Ok, where do I start. I've been battling this for nearly a year now.
I've recorded 2 different master videos at the Frederick Street / Princes street junction, 6 months apart, of an hour long each. From those hour long videos I've deduced
Pedestrians have 6 seconds of green man, and have 20 seconds from the start of the green man to the first vehicle moving. The normal wait is up to 90 seconds, but up to 5 mins recorded. Have heard of people waiting 9 mins
In those 180 minutes of video I've picked up 3 actual faults with the lights. Lights held when tram stopped at Castle Street crossing, a 90 second pedestrian phase, and a 90 second Frederick phase. All but the Frederick street phase has been fixed - they said they'd have to call in their supplier as they couldn't find the fault in the code.
I've had various feedback from the council. Basically they say that it's difficult to judge the pedestrian needs as it varies so much and appears to be random. Trams have absolute priority, buses next.
The transport forum (bus operators and tram) were asked if pedestrians could have more time and they said no, so no change.
Two positive things have happened. They're going to trial both directions of traffic on Princes street moving at the same time, rather than turn about. This should reduce the wait by about 30 seconds.
To gauge traffic on Frederick Street check out which bus routes use the road. There's far more routes heading north than head south (like 100, 10). I'd say on average 2 vehicles per phase turn right from Princes street in to Frederick street. There is a fair amount of times no traffic leaves Frederick Street. All traffic using Frederick Street could use South St David Street but that's already clogged as it is. Some buses could be diverted via Charlotte Square and along George Street but that aint gona happen.
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