Raise the Hammer

My main concern is precisely that the walk signal does not always appear with the green light. This seems to be the standard programming in all these dual vehicle/pedestrian activated lights. This should definitely be fixed here and at all other locations with this problem. Again, why was they light designed this way, together with pedestrian activation?

My secondary concern, as echoed by some of the commenters, is that if pedestrian activated lights do not behave in a predictable way (with a standard, short, delay) pedestrians will learn to simply ignore them because they can't rely on them to predictably produce a pedestrian signal.

I'm glad that traffic staff has lowered the delay from 70s (which is completely unacceptable), but predictable operation should be a goal for pedestrians as well as drivers. I understand that a traffic engineer could look at that light, notice the induction loops on Young and the pedestrian activated buttons and deduce the operation of the system. But all the pedestrian sees is the buttons that say "push to cross" or a "don't walk" together with a green light if they push the button too late.

Again, I was crossing around 8pm under very low traffic volume conditions. It should be possible to change the timing at least for different times of day (e.g. immediate response when traffic is low), even if the goal of moving traffic require a longer delay at later times.

Regarding "outrage", unfortunately I've learnt from over 10 years of working with the DNA on traffic issues that meekly reporting an issue will lead to being ignored. This happened repeatedly, even when the City had asked the DNA for input on street design (e.g. the Walk and Bike for Life workshop).

That's not an ideal situation, but unfortunately that's the way things work.

Remember that the DNA has been trying to get a more balanced, safer and more convenient (for everyone) street network in Durand for over 40 years and has been largely ignored until recently. Read the "Durand Chronicle" for a detailed history of the efforts and responses.

As I've said before, the situation is changing for the better, but the fact that the last two pedestrian activated lights (on Herkimer and Hunter) were deliberately mis-programmed despite instructions they should operate as pedestrian activated lights does not build confidence. And these lights were built using special funds found by Councillor Farr and through the PB process.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2014-10-31 09:58:24