Motorists must obey traffic lights at crossing

Anthea Vallende, Simon’s Town

Is there someone who can clarify the general confusion regarding the process of using the traffic-light crossing by pedestrians and motorists in Simon’s Town Main Road?

My understanding is that the pedestrian needs to press the traffic-light button in order to stop traffic to cross.

What happens is that certain pedestrians and motorists are treating this crossing as the other two zebra crossings in Simon’s Town, which can lead to accidents between vehicles with a sudden stop at a green traffic light or the injury of a pedestrian not using the crossing to stop the traffic first by pressing the button.

Can the powers that be not stop the confusion by taking the traffic lights away and making all crossings zebra crossings since so many people (from what I have experienced at that crossing) are not aware of how to use a traffic-light crossing?

• Mayoral committee member for urban mobility Rob Quintas responds:

The signalised pedestrian crossing is permanent.

Motorists need to obey and only move on when the lights turn green in their favour. Also, pedestrians wishing to cross do indeed need to push the button to activate the crossing.

The operation of the pedestrian signal, and other similar pedestrian signals, are as follows:

• Directly across the road is a signal head with a green man and another with a red man.

• The green man is an invitation for pedestrians to cross the road. With very few exceptions, this is set at five seconds. While the pedestrian phase is green, the pedestrian may step off the sidewalk.

• The flashing red man notifies the pedestrians that they may no longer enter the roadway but retain right-of-way to finish crossing. The red man time, or pedestrian clearance duration, is calculated such that a pedestrian, having just stepped off of the sidewalk, will have sufficient time to clear the junction while walking at normal walking speed. The duration then is calculated with the road width being one of the input parameters.

• The solid red man is an indication that the pedestrian should no longer be inside the roadway. There is a two-second solid red man displayed between the end of the flashing red man and the start of the next vehicular phase green.

There are other yield controlled pedestrian crossing points along Simon’s Town Main Road, which have lower pedestrian volumes. Motorists, by law, need to stop as a pedestrian approaches to step off the sidewalk.

Motorists must adhere to these signals and allow the safe crossing of vulnerable users, such as pedestrians.