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I am trying to ascertain public perception on portable traffic signals. Do drivers assume that when lights are out, that they are not in use or simply not working? Similarly what is the general perception regarding wait time at portables. How long will people wait at red before believing the signals are stuck?
The wiat time is probably very dependent on the setup – is it a 3 way set of lights, can we see the other side, can we see if anyone is watching, what are others doing.
From previous experience of enforcement, I’d suggest that drivers satrt to get twitchy if there is no activity after about 60 seconds – so close to what many see as the typoical cycle of the lights.
Its becoming quite rare to see temp ATS that don’t have a traffic management van parked nearby, so outages are probably a rarity.The question is a sad reflection on the state of the industry today. If, for any reason the lights are out, the contractor must use the STOP/GO boards which should ALWAYS be available in case of failure.
Well it depends! If the ‘other end’ is visible and there is nothing waiting or coming, I would wait around 60-90 secs before ‘getting twitchy’. If the lights are blank, then sooner. If I can’t see the other end then I’d wait probably 3 minutes or longer.
Not quite an answer to the question but I think rather relevant…
I’m aware of a number of incidents where cyclists have obeyed temporary traffic signals, only to be faced with oncoming vehicles that have also obeyed them.
The ‘Pink Book’, which constitutes the guidance for contractors on how to set up temporary traffic signals includes information on the appropriate duration of the green and ‘all red’ periods.
Those time periods mean that, if cyclists go through the lights when they first turn green, they should have plenty of time to get through the site before oncoming traffic is an issue. However, if they go through just before the end of their green period, they have to travel at around 10 m/s to get to the other end before traffic starts coming towards them : 10 m/s = 22mph (which is considerably faster than average cycling speeds of around 15 mph and, of course, 49.9% of cyclists are slower than average).
Therefore, there is a good argument for making the ‘all red’ period for temporary traffic signals longer than current guidance indicates is appropriate.
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