After concluding an $800,000 pilot program that began back in 2006, the DOT is ready to start installing thousands of countdown clocks at busy intersections in all five boroughs. After analyzing "mountains of data" gathered at 25 intersections equipped with cameras to videotape pedestrians, the DOT determined that the timers are most effective on wide streets.
At one intersection of Hyan Boulevard on Staten Island, the percentage of pedestrians stuck in crosswalks as the light turned against them fell from 20.3 to 14.9 percent after the countdown clocks were added. "In safety terms, this is huge," Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan tells the Post. "People sometimes make risky calls when they're crossing the street. This takes the guesswork out of the equation."
But in other parts of town, the change was far from dramatic. Pedestrian patterns at a wide intersection at East Gun Hill Road in The Bronx showed virtually no change after the countdown clocks were added. Still, Sadik-Khan says the overall results were encouraging, and the DOT will start installing them "in those locations where it will make people safer."
