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Traffic lights are to be re-phased at notoriously busy junctions across London to ease road congestion.
Transport for London today announced it is reviewing signal timings at several major intersections including Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park Corner, Marble Arch and the Hanger
Lane gyratory.
Technology will be installed to monitor traffic levels and lights will be adjusted accordingly.
Transport chiefs stepped up their programme of reviewing signal timings after Mayor Boris Johnson pledged to make it a priority in his election manifesto.
TfL now expects to re-phase lights at 1,000 junctions this year, up from about 600 last year.
By next spring it expects to have made changes at Kingston town centre, Vauxhall Cross, Savoy Circus and Gypsy Corner on the A40 and the A30 southwest access route to Heathrow among others.
Once the programme of re-phasing is complete, TfL is hoping to introduce a digital countdown for pedestrians at some crossings to further improve traffic flow.
TfL is in talks with the Department for Transport to obtain permission to shave seconds off the time people are given to cross roads.
TfL has already secured a commitment from
utility companies such as Thames Water to help keep traffic moving by putting steel plates over trenches dug in roads when work is not being done so vehicles can continue using the routes.
Alan Bristow, TfL's director of traffic operations, said: “Our timing review programme is aimed at making life a little bit easier for everyone who uses a particular junction, be they pedestrians, cyclists or motorists.”
