# Which countries have the count-down stop lights and which don't.



## futureproof (Nov 2, 2006)

i love that system, looks trendy

no, in the country i live in, they don´t use it


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## ElviS77 (Aug 3, 2007)

Romania has them.


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## JloKyM (Mar 3, 2007)

Today, I'm in Stara Zagora(one of the biggest cities in Bulgaria)..I found many of these counters, near every traffic light..And i'm really impressed.:banana:


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## Gatis (Sep 22, 2003)

Lots of them appearing in Riga Centre and also in suburbs - and they are going to install most of traffic lights with these indicators in coming years. They are helpful both for pedestrians and for cars - but mostly for pedestrians. When I am walking, it helps to save time - when I see that at one direction there is still 30 sec to wait, I am walking in another direction until the next crossing.


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## hix (Jun 11, 2006)

I've seen them in Havana, cuba. But for pedestrians only. At a crossing, first the cars from one direction have green, then the cars from the other and then all trafic gets a red light and then pedestrians may cross in every direction. Pedestrians had to wait longer but it was indicated with a timer.


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## FREKI (Sep 27, 2005)

In Denmark we have them for pedestrians... but not cars - they will have to do with the yellow light in the middle..


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## Yörch1 (Oct 31, 2006)

We have them in Mexico, but only for pedestrians as some other countries...


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## Jeroen669 (Nov 29, 2006)

Such things are in holland becoming more popular, at least for pedestrians and cyclists, though the're still rare. For the usual traffic I've seen only one of such count-down, in Apeldoorn.

But I think like in Amsterdam for instance these things wouldn't work. Everybody's crossing the red light anyway...


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

lotrfan55345 said:


> There are some in the Philippines, i haven't seen any in the US.


I only saw *one* in Manila. Its the one in Roxas Blvd. right by Rajah Solayman Park.


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## sadnabrina (Aug 8, 2007)

Alex Von Königsberg said:


> In California some pedestrian walk signals have countdowns, but they are only used in case a pedestrian pushes the button  However, since the time allocated for pedestrians is almost always longer than the time allocated for cars, the pedestrian countdown can be used in 99% to estimate how long cars too get a green signal. Briefly speaking, I use the pedestrian countdown to see how soon my light will change and if I can safely beat the intersection.


Now that is not the safest way to drive!


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## sadnabrina (Aug 8, 2007)

*Advantage -cost savings*

Can you imagine how much cost this would save? Fuel cost.


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## Johan Näs (Jun 25, 2007)

I saw these in Havana, Cuba. Maybe in Mexico City, too, but for pedestrians only.


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## Mahratta (Feb 18, 2007)

We have them in India, but only in urban areas (obviously, where there is a lot of congestion)

In Canada I have not seen them, but Ive seen the pedestrian ones


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## mirza-sm (Jul 28, 2005)

Ive seen such things in Vancouver, Canada


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## Zaki (Apr 16, 2005)

Toronto doesn't it have it for car traffic but as mentioned, for pedestrian traffic its everywhere and as a driver you can use it too. Its useful cause when you see that the countdown is almost done, it allows people to slow down more efficiently before the signal turns red. Otherwise many drivers have to speed up cause they suddenly see yellow and they are going too fast to slow down at the light which makes the situation dangerous.

Also they have it in the major cities in Bangladesh for car traffic and its very useful for controlling asian traffic.


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## x-type (Aug 19, 2005)

i have just got an information that first count-down traffic lights in Croatia are installed recently in city of Varaždin!


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## SLion (Jul 2, 2007)

ONE in Colombo, SL.


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## KHS (Mar 13, 2007)

x-type said:


> i have just got an information that first count-down traffic lights in Croatia are installed recently in city of Varaždin!


We have them for pedestrians on Zagrebacka avenue.


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## Geokioy (Mar 29, 2007)

Here in Greece, also, we don't have hno:such traffic lights....who knows maybe in the future!!!


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## Nacho_82 (Feb 13, 2005)

I like this system, I wish we had it


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## TohrAlkimista (Dec 18, 2006)

Well, let's say that there is an alternative way to advise people the traffic lamp is going to be green by showing another yellow light between red and green, instead just between green and red.

Unfortunately it's not used in Italy, but it's wide spread in Switzerland.
IMHO it's way more useful, than watching the countdown, for example 1 minute before starting.


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## mirza-sm (Jul 28, 2005)

Ive seen few of those in Belgrade, Serbia.


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## The Chemist (Feb 19, 2003)

They've been installing these at quite a few major intersections in Shanghai.


