Request ID: FOI-0515-2324 Date published: 15 June 2023
You asked
Hi,
I would like to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
1. Across all pedestrian crossings operated by TFL, what is the average time given for pedestrians to cross (with a green man showing)?
2. (a) Across all pedestrian crossings operated by TFL, what is the smallest amount of time given for pedestrians to cross (with a green man showing).
(b) what is the location of this crossing?
Thanks,
We answered
TfL Ref: 0515-2324
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18 May 2023 asking for information about pedestrian crossings operated by TfL.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. You asked:
1. Across all pedestrian crossings operated by TFL, what is the average time given for pedestrians to cross (with a green man showing)?
2. (a) Across all pedestrian crossings operated by TFL, what is the smallest amount of time given for pedestrians to cross (with a green man showing). (b) what is the location of this crossing?
To obtain this information would take a disproportionate amount of time and resources and would certainly exceed the ‘appropriate limit’ of £450 set by the Freedom of Information (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004. Under section 12 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to comply with a request if we estimate that the cost of determining whether we hold the information, locating and retrieving it and extracting it from other information would exceed the appropriate limit. This is calculated at £25 per hour for every hour spent on the activities described.
To fulfil this request would be extremely complex. To provide some context, in London we have (at last count), 2646 junctions with signalised pedestrian crossing facilities and we estimate that there are over 7,500 individual crossings that we would need to analyse in detail and produce data for, before we could attempt to provide the requested detail with any accuracy. These junctions have different timing plans for each peak of the day, there are typically five different timing plans from Monday to Friday, with usually a different set of timings applicable for the weekends. Hence on this basis there could be a five times eight multiplier on the number of calculations to produce.
Each of the aforementioned 2646 sites would also require a staff member to produce a simple LINSIG software model and then extract system timings to provide input for each of the five to eight time periods. LINSIG allows the traffic signal engineer to construct a model of a traffic signal junction to optimise and analyse its performance.
Staff would then need to measure and log the durations of each crossing. We can advise that prototyping this took around an hour for one site, therefore to complete all of the procedures required to produce accurate results for the purposes of this request could exceed 2,500 hours of staff time.
To help bring the cost of responding to your request within the £450 limit, you may wish to consider narrowing its scope so that we can more easily locate, retrieve and extract the information you are seeking. If you want to refine your request or make a Freedom of Information Act request in future, please bear in mind that the Freedom of Information Act allows you to request recorded information held by us. You might also consider limiting your request to a particular geographical area for example.
Although your request can take the form of a question, rather than a request for specific documents, we do not have to answer your question if it would require the creation of new information or the provision of a judgement, explanation, advice or opinion that was not already recorded at the time of your request.
Please note that we will not be taking further action until we receive your revised request.
In the meantime, if you have any queries or would like to discuss your request, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for any reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Jasmine Howard FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
