I've seen the traffic queues at first hand living on Ealing Road. The relevant people at the Council are aware of the problem; here's the response:The new signals design has eliminated the previous “all-red” signal stage in favour of “walk with traffic”. This increases the traffic capacity of the junction – the modelling predicted a significant reduction in overall delays, which is what has been achieved. Queuing each way on High Street has significantly decreased, but the left turn queue on Ealing Road is clearly too long. The junction is currently working on fixed times, and too little green time has been allocated to Ealing Road. TfL has acknowledged this problem and will hopefully make an interim adjustment next week, which should see a noticeable reduction in the Ealing Road queuing.Demand-variable timing (SCOOT) would normally be implemented quite soon after a major junction reconfiguration. However, in this case, it’s been delayed while TfL has a close look at whether the left turn filter arrow from Ealing Road can be reinstated, as explained below.The traffic signals sequence is:Stage 1: Eastbound ahead and left turn, westbound ahead only.Stage 2: Eastbound ahead only continues, westbound ahead only continues, pedestrians cross Ealing Road. (This stage is skipped if no-one presses the pedestrian buttons to cross Ealing Road)Stage 3: Westbound right turn only, pedestrians cross High Street on west side of the junction (opposite Albany Parade shops) and pedestrians cross High Street’s eastbound lane on the east side of the junction (outside MacDonald’s).Stage 4: Southbound left and right turn, eastbound left turn, pedestrians cross High Street’s westbound lanes on the east side of the junction (nearest Waterman’s). (Eastbound left turn continues into stage 1.)As noted above, this configuration is considerably more efficient than the previous all-red signals configuration. A left turn filter arrow cannot be displayed is stage 3 as it would conflict with pedestrians crossing High Street’s eastbound lane on the east side of the junction (outside MacDonald’s). However, observations have been made of the number of people using this crossing – there is only a pedestrian “demand” about every second cycle, so I have asked TfL to consider reinstating the left turn filter arrow from Ealing Road on those cycles when the pedestrian push-button is not pressed. I.e. this would be an alternative stage (3a): Westbound right turn only, southbound left turn only, pedestrians cross High Street on west side of the junction (opposite Albany Parade shops).TfL has indicated that this should be possible and this proposal is undergoing the various technical testing and assurance processes that are required before its introduction. Once this is resolved (and hopefully the left filter arrow implemented), the junction will go onto SCOOT and Urban Traffic Control. At that stage the overall effectiveness of the junction will be maximised, hopefully before Christmas.It's worth noting that under the previous configuration, traffic couldn't always make best use of the left turn filter arrow, due to vehicles exiting the McDonalds car-park and only half-accessing the right turn lane on Ealing Road, blocking the left turn lane.
Matt Harmer ● 5024d