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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit
(11-18-2014, 07:09 PM)Canard Wrote: I hate to say it, but as a motorist this is one of the most annoying things ever.  We don't mind stopping for pedestrians who have requested a signal - but nothing is more wasteful than when a pedestrian comes up to a crosswalk, hits the button, looks both ways and crosses on the flashing red hand anyway.   They're long gone and traffic comes to a standstill, forcing them to decelerate, idle, and then accelerate - needlessly wasting fuel.
How would you waste any less fuel or idle for less time if the pedestrian waits patiently for the light to turn red and only then begins to cross?

Quote:I also believe firmly that if a light has been priority green in one direction for a long time (because no cross-traffic triggered a light change at a smart signal), a pedistrian cross request should be effected immediately, not after a delay.  There's no reason to make a person stand there and wait (except entice them to dangerously cross traffic against the signal).  There is no penalty to the traffic (who wouldn't know otherwise that there was a delay or not).  The only timer that is required is a recycle timer that doesn't permit requests to occur to close together.
Here's one situation. Suppose there's a series of traffic lights along a main artery that are synchronized so that someone driving at the speed limit gets a so-called "green wave." In this case if pedestrian crossings get triggered when the button is pushed then this signal would defeat the green wave effect. That would frustrate drivers who were travelling at the speed limit so as to catch that wave.

This is one of my frustrations as a driver coming into Waterloo along Bridgeport Rd. The lights at Margaret, Weber, Regina, King and Albert are all synched into a green wave. But the lights at Bluevale and Ellis aren't. Cars travelling on those streets trigger sensors at those intersections causing those two lights to change colour out of synch with the green wave on Bridgeport. So even the few of us who actually try to keep to 50km/h along Bridgeport end up being stopped at Bluevale or Ellis. This is a very stupid design because it frustrates far more drivers on Bridgeport than it helps on Bluevale or Ellis. I wouldn't want this sort of traffic light behaviour to be carried over to pedestrian crossings too.
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RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - by ookpik - 11-18-2014, 09:12 PM
[No subject] - by Spokes - 08-28-2014, 04:16 PM

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