't really matter how fast you were going – it was still quicker to go by horse, bicycle – or even on foot. Speed limits actually pre-date the car itself: the Locomotive Act of 1865, aimed at steam traction engines, set a legal limit of 4mph in the country and 2mph in towns, and required a man with a red flag to walk ahead to warn pedestrians, riders and carriage-drivers that a self-powered vehicle was coming. The first speeding ticket – and a fine of one shilling – was issued to a Mr Walter Arnold in 1896, for doing 8mph in a 2mph zone. The “Red Flag Rule” was lifted in 1896 and drivers promptly celebrated with the Emancipation Run from London to Brighton, an event now repeated each year as a veteran car rally.
With cars getting faster and accidents increasing, a 20mph limit was imposed in 1903. This was abolished in 1930, but different limits were set for different types of vehicle. Cars carrying fewer than seven people could go as fast as they liked – until 1934, when a national limit of 30mph was set for built-up areas, a limit which still stands today. When the M1 opened in 1957, it quickly became a place for drivers to see how fast they could go, and to try and break the magic 100mph barrier: the 70mph motorway speed limit was introduced to put an end to such activities in 1965, along with a 50mph limit for rural roads. Both limits still stand.
The first permanently-positioned speed cameras arrived in 1992. But whatever your opinion on cameras, the appropriateness of certain speed limits or the way they are enforced, remember this: one in 10 pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 20mph is killed. Five in 10 pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 30mph are killed. Nine in 10 pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 40mph die.
Traffic calming
Like speed limits, not the most popular of innovations, but one which has intrinsically changed our approach to driving in built-up areas – and our urban landscapes.
Road design features developed to slow down traffic include the much-hated speed humps ('sleeping policemen'), chicanes, weird road markings, different-coloured road surfaces and all manner of devices to try and stop drivers simply charging on through residential or pedestrian-dominated streets. But there could be a turn in the tide: successful experiments in Holland have led to trials in the UK of completely sign- and marking-free street zones, without so much as a white line down the middle of the road. The idea is that in an absence of information, drivers have to concentrate much more on what they are doing and they pay more attention to what is happening around them.
Like speed limits, not the most popular of innovations, but one which has intrinsically changed our approach to driving in built-up areas – and our urban landscapes.
Road design features developed to slow down traffic include the much-hated speed humps ('sleeping policemen'), chicanes, weird road markings, different-coloured road surfaces and all manner of devices to try and stop drivers simply charging on through residential or pedestrian-dominated streets. But there could be a turn in the tide: successful experiments in Holland have led to trials in the UK of completely sign- and marking-free street zones, without so much as a white line down the middle of the road. The idea is that in an absence of information, drivers have to concentrate much more on what they are doing and they pay more attention to what is happening around them.
Traffic lights
Like speed limits, traffic lights pre-date the car. The first, a revolving lantern with a red-lensed gas lamp one side, green the other and semaphore arms, was installed at the junction of George and Bridge Streets, near the House of Commons in London, to control the chaos of horse-drawn traffic. It had to be turned by a policeman.
There's much debate over who invented the first remote-controlled lights; many credit the appropriately-named Lester Wire of Salt Lake City, Utah, who designed a pole-mounted box with cut-out circular openings for coloured electric lamps (1912), although Ernest Sirrine of Chicago invented a non-illuminated Stop/Proceed sign two years earlier. Wire's lights had to be switched on and off by a policeman, however; later systems incorporated automatic timers. Other early by-wire set-ups included the red/green Stop/Move indicators of James Hoge from Cleveland (1913) and William Potts of Detroit, who adapted railroad lights to make overhanging remote-controlled lamps for the four-way Woodward/Michigan Avenue intersection in 1920, the first to introduce a third 'yellow' phase – although William Ghiglieri's system in San Francisco (1917) had put a pause between the stop/go phases, and had been the first with an automatic timer.
However, it was Garnett Morgan of Cleveland, Ohio, who sold his patented semaphore-type design to the General Electric Corporation and benefited the most from his invention... Three-phase signals were seen as early as 1915 and three-colour light systems, with red, yellow and green lights, were first seen in Detroit and New York in 1920. The earliest interconnected systems came to Salt Lake City in 1917 (six intersections controlled from a single switch) with the first automatically controlled interconnected systems in Houston (1922). These arrived in the UK in 1927, trialled in Wolverhampton.
These days, traffic lights use efficient light-emitting diodes in place of bulbs and are electronically controlled, with automatic sensors to detect traffic levels and green-light emergency service vehicles.
Like speed limits, traffic lights pre-date the car. The first, a revolving lantern with a red-lensed gas lamp one side, green the other and semaphore arms, was installed at the junction of George and Bridge Streets, near the House of Commons in London, to control the chaos of horse-drawn traffic. It had to be turned by a policeman.
There's much debate over who invented the first remote-controlled lights; many credit the appropriately-named Lester Wire of Salt Lake City, Utah, who designed a pole-mounted box with cut-out circular openings for coloured electric lamps (1912), although Ernest Sirrine of Chicago invented a non-illuminated Stop/Proceed sign two years earlier. Wire's lights had to be switched on and off by a policeman, however; later systems incorporated automatic timers. Other early by-wire set-ups included the red/green Stop/Move indicators of James Hoge from Cleveland (1913) and William Potts of Detroit, who adapted railroad lights to make overhanging remote-controlled lamps for the four-way Woodward/Michigan Avenue intersection in 1920, the first to introduce a third 'yellow' phase – although William Ghiglieri's system in San Francisco (1917) had put a pause between the stop/go phases, and had been the first with an automatic timer.
However, it was Garnett Morgan of Cleveland, Ohio, who sold his patented semaphore-type design to the General Electric Corporation and benefited the most from his invention... Three-phase signals were seen as early as 1915 and three-colour light systems, with red, yellow and green lights, were first seen in Detroit and New York in 1920. The earliest interconnected systems came to Salt Lake City in 1917 (six intersections controlled from a single switch) with the first automatically controlled interconnected systems in Houston (1922). These arrived in the UK in 1927, trialled in Wolverhampton.
These days, traffic lights use efficient light-emitting diodes in place of bulbs and are electronically controlled, with automatic sensors to detect traffic levels and green-light emergency service vehicles.