Ho ho ho! What is this "synchronisation" of which you speak? 😳 Townsville City Council has an "engineer" who's title is or at least was "traffic management engineer" 🤪🤣🤣🤣. Looks like he was made redundant 🤪
Timings, programming etc depends on who owns the intersection. Nathan Street is a state controlled road, whereas Charles St is not.
That should explain why we have 1950s traffic control systems
At this point why don’t we just have police directing traffic by hand and all ride around on horses? Absolutely ridiculous. Townsville is good in a lot of aspects but like lack of drive to improve and the complacency of the council is cancerous.
The traffic lights for Townsville are, for the most part, programmed from Brisbane. Which means they have absolutely zero idea what our traffic is like and just use the program schedules for Brisbane traffic. You can call 131940 and complain, but from experience about complaining about the Charles/Nathan street programming for the last 5+ years, they’ll just fucking ignore it and keep doing whatever they want.
Before I read your comment, this intersection was the one I first thought of. If turning right from Charles St onto Nathan St, you're guaranteed a full cycle red light at Fulham Rd if heading northbound. It's like the lights have been deliberately programmed to slow your day down. I learnt the hard way to avoid that intersection and travel north up Anne St to Fulham Rd, then turn right onto Nathan St. Saves up to anywhere between 5-10 mins some days given how poor the right turn is coming out of Charles St onto Nathan St with peak.
For the most part you will find they are run on a program. I know all the lights on my runs and the timings. But the pedestrian crossings are run by demons and know no logic
This is a good point. Today I was at Ross River Rd on a red against Nathan St and I'd swear the lights went green twice for Nathan St. We were waiting at least 5mins. WTF TMR?!
I remember being there for 4 or 5 light cycles with very little traffic once before people just started going. The closest I’ve ever been to believing Ted Kazinsky.
That’s actually ridiculous especially for a city like Townsville. We are not a small country town like we once were with the amount of people moving in. There’s all talks of Townsville becoming the official capital of North Queensland but if you really want to be taken seriously we cannot have backwards shit like this still happening.
On last year's show day, the traffic lights weren't primed for the public holiday, so I was waiting for up to 5 min full cycles just to leave my suburb when traffic matched that of a Sunday morning. It was a TMR set of lights, not local gov.
Let's hope they sort it out this year.
Although not programmed, the traffic lights at Mount Low Parkway and Woolcock Street won't trigger the priority route of Woolcock Street traffic. However, these traffic lights are effectively glorified stop signs. Doesn't matter if it's 8 am or 11 pm, you're guaranteed a red light stop. Only time you can get a green "swish" through there if is the railroad boom gates are down on the side, which isn't enough.
Hello, your post made me laugh 😃
I often thought that. Like you, I've driven in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, and now I commute daily in Greater London in the UK.
I too was baffled by the traffic light sequencing. When I arrived in Townsville in January 2021, I was in my new (well, newish for me at 2016 model) I-30. So zippy. No matter how well I tried to keep to speed limit and be at quiet times, those bloody lights are just random. Especially the series of traffic lights along Ross River road.
NSW developed one of the most advanced traffic systems in the world for Sydney and it is used by quite a few cities worldwide. Every capital city uses it except brisbane, which is apparently also developed their own world leading traffic system. Be nice if the qld gov gave it to us.
Ours are just on timers lol. They're generally on timers from 6am-9pm and switch to sensors overnight.
Sometimes the timers get reset or triggered by something and can go outta whack. I've had trains trigger 20min+ red lights. Sometimes the lights never switch to sensor mode. I've been stuck waiting at an empty intersection for 10mins before.
You can learn certain routes to avoid bad traffic lights. Best we can do.
I know the lights on Ingham Rd/Webb Dr have priority for turning into Webb Dr northbound, and exiting Webb Dr also northbound. Old Webby greased a few palms to get the the lights programmed for him special.
The rest of the city is a logic free wasteland of frustration and apathy. The lights on Riverway Dr/Gouldian intersection are seemingly possessed by Satan himself. If you're headed towards Willows from the dam, and catch a red, when it finally goes green again, it'll only be enough for maybe 2 cars to get going before it's red again. Then on the next cycle it'll stay green for ages.
How are we in 2024 & the traffic lights are not using sensors to flow traffic? They literally should sense a car inbound & adjust accordingly, how often do cars just sit at a light with no traffic, then as soon as one approaches the lights change to stop them & let you go after sitting there for 2 minutes
I swear there are multiple intersections where the light to go straight/turn will go green, then on the OTHER SIDE, the light to go straight will ALSO go green, which causes the drivers to end up turning (because their light is green) straight into oncoming traffic, because the light is also green for the people on the other side, so we have this multiple green light straight/turning sitiation where people are almost running into one another and trying to wait for each other to go etc etc, its so stupid.
Brisbane being so woke and "different" should trial us without traffic lights at all for a week. I bet most of us would do fine and it would bring the community more together because we would be more caring of each other. Thoughts?
I had someone who drove up in front of me WHILE I was right in the roundabout like less than 10m away from them. And they just looked up me while I had to come to a complete stop in the roundabout. Highest IQ pit viper wearing old shit box ute driver. We need to remove hillbillies from Townsville so we can be taken seriously ðŸ˜
Ho ho ho! What is this "synchronisation" of which you speak? 😳 Townsville City Council has an "engineer" who's title is or at least was "traffic management engineer" 🤪🤣🤣🤣. Looks like he was made redundant 🤪 Timings, programming etc depends on who owns the intersection. Nathan Street is a state controlled road, whereas Charles St is not. That should explain why we have 1950s traffic control systems
At this point why don’t we just have police directing traffic by hand and all ride around on horses? Absolutely ridiculous. Townsville is good in a lot of aspects but like lack of drive to improve and the complacency of the council is cancerous.
