As cities move to restore some of the removed signs, traffic experts note that the frequent changes are creating difficulties for drivers.
Vilnius City Municipality on March 20. announced that green arrows are returning to 15 intersections in the capital, which in 2019 were replaced by sectoral traffic lights. After this change, the number of green arrows in the capital will increase to 21.
While the removal of these signs was frowned upon by motorists five years ago, experts now say that their return to the roads is not necessarily a welcome decision.
“In the beginning, we lived with tables for many years. We have lived with additional traffic light sections for a while now. But not much has changed in terms of emergency or congestion. I think that the biggest threat to traffic safety is caused by frequent, not always justified changes in the order of traffic organization, because drivers start to get confused”, – Andrius Žiukelis, head of BTA’s Expertise Department, assesses the indecision regarding signs and traffic lights.
The goal is to modernize
The Transport Competence Agency (TKA), which is responsible for traffic safety management, indicates that the aim was to modernize traffic management by abandoning the green plates.
“Sectoral traffic lights are a modern and modern solution for organizing traffic at intersections. An additional right-turn section is a safer alternative to a “green table”. Traffic problems arise when intersection traffic lights are not modernized and their management does not correspond to real traffic conditions,” argues Živilė Burdaitė, TKA’s communications manager.
Back in 2014 in a published study, TKA provided examples of when the use of green arrows may pose a threat to traffic safety. Especially for pedestrians, who quite often cannot use the right of way to cross the street due to these arrows, even if the pedestrian traffic light is green. Also, in this study, the agency presented arguments that the green signs do not increase, but decrease the traffic capacity at the intersections.
True, A. Žiukelis emphasizes that there were misunderstandings and traffic accidents due to the changes.
“The insurance company had to examine the events caused by the appearance of additional traffic light sectors. For example, someone braked suddenly, although he was able to drive, and the driver driving behind hit him and raised the question of determining the culprit of the incident. “It seems that some drivers not only forgot the long-standing rules of movement at intersections, but also did not pay attention to the changes emphasized by the media,” he says.
He adds that when the insurance company examines the cases of injured persons, it is clear that one of the goals – to reduce the number of injured pedestrians at intersections – has also not been achieved.
Representatives of the municipalities of the big Lithuanian cities – Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda – have claimed that they receive complaints from the townspeople, and they themselves notice that in some places, where the green signs have been replaced by sectoral traffic lights, the traffic capacity of the intersections has decreased. As a result, lists of intersections are being prepared, where it will be aimed to return the old way of traffic regulation – arrows.
Discontent arose
TKA recognizes that in 2019 At the end of 2008, when the green signs were replaced by sectoral traffic lights, drivers were dissatisfied. They testified that traffic jams started to accumulate at the intersections. So the agency decided to return the green plates, but not everywhere.
TKA evaluates requests from municipalities to return green plates individually, taking into account traffic flows, freight traffic, and pedestrian volumes at each intersection.
“It should be noted that the return of the sign is usually allowed where there is no possibility to install an additional traffic light section or its installation will worsen the conductivity of the intersection”, – the criteria for consideration is defined by Ž. Burdaite.
After such considerations, as indicated on the TKA website, decisions have already been made to return 193 arrows throughout Lithuania. 31 of them are in Vilnius. For comparison, there are 35 in Klaipėda and only 6 in Kaunas.
It should be noted that the Vilnius City Municipality announces the intersections where the green signs have been returned, while TKA informs about the specific directions of each intersection. For example, for one intersection of Metalo and Geologių streets in Vilnius, TKA adopted four separate decisions to replace sectoral traffic lights with green signs.
It is interesting that TKA, considering applications to adjust traffic organization within 20 days, throughout 2023. harmonized only 4 amendments, and in almost three 2024 months – already 51.
Each EU country has its own way
If the order of traffic organization in Lithuania changes every few years, then when traveling in Europe the traffic order and rules can change every few hours – it is enough to cross the state border. Because the issue of right turn regulation is decided individually in almost every European country. Finding an identical set of rules for turning right at an intersection in two EU countries would be difficult. There are many other differences in road signs, markings and traffic rules.
“The fact that road traffic rules are not the same in different states is wrong in principle. This causes confusion, increases the risk of driver errors and unpleasant contacts with police officers. And this applies not only to green tables. On the other hand, the unification of traffic rules, road signs and markings is hardly possible,” says A. Žikuelis.
According to him, every country has its own traditions, drivers have their own habits. Traffic management measures and road infrastructure differ. These differences prevent the unification of the rules and oblige drivers to study the specifics of driving in the countries they visit in advance, and to be extremely attentive when traveling on the roads of an unusual country.
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2024-03-29 10:26:41