I truly believe they are the most difficult ingredient in the LGV test. You pretty much have control over everything else, but not these nasties. So what is the problem?
As you approach green lights only 1 thing is certain, they will change at some point. But when? Examiners often have different views on passing lights on Amber. Some will flatly treat Amber the same as red. STOP. Others take a more relaxed view. So what are your options approaching a green traffic light ?
Accelerate towards it, hoping to get through on green. This is like placing a bet and hoping to win. If you lose the bet you will fail the test and is without doubt the worse decision.
Slow down, drop a gear or two and basically hope they change colour. If they do change it looks great as if you have a sixth sense but if not you risk marks for progress or undue hesitation. Only a minor fault unless it happens too often.
My preferred option. As you approach the lights come off the accelerator and cover the brake pedal. Make a big issue of checking mirrors for the distance of following vehicles. If they are close gently touch the brake to warn of a possible stop. Convince yourself mentally that the lights will change so that if they do you are expecting it. About 10 yards from the lights make a commitment to go and whatever happens after that keep going. If you do happen to go through on Amber explain to the examiner you took every precaution and felt you made the correct decision.
I find this issue the most challenging part of what I do each day.
Dead right John! My tuition is along the lines of: a green light is a red light waiting to happen. As you come up to it, slow down a bit, covering the brake (unless going uphill) and say- out loud if you like - "I can stop if I need to (check mirrors) I can stop if I need to (check mirrors) " and so on until the point of no return when it’s “Cant stop now so I’m going”. The timing of this is vital. Too early and it’s wrong, too late and it’s wrong. The biggest problem comes when folks have got to the “cant stop now so I’m going” and then get an amber light, change their mind and stamp on the brake. FAIL!
It’s also important, having decided to “go”, to get on with it. Generally this means planting your right foot hard to the floor on the gas pedal. The quicker you’re over the junction, the safer it is (normally). Especially if the lights change as you’re in the junction.
I think this is a big problem for many HGV learners. A 7.5T truck with a 5T load is not forgiving in these situations. Whilst on holiday in Asia, many places had a countdown on the lights informing you when they’ll change and I thought it was a great idea. IMO this should be adopted here although I fear that the loss of revenue from TS infringements will prevent that.
I was always taught when approaching a set of lights, unless I’d seen it change to green then treat it as a ‘STALE’ green light, one that’s likely to go off, approaching the light loose a bit of speed cover the brake pedal, until you get to that ‘point of no return’ where if you are gonna stop you’ll end up in the middle of the junction.
If it changes before the point of no return then you’ve adequate time and room to slow down, if you pass the point of no return you know you won’t stop in time so get ya foot down.
That’s what I was taught on my PSV training a few years ago and it’s something that helped me alot on my class 2, the examiners are only human if you go through an amber and they can see it was unavoidable explain it to them, some examiners will say ok fair enough some might not, but what have you got too loose you can’t crawl through every set of lights.
LGVTrainer:
Examiners often have different views on passing lights on Amber. Some will flatly treat Amber the same as red. STOP. Others take a more relaxed view. So what are your options approaching a green traffic light ?
This is the problem. They should ALL be singing from the same hymn sheet and there should be no ambiguity whatsoever. Just because the examiner didn’t get ■■■ last night should not mean all the candidates fail the next day.
LGVTrainer:
Examiners often have different views on passing lights on Amber. Some will flatly treat Amber the same as red. STOP. Others take a more relaxed view. So what are your options approaching a green traffic light ?
This is the problem. They should ALL be singing from the same hymn sheet and there should be no ambiguity whatsoever. Just because the examiner didn’t get ■■■ last night should not mean all the candidates fail the next day.
Nobodys there to regulate the examiners though, I did my class 2 with the best examiner anybody could dream for, we had a good chat going round, good few jokes aimed at each other, felt totally relaxed and passed, my mod 4 cpc though had the head examiner, what a d*** pointing out things that aren’t on the vehicle, all the instructors want to complain, the other examiners want them to complain about him but their all concerned about how they may be treated by him if he finds out who its come from
Yep know exactly what you mean with the green…got a minor on a set of lights that changed from green to red and had to brake sharpish as i closed in on them . Didn’t do to bad on the rest of the traffic lights as from then on quite a few around Mansfield were out of order at the time
I was taught that if the lights are green for a long time or if you’ve seen them change and you still have some distance to travel to get to the lights I always ease off. I would ease off more in lessons and my test than I do now. There have been times where I’ve flown through lights as they go amber. That being said, I’ve seen drivers follow me through when I know I’ve only just caught the lights on amber so they defentiy went through a red.
I also would like some info if I can on this, I am a Trainee Bus Driver and recently failed my test as I committed a Harsh Brake at a set of traffic lights, I did my normal thing and slowed to 25mph covered the break and believed I would have enough time to stop. I was a distance from the lights maybe 3-4 car lengths but in the end I needed to brake harsh to stop it and as a result ended up on a crossing parallel with the lights, however if I continued to go I would have gone through a red light as it went red about one car length from where I stopped. So my question is how to I prevent this from happening in my resit.I have found the stopping distances for different speeds, but do they also equate to PCV/LGV vehicles due to the additional weight of the vehicle. As if it was I should have stopped in time as the stopping distance at 20mph is 3 car lengths and I had maybe an extra car length for the extra 5mph. Thanks in advance
I would forget all about “3 car lengths” etc. You should know by now just how long it takes to stop, firmly but smoothly and comfortably. Put simply, you were approaching too fast by the sound of it.
If you read my post earlier in the thread you might find it useful. Better luck next time.
The amber phase is SUPPOSED to be timed to be able to give you enough time to actually stop comfortably - but in many cases this isn’t the case. For example, coming off the A30 from Honiton onto the M5 South - the limit is 40 but if you’re going along at 40 and they turn to amber, you’ll need to throw on some fairly heavy braking to comply with the red light that comes up (what feels like) a split second later.
I don’t know if they’re calibrated for cars and not for trucks or buses, but don’t assume the speed limit will give you enough time to stop. As for test conditions - I was taught that as long as you’ve shown a reasonable effort to expect an amber (lift off, mirror check, cover brake), then it’s fine if you go through one. If you take it too far and slow down to like 15mph - that’s undue hesitation, and the lights could simply change 20 feet from the line (you’d probably have to brake pretty hard at that point), so you’d get marked down for a heavy brake then, too.
On my test I had this happen, booted the gas and swung right at the lights as I could tell that the Royal Mail van on my right would gun it the moment he got a red/amber signal. Explained to the examiner ‘I wouldn’t normally turn that quickly, but it was still a safe speed imo and had to do it so the RM driver saw me’, and didn’t get marked down.
Just remember to look through the junction as soon as you see the lights - you don’t want to commit to a green, hit the gas, then notice you can’t exit safely and slam the brakes on.
Fail safe method!! On the approach always assume they are going to change at the worst possible time, when we are expecting something to happen we react a lot quicker, cover brake, check mirrors as said, and do not be scared to SLOW DOWN to a appropriate speed(this can be quite slow especially if going down hill), a examiner will never punish you for this because they WILL know why[emoji106]. If your judgement is ok, job done[emoji3]
Another one that can throw you on your test is passing the light at a junction on amber, coming up to a repeater light that’s now on red and wrongly stopping.
This junction near me is quite easy to do that on, pretend you are turning right.
. Didn’t do to bad on the rest of the traffic lights as from then on quite a few around Mansfield were out of order at the time 