London to trial “intelligent” pedestrian crossings

London to trial “intelligent” pedestrian crossings – Time allowed changes with number of people waiting to cross.
http://ht.ly/uwavu

Ever walk halfway across a road only to have the light change and force you to make an undignified rush to the other side? The answer is almost certainly yes. If you’re in London, that may soon be a thing of the past however, with Transport for London (TfL) announcing upcoming trials of an “intelligent” pedestrian crossing. Called the Pedestrian Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique (SCOOT), it’s part of a £2 billion to £4 billion (US$3.3 billion to US$6.6 billion) program to improve roads over the next ten years and decrease traffic fatalities in the capital by 40 percent by the year 2020.

SCOOT addresses the problem of how to properly time pedestrian crossings in such a way as to make sure as many people as possible cross with the lights, as well as keeping traffic flowing as smoothly as possible. This is especially difficult in high traffic areas. Ideally, the light should be timed to allow everyone to cross, but pedestrian traffic isn’t uniform and what might work for two people might not work for a dozen. Worse, there’s the problem of pedestrians pressing the request button and then crossing against the lights or simply walking away, which creates needless delays.

Pedestrian SCOOT seeks to remedy this by using video cameras to count the number of people in a digital “box” on the crossing pavement. If a large number of people are detected, the system alters the timing of the green walk light to allow more people to cross safely. In addition, if no one is at the crossing, or if someone presses the request button and then crosses against the lights or walks away, the system switches to “call cancel” and doesn’t activate the walk light.