Last week, I had the opportunity to go to Mesa, Arizona for the 2015 ITS Arizona Conference. At the conference, people from both the public and private sectors demonstrated their innovative new ITS (Intelligent Transportation System) projects and technologies. After one presentation where providing adequate services for bicyclists was the main topic, one member of the audience asked a question regarding feedback once a bicyclist had been detected in the intersection. The speaker then mentioned how Portland, Oregon has been one of the first American cities to implement small, blue lights on the opposite side of the intersection that turn on
The lights are designed to let cyclists know that they have been detected by the system, and a green light should be appearing shortly. The main goal of these blue lights is to prevent riders from running red lights and crossing busy streets if the loop detector fails to detect a bike. Jonathan Maus concludes, “if the person knows their presence has been triggered, they’re more likely to wait for the green — especially in situations where a small side street intersects a major arterial where auto and transit traffic is prioritized” (2012).
In my opinion, I think these lights are great idea, and can help increase safety for cyclists tremendously. I think technologies like this are a step in the right direction for prioritizing bike travel, and giving riders more information. With bike-car accidents being one of the most fatal types of accidents, I hope simple and effective technologies like this are more widely considered when updating or building new intersections.
References
Maus, J. (Ed.). (2012, June 20). PBOT experiments with 'intelligent' new indicator light. Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://bikeportland.org/2012/06/20/pbot-experiments-with-intelligent-new-indicator-light-73548
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