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## Penn's Woods (Apr 8, 2010)

I've only seen countdowns for pedestrians, not for vehicles. (And the timer will appear in conjunction with a green light or walk signal, rather than with a red/don't walk. To show you how much time you have to get across.) They appeared in Washington maybe ten years ago and have shown up in Philadelphia more recently. When I first encountered them in Washington they used to make me nervous. But you get used to them, and they do serve a useful purpose....


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## shpirtkosova (Jun 7, 2009)

They are a bit useless... They just encourage people to be more competative at traffic junctions against eachother on 2-track lanes.


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## Penn's Woods (Apr 8, 2010)

shpirtkosova said:


> They are a bit useless... They just encourage people to be more competative at traffic junctions against eachother on 2-track lanes.



I find the ones for pedestrians are useful: they let you know how fast you have to walk before the drivers waiting for you to cross their path start getting ornery.


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

I've only ever seen these counters on the internet, never seen them in real life.


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## kingfisher09 (Apr 1, 2010)

Toronto and Mississauga in Canada have these countdown stop lights for pedestrian crossings.. though not for all the pedestrian crossing lights.

Mumbai in India has these countdown stop lights for vehicles at one major interesection for sure.


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## TheCat (Apr 21, 2006)

Penn's Woods said:


> I find the ones for pedestrians are useful: they let you know how fast you have to walk before the drivers waiting for you to cross their path start getting ornery.


They're also useful for drivers (especially when the pedestrian ones coincide with the regular ones most of the time, like it is in Toronto). I don't think they cause "competition". If I'm approaching an intersection from relatively far away and I see that there are 1-2 seconds remaining, I start slowing down. I know that in this situation, if I don't slow down, I will either have to run a yellow light (likely a deep yellow) or hit on the brakes much harder to stop.

Of course, as I mentioned before, sometimes at night the counter resets itself if there is no conflicting traffic or pedestrians, but in general it's not a problem.


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## Czas na Żywiec (Jan 17, 2005)

TheCat said:


> They're also useful for drivers (especially when the pedestrian ones coincide with the regular ones most of the time, like it is in Toronto). I don't think they cause "competition". If I'm approaching an intersection from relatively far away and I see that there are 1-2 seconds remaining, I start slowing down. I know that in this situation, if I don't slow down, I will either have to run a yellow light (likely a deep yellow) or hit on the brakes much harder to stop.
> 
> Of course, as I mentioned before, sometimes at night the counter resets itself if there is no conflicting traffic or pedestrians, but in general it's not a problem.


Agreed! There are many of those "countdown" intersections in Chicago and I find them incredibly useful, especially at intersections where they have installed those red light cameras. Less of a chance you'll run the red and have a night $100 ticket waiting for you in the mail.


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## shpirtkosova (Jun 7, 2009)

Still, I would just consider them a luxury, Any good self-aware driver or pedestrian should not need to rely on fancy countdown timers.


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## Czas na Żywiec (Jan 17, 2005)

^^ 
Of course but they certainly don't hurt.


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## MareCar (Jun 6, 2006)

A Serbian Industrial Designer invented a new form of the count-down traffic light:


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## Bad_Hafen (May 19, 2010)

In Belgrade they have for at least 20 years or longer. They are put for a ecological purposes. Mostly they are on intersections where are long waiting times. 

They are also present in other towns in Serbia such as Kragujevac:










There are also lot of them on pedestrian crossings

installation


















and finally new Serbian product


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## Gareth (Apr 27, 2004)

The UK doesn't have them, bar one experimental pedestrian crossing in Glasgow. I don't see the point, to be honest, plus virtually all of our signals are vehicle/pedestrian-acuated.


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## Bad_Hafen (May 19, 2010)

to turn off your car and save environment.


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## Nima-Farid (Jul 13, 2010)

We have them in Iran too.


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## nerdly_dood (Mar 23, 2007)

The US recently added requirements that all new pedestrian crosswalks have timers unless the time is set for less than 7 seconds. Traffic lights for vehicles do not have countdown indicators.


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## urbanlover (Feb 14, 2005)

The traffic lights are ones are actually outright banned in the US


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## dizee (Apr 3, 2006)

Dublin has countdown timers on some crossings for pedestrians. They countdown to green though, not red (opposite to Canada & I think the US), to try and discourage jay-walking. It doesn't always work though, you still see some people crossing with 5 seconds left til the green man. Of course if they really wanted people to stop jay-walking they could just make timings much more pedestrian friendly.

I've never seen them for cars here though. We also don't have the red+amber sequence so it can be a bit of guesswork when unfamiliar lights are going to change. Not so great for the environment then.

Not so sure about the other Irish cities but I assume they have them too.


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