The orange hand starts blinking when you are halfway across, and something in you says move. It is not telling you that.
According to the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, the flashing hand means do not start crossing. If you are already in the crosswalk, that time was set aside for you.
The steady walking figure is only the invitation to leave the curb. The manual says that interval should run at least seven seconds, though where few people cross it can be as short as four. Everything after it is crossing time.
How much crossing time is arithmetic. Engineers are directed to allow enough for someone who steps off at the end of the walk signal to reach the far side, or a median, at a walking speed of 3.5 feet per second. A 60-foot street works out to roughly 17 seconds.
That number used to be four feet per second, carried in the manual since its 1961 edition. It came down because it did not describe how a great many people actually walk. Where slower walkers or wheelchair users routinely use a crossing, engineers are told to consider slower still.
Hundreds of cities run a 311 line and take pedestrian signal complaints through it; New York's will accept a request to review the timing of an existing signal. Where there is no 311, the office to ask for is public works or traffic engineering. Charlotte reviews every complaint it gets and sends an engineer out when an intersection develops a reputation, according to WFAE.
Rick Good spent ten years in the newspaper business, including with The News & Observer (Raleigh, NC) and The Greenville News (Greenville, SC). He co-wrote, with Melinda Coleman, Rutledge to Riley: Governors of South Carolina, 1776–Present (Published by The Greenville News), and is the author of Mind Games Trivia #1 (Amazon). He has recently spent 15 years creating original trivia content through Sounds Good Mobile Entertainment and continues that with his new company, SGME Software. He edits The Smart Reader’s money, real estate, and business coverage.
