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Traffic light timings holding cyclists

by adriank999
Sat, Feb 09, 2013 09:38
4

Our local council insists on putting automatic delays of 30 seconds into pedestrian/cycling traffic lights when there is approaching traffic, on roads with an 85th percentile speed of 35 – 45 mph

They cite ltn-2-95 Design of Pedestrian Crossings

Download from here :

http://tinyurl.com/bgzfsd6

The way I read it is that in table 2, for 85 percentile speeds of 35-45 they should be using vehicle actuation of c & d , variable timings NOT fixed times.

Am I correct ?

I would appreciate your comments

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4 comments

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adriank999 | 12 years ago
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What do you mean by 'delay'. On the ped/cycle phase, or the vehicle stage?

If traffic is approaching and a pedestrian presses the button the lights hold the pedestrian for time until the traffic clears or the time ends. It is common to hold pedestrians in the cold and wet for 30 seconds.

TAL 5/05
"Pedestrian compliance with the red man signal is thought to be generally poor. Pedestrians are more likely to disregard the red man signal if they consider the distance they have to walk, or the time they have to wait, unreasonable.
(When waiting at a junction, in bad weather, a driver may be frustrated but is generally warm and dry. A frustrated, cold and/or wet pedestrian is more likely to take what otherwise they would consider an unacceptable risk.)"

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nellybuck@msn.com | 12 years ago
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What do you mean by 'delay'. On the ped/cycle phase, or the vehicle stage?

It will all be dependent on the attitude of the signal engineer; he may be willing to consider variations for individual sites, or he may decide to keep them all the same for ease.

Ultimately the local authority are responsible for safety, so introduce delays on signal timings for that reason and are often reluctant to remove them without good reason.

Also worth remembering that LTNs are advice, and are not required to be applied uncritically, meaning that there's no need for the authority to pay any attention to them if they don't want to.

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jonusher | 12 years ago
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Get them to talk to Bristol City Council, who removed the delays from all stand alone crossings. Adam Crowther is the signals engineer (adam.crowther [at] bristol.gov.uk). If one authority can do it, I can't see why others wouldn't.

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adriank999 replied to jonusher | 12 years ago
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Thanks for that 22

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