The Puffin is a new type of light-controlled pedestrian crossing which uses pedestrian detectors to improve efficiency and acceptability. Two of the main deficiencies of current designs are overcome: detection of waiting pedestrians by the use of a pressure sensitive mat allows unwanted pedestrian phases to be cancelled, and infra-reddevices detect the presence of people crossing and enables extra time to be allocated to the pedestrian phase if needed. Two full-scale trials in UK are described, and results are given of surveys of pedestrian behaviour before and after installation of the new system. The results are sufficiently promising to merit installation at many more sites. The project has been supported by the European Community DRIVE programme, and parallel tests and evaluations have taken place in France and The Netherlands. (A)
Abstract