STEPHEN Hellier's comments about our ailing traffic management system (Letters, November 8) are spot-on.

The coach from Southampton to Heathrow was held up for 20 minutes by an endless chain of red traffic lights at 5am with not another vehicle in sight.

One sixth of the duration of my trip to Heathrow was thus spent stuck in Southampton, needlessly polluting the city centre - not a great initiative in support of public transport!

I live two miles from the central station, yet the most direct route there has 22 sets of traffic signals!

If these are mostly at green, my journey takes five minutes. If most are at red, it can take more than 30 minutes.

With such high variance of travel times no wonder people are always rushing, stressed, and causing accidents.

It's no surprise to see how the traffic flow in Southampton improves during a power cut - when the lights are out - only to snarl up again when the power is restored!

Southampton was supposed, with EU funding, to have developed one of the most sophisticated traffic management schemes in Europe.

It seems that all we have achieved is the dubious accolade of having (officially) the highest density of traffic signals of any European city - and one of the slowest average traffic speeds in Britain. What a waste of money and common sense!

GEOFF FRAMPTON, Southampton.