Got told my crosswalk timing was off by a retired traffic engineer at the Coffeeshop 3 weeks ago

He overheard me complaining to my coworker about cars almost hitting kids near Canyon Park Elementary and he just walks over and says 'Your pedestrian signals are set for 25 mph but everyone goes 35 on that road, that's your problem.' Turns out he was right after I looked up the speed study data, so now I'm pushing to get the city to adjust the whole timing sequence for that corridor. Has anyone else had some random local expert drop knowledge like that and actually change how you do your job?

2 comments

2 Comments

skylerg171mo ago

Honestly I used to think traffic signals were basically just set it and forget it, like the timing was all the same no matter what road you were on. But hearing your story kind of flipped my view on it, idk, it makes total sense that speed data should be the baseline for pedestrian timing. I mean that engineer basically handed you the solution on a silver platter, which is wild that no one at the city caught it sooner. It's cool that you're actually pushing for the change though, most people would just shrug it off.

the_rose1mo ago

And it's funny cause now I can't stop noticing crosswalk timers everywhere I go.