Impatient Sydney-s(tr)iders behold! Your days of being stuck at a traffic light for what feels like hours at a time may soon come to an end thanks to a newly developed website. Finally, something to lower my commute time, and my blood pressure.
Better Intersections is a site developed by software engineer Jake Coppinger, which tracks the amount of time that pedestrians spend waiting to cross at lights, and highlights which spots have the longest wait times.
Data from Coppinger’s site has already revealed that some lights have had pedestrians wait for over 180 seconds, which is frankly unacceptable.
The way Better Intersections works is that users are asked to measure the period of time spent waiting at lights across the city, so that it can use the data to create a map of which lights have the longest wait times.
The site allows you to filter lights based on average seconds during a light’s cycle, and is colour coordinated to show which lights change quickest and slowest.
It also allows users to add notes on how long the lights are green to cross at, how long they flash red for, number of lanes, if the lights have protection for pedestrians when flashing, and any other notes the user may find useful to include.
Currently the shortest light cycle is at the intersection on Philip’s St and Morehead St in Waterloo, with an average wait of 12 seconds at the time of publication.
Meanwhile the current traffic lights in Sydney with the longest average wait time, sitting at 128 seconds, is the set at the intersection of Barker St and Anzac Parade in Kingsford. RIP anyone late for a class rushing to UNSW who gets stuck there.
Coppinger hopes the site is able to bring awareness of the excessive loss of time at lights, so that it is addressed and times are shortened, with research to back him up suggesting that the time spent waiting at lights can quickly create feelings of agitation and annoyance.
This annoyance can mean pedestrians are more likely to rush across a road before the lights change, which can be highly dangerous.
Jake Coppinger also hopes that with the decreased wait times at lights, the city of Sydney will become more walkeable.
The data regarding pedestrian wait times is currently only known by Transport NSW, with requests for data at an intersection reportedly costing $200. Coppingher thinks differently, stating: “I think signal timing data should be as public as a public train network timetable.”
If you are living in Sydney and would like to contribute a measurement to Better Intersections, you can fill out the form here and start timing those lights.
