The study was undertaken by TRL on behalf of Transport for London (TfL). It examines pedestrian and driver behaviour at five representative Puffin signal controlled pedestrian crossing sites, compared with five paired Pelican sites. The Puffin crossing was designed as an improvement on the Pelican crossing, offering advantages to both the pedestrian and the driver. The advantages were intended to be: (i) an extension period for pedestrians who move slowly or start to cross towards the end of the green man phase;(ii) the facility to cancel a pedestrian demand to cross by detecting their presence or absence at the kerbside; (iii) the removal of the flashing amber/flashing green man period; and (iv) the introduction of a nearside pedestrian indicator upstream of the crossing, to replace the far side green man signal, to encourage those using the signal demand button to look in the direction of traffic flow and to show a red man when it is no longer appropriate to start crossing. If Puffin crossings are to be the standard pedestrian light controlled crossing it is important to be sure that they have a safety record that is at least as good as that of Pelican crossings. The study concentrated on the detailed behaviour of pedestrians at the crossings, but conflict analysis was also undertaken. Three main questions were considered : (i) What types of traffic conflict occur at Puffin crossings and with what frequency? (ii) Does the nature and frequency of these conflicts at Puffin crossings differ from those at Pelican crossing facilities?; and (iii) Are other crossing behaviours observed which do not result in conflicts but which might have implications for safety of road users at crossing sites?
Abstract