Travis County had a new pedestrian hybrid beacon installed last week at N. Quinlan Park Road and Canyon Glen Drive. This illustrates how it works.
18,839 vehicle crossings a day
By LYNETTE HAALAND
Four Points News
A new pedestrian traffic signal has been installed at 4001 N Quinlan Park Rd. at Steiner Ranch Elementary — one of the busiest school crosswalks in Travis County.
“This is one of our busiest school crosswalks in Travis County,” said David Greear, Travis County – Transportation and Natural Resources engineering division manager and a local resident. “The crossing guards are having a hard time with so many vehicles and (drivers) not listening and not obeying (crossing guards).”
Travis County conducted pedestrian counts and volume counts in September of 2012 when evaluating for a variety of options including a full traffic signal, but it did not meet any warrants for a full signal, Greear said.
Travis County confirmed the pedestrian counts in 2015 when it was evaluating possible funds through 2011 Bond funded Bicycle Safety Task Force projects for a pedestrian hybrid beacon or PHB.
“Total traffic volume on Quinlan Park Road near Canyon Glen Drive was 18,839 vehicles, this includes both directions,” Greear said. “Pedestrian crossing volumes were 128 pedestrians in the morning peak and 225 pedestrians in the afternoon peak for a total of 353 pedestrians for the day.”
Last week, Travis County installed the first pedestrian hybrid beacon in the county. This relatively new type of signal has been put into use over the last five years in several places in downtown Austin and in busier areas of the city, Greear said.
The PHB is used to stop vehicles going across a crosswalk.
It is similar to a regular traffic signal in what the lights mean. It will go from a yellow flashing warning light then to yellow solid light and then to a solid red light for drivers to stop and that is when a pedestrian is safe to walk across the street. Then it will go to flashing red light, which means drivers have to stop and proceed when safe, Greear said.
“We were supposed to fire it up yesterday (Monday),” said Greear on Tuesday morning. “But Austin Energy didn’t hook up the electricity. We’re waiting on electric.”
Crossing guards will continue to be at the crosswalk.
“We are keeping the crossing guards. This (PHB) helps crossing guards and helps people cross at other times of day,” he added.
The project cost Travis County $71, 271 to install.
“We had been trying to obtain funds for a PHB since 2012, there just wasn’t money available and there just wasn’t enough comfort from the Commissioners Court to approve funding in 2012-2015. We were finally able to utilize the Bicycle Safety Task Force Bond funds in June of this year to move forward with construction dollars,” Greear said.
Travis County – Transportation and Natural Resources does not have stats on number of traffic citations given at that intersection.