Rush-hour traffic seems to suffer most from a phasing programme that Kingsway commuters claim gives too much time to cross-Kingsway traffic and too little to those using the city’s by-pass.

Close examination of the lights on one occasion revealed that the green signal for west-bound Kingsway traffic showed for only 20 seconds and was followed by a wait of 80 seconds before it returned.

Only a few vehicles travelling on Kingsway were able to get through the lights in that time and the resultant hold-up tailed back beyond the Pitkerro Road roundabout.

The situation has been compounded recently by roadworks at the Claverhouse junction, which have had an adverse impact on the capacity of the junction.

One motorist said, “We never seemed to have much bother getting through that junction when we had the two roundabouts in place, but now you can find yourself stuck there for a while.

“It looks to me as if the lights have been put in place and then forgotten about. I can’t see any other reason why the authorities who are supposed to monitor them haven’t done anything about the hold-ups.”

The build-up of traffic appears to occur intermittently, particularly at rush-hour.

Otherwise, the lights — installed by contractors who built the nearby Morrisons supermarket to cater for an anticipated increase in traffic — appear to cope well.

Transport Scotland said the contractor was monitoring the lights to ensure timings are altered to reduce queuing.

A spokeswoman added, “The contractor is also working to connect the signals to the Dundee City Council urban traffic control system, which will improve the co-ordination with other nearby traffic signals.

“We can confirm that some roadworks, on-going over the last few weeks, have reduced the capacity of the signals. Any further work will be limited to off-peak periods.”