Do the new Pedestrian Hybrid traffic lights confuse anyone else? Do you have them yet?

[Tap]

Our city started using these in the past few years (for drivers side of flyer). 

I hate intersections that use them, and sometimes go around (easy to do at the two particular intersections I go thru) just to avoid them.  It isn't just me, it is other drivers who do all sorts of unexpected things at them. I am sure some drivers are confused the first time they see them and don't really know what to do.  

 

The other day, I came up to a set of lights where someone was just finished walking across. There were no additional pedestrians.  The lights went through their cycle and when the lights started flashing red, I went through the intersection.  I watched in my mirror. The cars in my rear view mirror (two cars side by side, 4 total including the opposite directions), all sat and waited for the lights to go dark before going through the intersection.  That means that the 4 drivers, didn't know what to do at the lights.  (Red flashing means stop and proceed with caution if the crosswalk is clear). 

 

I can not imagine that they are any safer than the traditional traffic lights and wonder why they felt the need to change the existing system. Any civil engineers have comments about the increased safety of them?

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

One ways increase safety. Those signals likely don't. Any traffic signal that isn't simple is likely to be ignored and that is most dangerous of all, because a pedestrian thinks it is safe to cross.

[myfunnybunch]

Our city put them in last year when/where they installed new bus stops. It took a while (a couple months), and a couple newspaper articles/news spots on the nightly news, but most people figured them out pretty quickly.

 

I agree that the picture explanation on the signal is not super-intuitive, but a red light means stop, so drivers always stop. There's no confusion there. It's how to behave after pedestrians have crossed that's not so simple. I had to think about it, and hoped that I was following directions properly the first time. But I'd correctly interpreted it, and other drivers figured it out too, so it's not that I'm amazingly intelligent. By now most people know what to do or imitate what other drivers are (properly) doing.

 

I remember many drivers followed the same kind of learning curve when the city installed roundabouts. (Get it? Learning curve. Ha! :lol: ) 

 

Better drivers stopped when they shouldn't be than drivers plowing through on the heels of pedestrians, possibly not seeing a little one darting out, or someone dressed in black on a dark night. :)

[Farrar]

We have them. The first couple times I went through them, they confused me a little, but now I get it. Other cars seem to mostly get it too. I think they're good. Not sure why anyone would think they're bad. Ours go to a solid red as part of their cycle and it's clear to me that cars won't ignore a solid red or a flashing red so I think it's quite safe for pedestrians. I think the bigger annoyance is cars who don't get it waiting at the flashing red with the pedestrians are finished, but our cycle is pretty short and realistically speaking that's just a minor inconvenience, not a danger or anything.

[Farrar]

One ways increase safety. Those signals likely don't. Any traffic signal that isn't simple is likely to be ignored and that is most dangerous of all, because a pedestrian thinks it is safe to cross.

 

But it flashes red at the cars. Really, we're so trained to stop when we see red lights. It looks exactly like there's a proper traffic light in the street. I don't know how it could be more dangerous for pedestrians. While I can see the confusing argument, I don't get how it could increase danger for walkers, especially when - at least here - what it's replacing is yield to pedestrians in crosswalk signs.

[Tsuga]

We have crosswalks with lights, but not this complicated of a system. I think it should just be "red" until the light changes. I realize that there is a problem when nobody enters the crosswalk but just hits the signal and then walks on--jerks--but honestly, that's the price we pay.

 

The flashing lights acting as a stop sign aren't too complicated but overall I think the system could be simpler and red/off lights for crosswalks makes more sense.

 

ETA: Obviously this is an improvement to no lights at all, but we have lights mostly on the busy streets, or stop signs, and you must stop at an intersection for a pedestrian.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Tsuga

[ThisIsTheDay]

Why not just have a regular traffic signal at the crosswalk?  I've seen those before.  Then everyone knows what to do, drives and peds.

 

Who invented this?  The same person who brought about the boom of roundabouts.  Sheesh, I hate those things.

[TravelingChris]

I love roundabouts.  They save time,

 

 

We don't have any of these in our city.

[MEmama]

What's wrong with Walk and Don't Walk signals? Or if that's too hard for drivers to figure out, how about flashing crosswalk lights when there is a pedestrian?

 

Anything that confuses drivers and causes more chaos just can't be helpful IMO. That definitely includes roundabouts. Ugh.

[unsinkable]

Our city started using these in the past few years (for drivers side of flyer). (video of them in use) I hate intersections that use them, and sometimes go around (easy to do at the two particular intersections I go thru) just to avoid them. It isn't just me, it is other drivers who do all sorts of unexpected things at them. I am sure some drivers are confused the first time they see them and don't really know what to do.

