After calculating the required pedestrian clearance time, is that the duration of the flashing orange upraised hand interval that gets set on the signal controller?
It depends—it might be, but it doesn’t have to be. There is a subtle but important difference between “pedestrian clearance time” and “pedestrian change interval”. The pedestrian clearance time is the calculated number of seconds needed for pedestrians to cross the distance to the far side of the traveled way (or median) when walking at a given walking speed (such as the 3.5 feet per second rate recommended by Section 4E.06, or slower if necessary.) Suppose that, based on the assumed walking speed and the width of road to be crossed, 20 seconds is calculated as the needed pedestrian clearance time. Section 4E.06 of the 2009 MUTCD allows the pedestrian clearance time to be either 1) contained totally within the vehicular green interval (in which case the 20 seconds is set on the controller as the pedestrian change interval flashing UPRAISED HAND time), OR 2) split between the green interval and some or all of the yellow interval. (However, there must always be a minimum of 3 seconds o
Related Questions
- Pedestrians don seem to understand the meaning of the flashing orange hand. Would a "Don Start" word legend or a different color work better as a pedestrian change interval display?
- Why does the orange flashing hand appear before I have finished crossing the street?
- Why don’t I have enough time to cross when the pedestrian signal starts flashing?
