Pedestrians in the CBD will now know whether it’s safe to cross the road with the installation of timers at three key intersections.
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The timers were this week installed at three CBD intersections - Keira and Crown streets, Kembla and Crown streets and Keira and Burelli streets.
Three three timers are the first of 35 to be rolled out across the state.
This will include two in Nowra – at Kinghorne and Junction streets as well as Berry and Junction streets.
Most of the time the new pedestrian lights do not look any different to the old ones.
They display a red figure when it's unsafe to walk and a green one when pedestrians can cross.
The difference is, instead of the flashing red figure, the new lights switch from a green "walk" figure to a countdown timer that starts at 23 seconds and runs down to zero.
“The new countdown timers will encourage people to cross the road only when it is safe to do so,” said Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward.
“We know these timers work – they have been thoroughly tested to check they can effectively boost pedestrian safety at these intersections.”
The aim is to reduce pedestrian fatalities.
Between 2009 and 2013 there were 266 pedestrians killed and 9023 injured on NSW roads – almost a quarter of these crashes were at signalised intersections.
This year 29 pedestrians have already been killed on NSW roads.
The Centre for Road Safety Executive Director Bernard Carlon has said the three intersections were not chosen because they have a high rate of injuries or fatalities.
Rather, they are the sort of intersection where studies have shown that timers work best.
Those intersections that suit timers are the ones where pedestrians and cars are not on the road at the same time.
In the case of the Wollongong intersections, the lights are set so that traffic in all directions is stopped while pedestrians cross.
The Nowra intersections were chosen for a similar reason.
For those intersections where timers were not suitable, the NSW government was investing $5 million to change signal timing to give pedestrians more time to cross.
Transport for NSW will continue to monitor the program and assess whether pedestrian countdown timers can be effectively implemented at additional locations across the state.