 

The other day, I came up to a set of lights where someone was just finished walking across. There were no additional pedestrians. The lights went through their cycle and when the lights started flashing red, I went through the intersection. I watched in my mirror. The cars in my rear view mirror (two cars side by side, 4 total including the opposite directions), all sat and waited for the lights to go dark before going through the intersection. That means that the 4 drivers, didn't know what to do at the lights. (Red flashing means stop and proceed with caution if the crosswalk is clear).

 

I can not imagine that they are any safer than the traditional traffic lights and wonder why they felt the need to change the existing system. Any civil engineers have comments about the increased safety of them?

None here...but red flashing lights are always treated as a stop sign anyway, right? So the drivers you saw in your rear view didn't seem to know the basic rule.

[Annie G]

Our city started using these in the past few years (for drivers side of flyer).  (video of them in use) I hate intersections that use them, and sometimes go around (easy to do at the two particular intersections I go thru) just to avoid them.  It isn't just me, it is other drivers who do all sorts of unexpected things at them. I am sure some drivers are confused the first time they see them and don't really know what to do.  

 

The other day, I came up to a set of lights where someone was just finished walking across. There were no additional pedestrians.  The lights went through their cycle and when the lights started flashing red, I went through the intersection.  I watched in my mirror. The cars in my rear view mirror (two cars side by side, 4 total including the opposite directions), all sat and waited for the lights to go dark before going through the intersection.  That means that the 4 drivers, didn't know what to do at the lights.  (Red flashing means stop and proceed with caution if the crosswalk is clear). 

 

I can not imagine that they are any safer than the traditional traffic lights and wonder why they felt the need to change the existing system. Any civil engineers have comments about the increased safety of them?

 

I just ran across one of these last month and what bothered me is that it was at a place where a paved multi use trail crossed a busy city street. So as we approached, the light was red. When it flashed red, the car ahead of us went through so we figured we'd pull up, look, and then go through. But we could see to our right that a couple of cyclists were approaching. Would they stop? Was I going to take the chance that they wouldn't stop? I stayed put, the car behind me honked at me, and the cyclists blew across the intersection without stopping.    I made the guy behind me mad by not going, but if I had, the cyclists would have had to slam on their brakes- they were cursing at a pretty good clip. 

 

I'm sure it's much easier when it's regular pedestrians at one of these hybrid crosswalks but I'm with you- HOW is this better than the old system? 

 

I'm glad this was in Wisconsin and not Illinois, where I live and do most of my driving.  Illinois is too broke to be able to afford to implement these things. At least for now. 

[Farrar]

Roundabouts are the absolute worst for pedestrians. I'm a pretty confident pedestrian and they scare me much of the time. Drivers are distracted by navigating all the yields and lane changing.

[mom2scouts]

I've never seen those, but I wonder how they would work in my city. In this area, yellow seems to mean "floor it and get through the light" and the first sign of red means "three more cars can go quickly".

[Cinder]

We have the countdown lights for pedestrians but I haven't seen the drivers' lights here. We have enough trouble with drivers stopping at red before making a right as well as people turning left on green always assuming they have the right-of-way that it would definitely cause more crazy driving here. We recently have seen more flashing yellow arrows to remind people that the left turn has to yield to oncoming traffic. Really. Which could all have been avoided if there wasn't a yield sign on nearly every corner allowing left on green to have the right-of-way in the first place.  :glare:
 

[Caroline]

We have the countdown lights for pedestrians but I haven't seen the drivers' lights here. We have enough trouble with drivers stopping at red before making a right as well as people turning left on green always assuming they have the right-of-way that it would definitely cause more crazy driving here. We recently have seen more flashing yellow arrows to remind people that the left turn has to yield to oncoming traffic. Really. Which could all have been avoided if there wasn't a yield sign on nearly every corner allowing left on green to have the right-of-way in the first place. :glare:

 

Perhaps you live near me? Those stupid yield to the person turning left signs are nuts!!

[Cinder]

Perhaps you live near me? Those stupid yield to the person turning left signs are nuts!!

 

Yes--I'm on the northwest side of the metro area. We moved here 11 years ago and hadn't seen so many yield signs--or the resultant driving behavior--in any other state we've lived in. It took me years to get used to it. TBH I'm still not quite used to it and it still bugs me to have to stop my right-on-green to yield to an oncoming left. I was nearly hit once when I made a right-on green where there was no yield sign--a rarity--because the oncoming left-on-green assumed the right-of-way. These signs are causing GA drivers to be poorly trained. *sigh* Can you tell this is a major peeve of mine? ;)

[SparklyUnicorn]

We don't have those, but I recently saw signs that periodically flash the message: "No turn on red".  This is when the pedestrians are crossing.  I found that helpful.  And it was easy to understand.

