Susan Kramer of Everett writes: “Everett has installed some pedestrian (walk/don’t walk) signal lights that have countdown timers. Some of these timers are coordinated with the traffic lights such that when the timer reaches zero the light turns yellow and shortly thereafter red. For others, when the timer reaches zero the light remains green for a time before turning yellow and then red. … Is there some philosophy/rule that is followed for the location of the pedestrian lights with count-down timers where reaching zero means an immediate yellow light? I can envision suffering a rear-end collision if I assume the light will immediately turn yellow and I slow to a stop only to have the light remain green with the car behind me assuming the light will remain green and continue driving (right into me).”
Marla Carter of the city’s Public Works department responds: “Pedestrian countdown timers are a feature of nearly all traffic signals in Everett. Where the traffic signal is actuated (i.e. has sensors to detect cars and adjust the green times accordingly), the pedestrian signals will count down to zero but the green light may continue to stay on. Where traffic signals are pre-timed, such as inside the Central Business District, we generally time the countdown to end coincidentally with the end of the vehicle phase. We recommend that drivers observe the (green-yellow-red) signals rather than the pedestrian countdown timers to make driving decisions.”
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