Do we really need traffic signals?

Do we need signals? In this cost-cutting era, this is a fundamental question we should be asking ourselves, given the costs involved.

Traffic signals can breed more traffic signals as once one set goes in, it may seem natural to also signalise adjacent junctions in order to gain coordination benefits from the situation. Therefore, is there an easy way to assess whether or not adjacent UNSIGNALLED junctions NEED to be signalled?

The performance of the unsignalled junctions are likely to change due to the presence of the upstream signals platooning the traffic which feeds them. This can introduce regular gaps in traffic which may allow several approaches to the unsignalled junctions to benefit.

One of the great things about TRANSYT 14 is that it can model fully unsignalled junctions within a network, so it can be used to model the effects described above.