LED technology in traffic lights

The Ministry of Infrastructure will investigate the possibility of installing countdown timers at pedestrian traffic lights with a new research project, aiming to pilot the system and evaluate it. At the same time, another research project will put under the microscope the scenario of expanding the use of LED systems to the country's traffic lights, with the aim of saving energy.

Specifically, a few days ago, the General Secretariat of Public Works assigned the project "Evaluation of countdown systems for use in traffic lights" to the Transport and Decision Making Laboratory of the Department of Shipping and Business Services of the University of the Aegean, which aims to pilot the implementation and evaluation of the use of countdown equipment in specific pedestrian traffic lights.

The contractor will assess the impact of countdown systems on road safety and will investigate the behavior of pedestrians when crossing crossings with the new system. These are ten points that the Ministry of Infrastructure will indicate, where countdown systems are already operating or are to be installed. “The collection of data from different areas will allow the comparison of results in large urban centers and smaller provincial towns,” states a decision by the Secretary General of Public Works, Mr.Stratos Simopoulos, posted on “Di@ygeia”.

[blockquote]According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, the pedestrian countdown unit is an electronic visual signal device which is connected to the pedestrian traffic light and displays with luminous numerical digits the remaining time before the expiration of each colored indication of the traffic light.[/blockquote]

"The benefits, as well as the potential impacts, will be assessed and evaluated in relation to all transport objectives, namely the environment, road safety, the economy, accessibility," it states.

"In parallel, other elements of the implementation of countdown system equipment will be evaluated, such as the color of the indicators (white or the same color as the respective traffic light indicator), their installation location on the traffic light (such as above the pedestrian signal fields or to the side), indication designation (red or green only or both). The subject of the evaluation will also be the optimal appearance of the countdown timer, depending on the preferences of the users," the same decision notes.

At the same time, he continues, conclusions will be drawn regarding the optimal location for their placement on the traffic light mast, taking into account, on the one hand, their visibility by pedestrians and, on the other hand, to avoid confusion among drivers, as well as in relation to the final indications of the countdown unit.

Meanwhile, by another decision of Mr. Simopoulos, the project "Study of phototechnical requirements for traffic lights across the Greek territory" was assigned to the Phototechnical Laboratory of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens, which will undertake to investigate the requirements of LED traffic lights "in terms of the distribution of light intensity in conditions of nominal light radiation (performance level), but also under conditions of adjusted (dimmed) light radiation".

The contractor will be asked to examine, in the conditions for determining the various brightness levels, the safe level of light output of the traffic lights both for the climatic conditions in Greece and during a reduction in brightness during the night hours. In fact, it will investigate the level of output in relation to the reduction in brightness, as well as the safe minimum limit of light intensity, in the event of a failure of a number of LEDs, at which the optical unit should be automatically put out of operation. It should be noted that a similar program has been "running" for some time on Egnatia Odos.