COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, December 08, 2025

MOTION NO. 11

MOTION: Councillor M. Johansson

That the Chief Executive implement a pedestrian priority policy at traffic lights across the county.

REPORT:

South Dublin County Council have a robust procedure in place for the management of the priority for pedestrians at traffic lights. Here is a list of a number of technologies and best practice procedures that South Dublin County Council have in place to manage pedestrian movements efficiently.

Stand Alone Pedestrian Lights:

Demand call times for pedestrian phase.  Minimum call time six seconds where no traffic is detected. Max call time of 36 seconds if heavy traffic detected.

A practical description of this is: A person presses the push button at a pedestrian crossing. If no traffic detected, the pedestrian gets a green light in 6 seconds. If heavy traffic detected, then the pedestrian has to wait a maximum of 36 seconds to get a green light. 

Pedestrian green light time is based on a person crossing the junction at a speed of 1.2m per second. If junction width is 6 metres, then the green time given is 6x1.2 = 7.2 seconds of green time to cross. As a buffer of safety, an amber time is built into the pedestrian cycle, before traffic gets a green light to move.

Pedestrian Crossings at Vehicular Junctions:

In this situation, there is the interaction of pedestrians and vehicles on multiple arms of the junction competing for green time. The aim is to give the pedestrian as much priority as possible while ensuring the vehicle tail backs do not get excessively long. To ensure that maximum efficiency is achieved, traffic radars are installed on each arm.  When traffic is clear on that arm, the green on that arm is shut down.  This happens on each arm, which speeds the response time for the pedestrian to get a green light to cross when a push button is pressed.  When all arms are constantly full of traffic (at peak times on very busy junctions) a maximum wait time of 120 seconds is used for pedestrians. This is the industry best practice approach.

New Technologies being employed in South Dublin:

At school warden crossings, SDCC has introduced the capability to call an early pedestrian green at school drop off and school home times. The warden can touch the press button with an electronic tag that calls an earlier green even if traffic is present.  This shortens the call time from the maximum 36 seconds mentioned above to a immediate pedestrian green call. This system has been rolled out at 8 busy schools, and the technology will be introduced to other schools where it would be of benefit. 

Pedestrian Detection Radars:

It is possible to detect the number of pedestrians wanting to cross at a pedestrian crossing, using smart pedestrian radars.  These radars are capable of detecting high volumes of pedestrians, and can request the pedestrian green time to be increased to allow all pedestrians to cross safely. There are potential benefits with this technology at very busy footfall junctions.  The Council intends to do a pilot installation of this technology, to assess its effectiveness, and to carry out a cost benefit analysis on the technology, before deciding to implement it more widely in the County. 

Regular Maintenance Inspections:

It is important that the equipment mentioned is maintained in good working order. As part of our traffic signal maintenance contract, our contractor has a fault alert system that detects the vast majority of infrastructure faults and reports it on their fault dashboard. This ensures early detection and fixing of faults on our traffic control equipment. In addition, our contractor, does 2 monthly interim inspections of pedestrian crossing equipment, and carries out a more in depth annual inspection on all pedestrian light apparatus.

Prepare a Pedestrian Priority Policy:

It is intended to get a pedestrian priority management at traffic lights policy agreed at the Planning and Transport SPC and publish the policy on our website as "best practice" for this topic.