 

 

[mom2bee]

I feel like those things would increase accidents in my area. This is my first time seeing or hearing about them. Upon reading the document and watching the video I am still a little confused.

[MEmama]

Roundabouts are the absolute worst for pedestrians. I'm a pretty confident pedestrian and they scare me much of the time. Drivers are distracted by navigating all the yields and lane changing.

Gasp! Pedestrians try to cross through roundabouts?! Honestly, I've never seen that or even considered it a possibility. We don't have many in my wider community (none in town, thank goodness) but the few I've been forced to drive through are so chaotic and confusing...I just can't imagine being brave enough to trust that drivers would have the ability to see a pedestrian in time or be able to react. Yikes! Then again, I'm more likely to drive out of way to avoid roundabouts altogether. I'm not convinced they save time, certainly not enough to justify my raised blood pressure trying to navigate through them.

[Farrar]

Gasp! Pedestrians try to cross through roundabouts?! Honestly, I've never seen that or even considered it a possibility. We don't have many in my wider community (none in town, thank goodness) but the few I've been forced to drive through are so chaotic and confusing...I just can't imagine being brave enough to trust that drivers would have the ability to see a pedestrian in time or be able to react. Yikes! Then again, I'm more likely to drive out of way to avoid roundabouts altogether. I'm not convinced they save time, certainly not enough to justify my raised blood pressure trying to navigate through them.

The city I live in was designed to have a ton of them - there are public spaces in the center of many. Traffic lights make it safe for many of them but others... Just a zebra crossing.

[Reefgazer]

We don't have these specific lights here, but the ODU campus where DD swims has flashing lights every time pedestrian is about to step into an intersection and I find it distracting and confusing.  I am 53 and learned to drive at a time where a driver was expected to take note of pedestrians and keep an eye out for things on their own.  The flashing lights are another distraction for me, not helpful in any way, and they've caused a few close calls for me because I was trained to watch for the pedestrian, not the distraction of flashing lights.

[TrixieB]

We don't have pedestrian hybrid traffic lights.  They seem like they would be very confusing for drivers.  If an entire brochure is needed to explain how to use them... yeah, confusing.

 

We have cyclist signals and pedestrian-only signals at a few intersections.  The cycle/ped symbols turn green or white, while the overhead lights for vehicles stay red. 

[ashfern]

We don't have those here. We have the diverging diamond interchanges which are confusing. There's also a huge push for roundabouts here which are usually too small.

[Petrichor]

We have a similar pedestrian crosswalk system. Those kinds of lights are only in places where a pedestrian trail is intersecting with a road. Never at a vehicle intersection, so here, it's not the issue of pedestrians getting run over by turning cars. 

 

Like another poster, our only issue is many drivers don't seem to know what a red flashing light means. I've gotten "What the?!?" signals from other drivers stopped at the flashing red light when I've treated it like a stop sign.

 

This is in an area where we have a lot of red flashing light/stop sign intersections too, and I've noticed the same thing multiple times, so I don't know HOW these people manage to drive...

 

The only roundabouts that we have are in areas without pedestrian traffic.

[Guest]

I've never seen them, but I can see how they would be confusing.  

 

The brochure is confusing because on the driving side, it should descend in increasing order of "stoppiness" and it switches the two reds.  They should be in opposite order.  I found THAT very confusing.

 

We just had a switch in our traffic due to some toll/HOV combination lanes and it has been confusing to us, too.  The exits are not where you think they are and at certain times of day you pay tolls, at others, you don't, and it's hard to figure out.  I just use surface streets if I can. 

 

[Farrar]

Like I said, I was mildly confused when I first saw them in part because the way the light goes to flashing is weird - it goes to yellow then flashing super fast then solid red for a few seconds (so the person can get into the intersection and begin to cross)... but do people really not have any clue about what to do at a red flashing light? I mean, that's the default everywhere I've ever lived for broken light signals - one way becomes flashing yellow and the other flashing red. And there are a few light signals here that are flashing yellow while the other way is red just because you still need to proceed with caution because of another street entering traffic or something like that.

 

My understanding is that this solution is cheaper than installing a full traffic light. There are a number of on the cheap light innovations around here. That's one. The other one is that they have now changed a LOT of the lights around here to stay green in one direction while they turn red in the other. It helps clear turning traffic. But, of course, there's no protected green so you have to realize that they've suddenly gotten the red light a few seconds before your direction does. Dh and I were talking about it and agree we like that, but it's mostly useful if it's an intersection you use a lot.