Traffic Safety
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Departments >Traffic Safety > Safety Articles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Traffic
& Pedestrian Safety News Articles
How Do You Cross a Street in 5 Seconds?
A regular traffic signal provides three colors or indications of vehicular traffic; red, yellow, and green. Red is intended to indicate traffic should not enter the intersection, while green permits traffic to proceed. Yellow is intended to function as a clearance or transition period. WALK and DON'T WALK indications attempt to function in the same manner for pedestrians, except that there are only two instead of three indications. A separate clearance indication does not exist. Instead, the clearance function is provided by a flashing DON'T WALK indication. When the WALK interval is illuminated, pedestrians can leave the curb and enter the crosswalk controlled by that WALK indication. When the WALK is lit, there is adequate time for a person entering the intersection and walking at a normal speed to cross the street. A clearance period is needed to indicate that pedestrians in the process of crossing the street can complete the crossing, while others should not enter the same crosswalk. This interval is displayed as a flashing DON'T WALK indication. There should be adequate time for those in the crosswalk to complete their crossing before the DON'T WALK flashing interval is completed. The steady DON'T WALK indication means that pedestrians should not enter or be in the crosswalk controlled by that indication. In recent years, the WALK and DON'T WALK indications have been provided by words or by use of symbols of a red hand for the DON'T WALK and a white symbol for a pedestrian for the WALK indications. A newer concept supplements these with a "countdown timer". These are still experimental, but one has been installed at an intersection in Apple Valley. These indicate to pedestrians how much time is left to complete the crossing of the intersection. However, once the countdown timer begins, pedestrians should not enter the intersection, and only those already in the crosswalk should continue to complete their crossing. Content updated on: 03-May-2004
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