Countdown lights unsafe? Not so, say other cities

The idea that pedestrian countdown signals at Toronto’s intersections actually increase accidents is, to say the least, counter intuitive. The story is being widely aired this day (Friday, October 4, 2013) but reading down in the National Post report makes one wonder why other cities don’t seem to have this result. Both smaller and similar sized cities — Calgary and San Francisco — say pedestrian counters have increased safety at intersections. The Toronto study is fairly rudimentary, done by Dr. Andrew Howard of the Hopsital for Sick Children  and others. It concluded that the signals at almost 2,000 Toronto intersections were linked to a 26% increase in the rate of collisions. The rate of serious or fatal pedestrian-automobile crashes jumped even more — by 50%, they reported in the journal Injury Prevention.  The numbers are no doubt correct as far as they go but the lack of analysis of accidents in the context of the counters leaves big questions. Is it motorists jumping the light or pedestrians trying to run across the street with one or two seconds left on the counter?  Or something else? In San Francisco the traffic light wonks speculated that maybe it was because Toronto lights permit the yellow signal to light up before the countdown is finished. But hang on, that certainly isn’t the case at Bayview Ave and Moore ave. At that local intersection the countdown ends at “0” before the yellow light flashes on. The startling contradiction between other cities and Toronto hangs there like its own flashing yellow light. There are so many question: Do all intersections show similar results? Are the counter programs exactly the same? Looks like we need a Canada-wide, or North American wide study, before we start messing around with these counters.