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The green light on the traffic lights will no longer flash until it turns yellow. PHOTO: “24 HOURS”
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For 5 years the green light has been flashing and thwarting accidents, but it is an experiment that has ended
The function of flashing the green light at the traffic lights before switching to yellow and then to red is switched off almost everywhere at the Sofia intersections. And in a few days this will be a fact absolutely everywhere, the head of the Traffic Management and Analysis Directorate of the Sofia Municipality Dimitar Petrov told 24 Chassa.
Which means that
drivers will
have a lot
less
time for
reaction
with all the ensuing consequences.
“We decided to do it on our own, although we do not agree. The problem is that blinking is just an experiment and is not enshrined in any legal document. It started in 2016, when “smart traffic lights” were introduced in Sofia. This is a feature of the software, no extra money is spent and we remove it with just a few keyboard shortcuts. But the blinking definitely reduced the incidents at the crossroads “, said Petrov.
In order for this function of the traffic light to become legal, Ordinance 17 of the Regional Ministry for Light Regulation of Roads and the Road Traffic Act had to be amended.
“Then a working group was set up for the changes and we were told:
do
experimentally
introduction and
give us the data
Initial data showed a 50% drop in incidents – from an average of 41 at the intersection of 22. The Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Transport were also in favor. However, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works pointed out that the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals explicitly states that
light
signals are
non-flashing
They gave us the opportunity to extend the experiment for another year. But we can’t experiment forever. A long time has passed since then, the people in the ministries have changed, the departments themselves have done nothing to change the regulations. We cannot break the law, so we decided to stop the experiment, Petrov explained.
A check of “24 hours” showed that
similar
blinking
there is only on
three more places
in the country
– Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas, but only at two or three central intersections. In the capital, however, there are about 300 traffic lights, 250 of which have already had the flashing green light removed.
The practice in European countries is diverse. In about 10 countries, mainly in Northern Europe – Sweden, Denmark, Norway, the green light flashes, but only at key junctions in major cities. Moreover, when the traffic lights are complex and with more than one section.
In Germany, for example, there is no blinking. The same is true in Greece, where it is even more complicated – at many traffic lights in Athens and Thessaloniki
not even
yellow section
and green
passes
straight to
Red
The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals dates back to 1968, and even then it was signed with a dissenting opinion by several countries, including those in which the law has allowed the green light to flash.
The Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works pointed out to “24 Chasa” that Article 23 of the Convention explicitly states that the signals of the tricolor traffic light system consist of non-flashing red, yellow and green lights, and exhaustively regulates the cases when the movement of road vehicles. This possibility is provided only for the yellow and red signals, but not for the green ones. According to Art. 24 of the Convention is a flashing green traffic light
To use
only for
pedestrians
Bulgaria has ratified the convention, and without a special opinion, therefore it is obliged to abide by it, stressed the regional ministry.
In recent years, there has been the introduction of some new devices for Bulgaria and light signals to traffic lights – timers for vehicles, “flashing” of the green signal, light signals in the form of a vertical and horizontal line. The fact that
they are introduced
without legal
regulation
such as
experiment
and is not being studied
the effect
from their introduction through examination before and after their placement ”, reads the response of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works to“ 24 hours ”.
Meanwhile, the traffic police did not deny the results of the experiment, but pointed out that the improvement was due to a special circumstance: at previous traffic lights – with a timer, drivers, instead of reducing speed, accelerated to go green. From there, the number of incidents at intersections has increased and it is natural that with the introduction of a flashing green light they will decrease.
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