Thursday, November 19, 2009

Crosswalk Countdown!

The Highway District has started installing a bunch of new "countdown" signs for pedestrians. They display how many seconds remain before cross traffic gets the green light.

(Which brings up a question. If a slow pedestrian enters a crosswalk, does he have the right-of-way until he gets to the other side, regardless of whether the cars have a green light? I would hope a pedestrian has legal right of way until he's safely on the other side. However... pedestrians must beware! More pedestrians get killed than cyclists. It can be dangerous to share the infrastructure with those talking/texting missile pilots!)

I really like the countdown signals, from a cyclist standpoint. If I'm approaching such an intersection, it tells me exactly how much time I have to make it through, and whether I should sprint or take a breather.

1 comment:

Clancy said...

When those signals hit zero that light is red. I like them except when I see 5 and I am half a block away. I will soon learn that it is fruitless to try.