Sunday, July 10, 2011

Bicycle Countdown Signal - Time to Green

The bicycle signal countdown timer in Amsterdam, a video can be found here and one in Delft here.
The following is an example of a Countdown to green indication for a bicycle signal in Amsterdam.

The exact time is not provided, but a Wacht message with the circular display that reduces the number of LEDs.

This is similar to the Japanese (sand in the hour glass concept). My host told me that studies have shown that the addition of this signal head has improved compliance. It was not clear from our conversation whether the data collected was from a statistically significant sample.

After uploading this I found a blog post or two about these installations.

In particular, the blog highlights two important concepts from the Dutch designs:
"Traffic light cycle times for cyclists are short. This leads to a low average delay for cyclists at these points, often lower than the average delay for drivers. This increases the competitive advantage of bikes over cars.

Permeability for cyclists. In both cases in these videos, we're crossing in a direction where motorists can't also drive, meaning that cyclists get more direct routes. Again, a competitive advantage for bikes over cars."

This is the one from Amsterdam.


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