commit 51730fc202ea7cb60f8063d005ea46aee6806d89 Author: jeannineb90968 Date: Sat Aug 22 00:45:02 2026 +0000 Add Green Lights more Often: the Secret 2026 Study of Sydney’s Traffic Signals - Jake Coppinger diff --git a/Green Lights more Often%3A the Secret 2026 Study of Sydney%E2%80%99s Traffic Signals - Jake Coppinger.-.md b/Green Lights more Often%3A the Secret 2026 Study of Sydney%E2%80%99s Traffic Signals - Jake Coppinger.-.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..613b178 --- /dev/null +++ b/Green Lights more Often%3A the Secret 2026 Study of Sydney%E2%80%99s Traffic Signals - Jake Coppinger.-.md @@ -0,0 +1,9 @@ +
On the 7th of January 2018, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) pulled off something extraordinary - and I personally paid $441 to obtain the previously secret reports documenting it. Overnight, [traffic signals](http://dig.ccmixter.org/search?searchp=traffic%20signals) across the core of Sydney’s CBD were reprogrammed to show a green light more frequently - at least every 90 seconds. This reduced the maximum wait time by a full 20 seconds (from the previous maximum cycle time of 110 seconds) for every pedestrian, cyclist and motorist. TfNSW studied traffic patterns for 3 months afterwards in unpublished daily qualitative observation reports, sent out traffic survey experts to walk laps of streets with a stopwatch, and record any bus delays… The number of people being killed while walking is increasing. 6, but the council has no power to reduce speed limits or change signal operation. TfNSW has not expanded this successful program beyond the CBD in the City of Sydney.
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12, [Balance Bloom hemp gummies](https://kunjinmotors.com/bbs/board.php?bo_table=free&wr_id=848254) why hasn’t TfNSW doubled down on this proven solution? Why isn’t TfNSW writing papers on pedestrian wait-time reduction, similar to the recent award winning study from Manchester by Josef Whitfield? Walkable and bikeable streets are good for business. Improved access brings agglomeration productivity benefits: improving pedestrian connectivity and "prioritising pedestrian crossings" is action 4D of the Tech Central Economic Strategy (released this month). Improving life between buildings with walkable streets make dense neighbourhoods not just possible, but desirable. Our streets and public spaces determine whether dense development enhances or diminishes quality of life. 34, now perhaps Sydney’s greatest street. TfNSW’s Road User Space Allocation Policy states that temporal allocation should consider pedestrians before cars (and all other modes). 30km/h urban speed limits, fewer cars, and shorter signal cycle times. If we want a different outcome we have to do something different - and these documents uncover just how great the change is.
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25T-1151 material suggests prioritising pedestrians can deliver measurable economic and safety benefits at minimal cost - and who doesn’t want to wait less at traffic lights? 3.2.12 Map of "pedestrian sites" (eg. 6.1 Why did TfNSW take the initiative to reduce cycle times? 6.3 How did you find out about this 3-month study? This analysis is a personal side-project. I am not a traffic engineer! If you have corrections, suggestions or constructive criticism I would greatly appreciate it. I have released all documents and code openly for further analysis, reproduction, and research (OCR / perceived congestion git repo, Observable visualisation notebook). Live in Australia and want to improve your local streets? Run out of Not Just Bikes episodes to watch and want to learn how change actually happens? Join Better Streets! Drop me an email - I’ll invite you to the Slack (where the magic happens) and point you to the communities and individuals in your city/suburb to learn from and collaborate with.
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I worked for the past 5 years as a full-stack software engineer at Atlassian. I’m currently working on a commercial project with an organisation I’m very [excited](https://sportsrants.com/?s=excited) about - I’m looking forward to showcasing that work in the coming months. I’m planning to build more commercial software in the walking / cycling / planning space. I’m pretty passionate about these fields if you didn’t gather from this blog post! This document includes a Min. Minimum cycle times specify how low cycle times can be while ensuring a safe amount of time is provided to each phase. By design, SCATS increases signal cycle time to accommodate detected vehicle volumes, until the maximum cycle time is reached. The maximum cycle time is an arbitrary ceiling set in the SCATS software to limit worst case outcomes for pedestrians and cyclists. Maximum cycle times settings of traffic signals are a numerical representation of the prioritisation of different modes of transport.
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A claim advocates often hear is that traffic signal cycle times are already as low as they can be. However, this document suggests otherwise. This analysis of TfNSW data suggests over 85% of signal sites within the CBD study area have minimum cycle times less than sixty seconds, significantly lower than the current maximum cycle time of 90 seconds (excluding sites definitely changed since 2017). In other words, most signals in the Sydney CBD could show a green light more often. It suggests TfNSW could further reduce cycle times of signals in the Sydney CBD. There is no public data showing otherwise. All data in this section is from 7 years ago, but it’s more than the public has ever seen before. While specific charts imply which signals have likely changed or remain the same, the only way to understand how the current situation has changed is open data on traffic signals timing in NSW.
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