Transport bosses have denied using traffic lights to slow down drivers in response to a question by a member of the public – saying they prioritise traffic flow.

Paul Topping asked Transport for Greater Manchester whether it uses traffic lights as a form of traffic calming in a request submitted on the Freedom of Information website WhatDoTheyKnow.

TfGM is responsible for permanent traffic signals throughout the city region. At more than 2,400 sets of signals, it’s the largest set in the UK outside London.

In his request, sent in December, Mr Topping recounted details of a bus journey in Bolton where he said he had remained stopped at a red light for ‘upwards of 90 seconds’.

He added: “I ask as I have regularly travelled to Bolton town centre on public transport and have noticed how successive sets of traffic lights are sequenced – you get green on one set, the next change to red as you move and so on, meaning traffic is constantly stop, start, stop, start.

“On more than one occasion, I have been told by fellow travelling public that it was to slow the traffic down.”

He concluded: “Do you think it conducive to lowering emissions to have traffic moving in such a manner?

“Is this a deliberate and intentional way to slow down the movement of traffic?”

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In response to his questions, TfGM strongly denied that it uses traffic signals in this manner – saying instead that signals are timed to “provide the most traffic capacity as possible”.

TfGM said: “Traffic signals are not used as a means of traffic calming – the vast majority of the traffic signals run on ‘adaptive’ control – SCOOT or MOVA – these are sophisticated traffic signal control system that provide the most traffic capacity as possible – they use vehicle detection to count traffic flows and uses this information to calculate the most appropriate traffic signal timings for the current traffic conditions.

“It should be borne in mind that traffic signals are installed for safety reasons – importantly providing for pedestrians and cyclists to safely cross the road.”

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In response to whether the signal timings were ‘conducive to lowering emissions’, TfGM said:  “The traffic signal timings are optimised to minimise the delays for all users of the road network – this tends to mean that the busiest approaches receive the longer green times, and the co-ordination of the signals tends to be in a green wave for the busiest movement – without knowing the time that the above happened it isn’t possible to determine the state of the traffic signal nor the traffic flows at the junctions.”

TfGM concluded by strongly denying that it used traffic signals to slow down drivers.

It said: “No, this isn’t a deliberate and intentional way to slow down the movement of traffic.”

Transport for Greater Manchester manages 2,400 sets of signals, including 985 pedestrian crossings alongside junctions.

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