I've noticed about 8 months ago in Old Pasadena, the signals have had a lengthened all-red time and in one direction (say east-west), the pedestrian phase signals walk. The walk sign will stay on for two seconds then the signal will turn green. Once the signal turns green, the flashing hand starts. This gives pedestrians a head start in the intersection, making them especially more visible to cars making turns once the signal turns green. It's a good concept. Is it used elsewhere?
-Davis
iPhone
It's not used in NYC, but pedestrians do it anyway.
I can think of a handful of intersections in the Madison, WI area (esp. in the downtown area) that utilize a similar timing (typically the walk phase overlaps part of the all-red and green phases. It's nice as a pedestrian, but does nothing for the motorists who aren't looking for peds to begin with. Unfortunately for the motorists, the signals that utilize this programming do not employ ped call buttons, rather the walk phase comes on whether there's foot traffic or not. Really annoying for through traffic late at night.
Quote from: empirestate on December 20, 2013, 12:10:14 AM
It's not used in NYC, but pedestrians do it anyway.
This is actually in use at various signalized intersections throughout the five boroughs of New York City. One signalized intersection that I could think of off the top my head is Tysens Ln. and Hylan Blvd. on Staten Island.
Several DC intersections use this "pedestrian lead time", especially in the heavy pedestrian areas in the DC core and adjacent areas. I think Arlington County also uses it in a few places between Rosslyn and Ballston, but I'm not 100% on that.
Montreal has something like this. During the beginning of the green phase, a green straight arrow turns on to allow straight traffic to proceed. After a few seconds, it shifts to a normal green so turns can go. This gives the pedestrians a head start into the crosswalk.
I remember seeing this around Univ of Penn area in Philly.
I've seen it used in Pittsburgh (Oakland neighborhood, especially) and State College in Pennsylvania. I like the "head start" setup much better than the ped-only phases West Virginia uses in a lot of places.
I believe this was proposed for a signal on Chicagoland (I believe in Chicago proper), but I never heard if it was implemented.
It's done at a few intersections in Downtown Baltimore (Light and Lombard, Light at Pratt, along Howard Street) where the turning traffic is stopped with a red light while cars can continue straight and pedestrians can cross. On Howard Street, it's generally done to help the Light Rail move a bit more fluidly through downtown.