Transport for NSW, the government agency which controls traffic signal timing in Sydney and NSW, has an excellent stated goal of increasing walking and cycling trips – and reducing pedestrian wait times at intersections.<p>However, there is no public data on traffic light timing in Sydney or NSW.<p>I built this little React site to crowdsource measurements and inform where positive changes could be made - Sydney focused, but works anywhere in the world if you'd like to make use of it/fork it!
When I moved from Europe to Sydney, it was striking how much traffic lights deprioritised walking. Visitors have independently commented on similar things.<p>Its not just timing, but also inefficient phases. I requested the dataset for phases, but after months was given a totally different dataset. I gave up.
In the USA, the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices has an (I think) reasonable requirements for crossing durations but almost no further recommendations about maximum wait times. This results in completely idiotic timing programs of the signals everywhere that encourage people to cross when cars have a green light. If you want to change it to be more pedestrian friendly, it can cost $20k+ because the signals are programmed in a 40 year old language that only a very small group of highly paid traffic engineers know how to write.
Don't forget the infuriating situation where infra designers/whomever decide "we can't put a sidewalk here", or governments allow construction to close a sidewalk for years on end.<p>Why it's acceptable to put up signs saying "don't cross here" and instead require that people cross the road 3 times to go a few dozens of feet is beyond me.
This is awesome, and I'd add that in doing safe streets advocacy in SF I have learned that to make changes like these it's helpful to record the entire signal timing for all phases to make more concrete recommendations for changing timing. In other words you'll have to take time from other signal phases to increase ped timing and without that data it's hard to advocate for change. Here is one example of a full phase visualization:
<a href="https://glitch.com/edit/#!/aframe-ped-signals?path=README.md%3A1%3A0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://glitch.com/edit/#!/aframe-ped-signals?path=README.md...</a>
This is actually one of the most annoying things I’ve noticed in Brisbane - the lights for walking take absolutely forever. To the point that everyone will j walk because it can take 5 minutes for a light to change; it makes getting around the city so frustrating as a person coming from Northern Europe
I'm surprised traffic light timing is a focus for increasing cycling trips.<p>Bikes can use the same timing as car traffic (we go when the cars go). I know the "bike paths" of sydney have their own little green cycling man, but I mostly ignore those.<p>The bike lanes are infuriating. with multiple areas requiring the crossing of 3 lanes of traffic where the bike lane is on the right side going into an intersection, and on the left on the other side of the intersection.<p>I (and many other cyclists I've seen) are regularly just cycling in car lanes because the bike lane is incompressible in some areas. Often, it is only for a block or 2 until you can get back into the bike lane safely, and stay in the lane for at least a few blocks.<p>I often wonder if the person who is in charge of designing bike lanes in Sydney even has a bike.
I've been meaning to time the traffic lights where I am, most are really good for pedestrians, but there are some here and there that take an age to change. I even changed my walk to work as the shortest path has a couple of particularly slow crossings, making a slightly longer route quicker as it only has zebra crossings.
Are we documenting “silent walks”, where timing is flexibly maximised into whatever the car traffic is doing? They’re a tiny percentage overall, but on quiet t-junctions they can last hours in the dead of night. “Silent” because the accessibility sounds deactivate until the phase changes.