In an attempt to improve pedestrian safety throughout HRM, the municipality has implemented an advanced pedestrian light at six intersections.
The walk signal comes on for several seconds before the green light. The head start gives pedestrians an advantage over turning vehicles.
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“It allows the pedestrians a little bit of a head start to get into the road, establish their presence in the crosswalk,” said Roddy MacIntyre a senior traffic operations engineer with HRM.
The advanced lights went into effect Thursday and are at the following locations:
- Barrington Street and Spring Garden Road
- Spring Garden Road and South Park Street
- Oxford Street and Coburg Road
- Windsor Street and Almon Street
- Mumford Road and Halifax Shopping Centre
- Alderney Drive and Ochterloney Street
In the first eight months of 2018, there were 120 vehicle-pedestrian collisions. About 61 per cent of them occurred in a crosswalk.
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The municipality will be monitoring the project and could be adding new intersections in the coming months.
“Out of some of our other initiatives, our integrated mobility plan, and our road safety work, pedestrian safety is top of mind now,” said MacIntyre. “We’re looking for new tools and new ways to help improve pedestrian safety.”