Eight (Eight !!!!) years after CHEKPEDS proposed to DOT staff a solution to reduce conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists, the DOT is rolling out the “green wave”. After an initial installation on Third Avenue, the signal timing will be adjusted in August on Hudson Street/8th Avenue from Canal Street to approximately 23rd Street so that vehicles driving at 15 MPH will hit consecutive green lights, without change to the speed limit.
The current green wave, where vehicles can hit green lights repeatedly provided they respect a given speed, had been designed for cars and created an artificial constraint for cyclists who had to dismount frequently at mis-timed red lights. This in turn encouraged them to run the red lights to avoid dismounting, a behavior that infuriates pedestrians and can be unsafe.
On 3rd Avenue after one year of observation, the numbers are compelling: The number of bike lane users who did not slow on when approaching a red light decreased by 50% from 8% to 4.5% . Unfortunately, the study did not reveal how many consecutive walk signals this configuration will yield for pedestrians compared to the current.
Based on street observation, in 2018 CHEKPEDS had partnered with an advocate/engineer and identified signal configurations that would be beneficial to cyclists, pedestrians and cars simultaneously. We had shared our findings with a DOT team who showed interest.
The proposed implementation goes beyond this initial objective: it will give an incentive to drivers to move at 15 mph in order to hit the green wave. This is a welcome expansion of speed calming features without the need for speed cameras for enforcement. Just brilliant ! Bravo DOT!