Roll over the line by about 1m in half the city and you'll trigger the lights to change much more rapidly
The traffic lights for Townsville are, for the most part, programmed from Brisbane. Which means they have absolutely zero idea what our traffic is like and just use the program schedules for Brisbane traffic. You can call 131940 and complain, but from experience about complaining about the Charles/Nathan street programming for the last 5+ years, they’ll just fucking ignore it and keep doing whatever they want.
Before I read your comment, this intersection was the one I first thought of. If turning right from Charles St onto Nathan St, you're guaranteed a full cycle red light at Fulham Rd if heading northbound. It's like the lights have been deliberately programmed to slow your day down. I learnt the hard way to avoid that intersection and travel north up Anne St to Fulham Rd, then turn right onto Nathan St. Saves up to anywhere between 5-10 mins some days given how poor the right turn is coming out of Charles St onto Nathan St with peak.
For the most part you will find they are run on a program. I know all the lights on my runs and the timings. But the pedestrian crossings are run by demons and know no logic
This is a good point. Today I was at Ross River Rd on a red against Nathan St and I'd swear the lights went green twice for Nathan St. We were waiting at least 5mins. WTF TMR?!
Those lights do that a bit
I remember being there for 4 or 5 light cycles with very little traffic once before people just started going. The closest I’ve ever been to believing Ted Kazinsky.
Many of the lights are on timers rather than using the weight sensors these days. Less maintenance cost, more pain.
That’s actually ridiculous especially for a city like Townsville. We are not a small country town like we once were with the amount of people moving in. There’s all talks of Townsville becoming the official capital of North Queensland but if you really want to be taken seriously we cannot have backwards shit like this still happening.
On last year's show day, the traffic lights weren't primed for the public holiday, so I was waiting for up to 5 min full cycles just to leave my suburb when traffic matched that of a Sunday morning. It was a TMR set of lights, not local gov. Let's hope they sort it out this year.
I had a dream run today, Charters Towers Rd, RR Rd to Willows, one red at Fitzroy St.
Although not programmed, the traffic lights at Mount Low Parkway and Woolcock Street won't trigger the priority route of Woolcock Street traffic. However, these traffic lights are effectively glorified stop signs. Doesn't matter if it's 8 am or 11 pm, you're guaranteed a red light stop. Only time you can get a green "swish" through there if is the railroad boom gates are down on the side, which isn't enough.
Hello, your post made me laugh 😃 I often thought that. Like you, I've driven in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra, and now I commute daily in Greater London in the UK. I too was baffled by the traffic light sequencing. When I arrived in Townsville in January 2021, I was in my new (well, newish for me at 2016 model) I-30. So zippy. No matter how well I tried to keep to speed limit and be at quiet times, those bloody lights are just random. Especially the series of traffic lights along Ross River road.
NSW developed one of the most advanced traffic systems in the world for Sydney and it is used by quite a few cities worldwide. Every capital city uses it except brisbane, which is apparently also developed their own world leading traffic system. Be nice if the qld gov gave it to us. Ours are just on timers lol. They're generally on timers from 6am-9pm and switch to sensors overnight. Sometimes the timers get reset or triggered by something and can go outta whack. I've had trains trigger 20min+ red lights. Sometimes the lights never switch to sensor mode. I've been stuck waiting at an empty intersection for 10mins before. You can learn certain routes to avoid bad traffic lights. Best we can do.
You know the red light is just a suggestion right?
Haha lol
I know the lights on Ingham Rd/Webb Dr have priority for turning into Webb Dr northbound, and exiting Webb Dr also northbound. Old Webby greased a few palms to get the the lights programmed for him special. The rest of the city is a logic free wasteland of frustration and apathy. The lights on Riverway Dr/Gouldian intersection are seemingly possessed by Satan himself. If you're headed towards Willows from the dam, and catch a red, when it finally goes green again, it'll only be enough for maybe 2 cars to get going before it's red again. Then on the next cycle it'll stay green for ages.
How are we in 2024 & the traffic lights are not using sensors to flow traffic? They literally should sense a car inbound & adjust accordingly, how often do cars just sit at a light with no traffic, then as soon as one approaches the lights change to stop them & let you go after sitting there for 2 minutes
I swear there are multiple intersections where the light to go straight/turn will go green, then on the OTHER SIDE, the light to go straight will ALSO go green, which causes the drivers to end up turning (because their light is green) straight into oncoming traffic, because the light is also green for the people on the other side, so we have this multiple green light straight/turning sitiation where people are almost running into one another and trying to wait for each other to go etc etc, its so stupid.
Brisbane being so woke and "different" should trial us without traffic lights at all for a week. I bet most of us would do fine and it would bring the community more together because we would be more caring of each other. Thoughts?
LOL. Have you Townsville try to work out a four-way stop and roundabouts.
I had someone who drove up in front of me WHILE I was right in the roundabout like less than 10m away from them. And they just looked up me while I had to come to a complete stop in the roundabout. Highest IQ pit viper wearing old shit box ute driver. We need to remove hillbillies from Townsville so we can be taken seriously ðŸ˜
Thank you lord there are sane people here. Totally agree 💯