At certain pedestrian crossings you will find buttons that you have to push to make it turn green faster. How does this work? And is this actually useful?
Answer
Dear Jonas,
The purpose of the push button for pedestrians is not so much to allow pedestrians to cross the road more quickly, but rather to avoid unnecessarily stopping other traffic flows if there are no pedestrians. Without push buttons, the lights will be controlled with a certain frequency, which will stop the flow of cars even if there are no pedestrians. You can compare the application to traffic lights for cars that only turn green when a car drives over a detection loop. These are mainly used when there is a big difference in the intensity of the traffic in the intersecting directions.
In general, the devices provide additional information about a current situation that can be used to direct traffic more efficiently. Additional information is useful, but given the cost of such devices, it is not advisable to install a push button in all cases.
Regards,
Jeroen Engelen
Answered by
Ir. Jeroen Engelen
architecture engineering
Boeretang 200, 2400 Mol
http://www.sckcen.be
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