News / Transport
Pedestrians set to be given priority over vehicles at crossings
Pedestrians are set to be given priority over vehicles at traffic light crossings across Bristol, with the amber stop light for cars appearing immediately after someone presses the wait button.
City councillors are being advised to approve plans to re-programme all 100 pelican, puffin and toucan crossings so that if no one has approached one for 30 seconds, traffic is stopped and the green person appears the moment someone pushes the button.
But a report to the transport & connectivity committee on Thursday said the system, called pre-timed max settings, could cause “localised traffic congestion at times”.
It said the current set-up automatically detects when pedestrians are waiting at a crossing and vehicles are approaching but that the average waiting time to cross the road was 20 seconds, although it could be as low as three seconds.
If councillors approve the proposal, vehicles would be stopped immediately.
The report said: “If no one has used the crossing in the last 30 seconds, the green person symbol will be prompt to pedestrians when they push the button.
“The pre-timed max facility makes pedestrian crossings instantaneous for pedestrians, i.e. a pedestrian pushes the button and the signals instantly go to leaving amber and red for the traffic and then green for the pedestrians.
“Once it goes back to the traffic green it then runs a pre-timed maximum of 30 seconds before it becomes instantly responsive again.”
The changes will cost the council just over £20,000.
Main photo: Edie Earle
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