Dear Transport for London, At the junction of the A1 Archway Road and the B550 Southwood Lane/Muswell Hill Road (by the Woodman Public House) are a set of traffic lights with associated pedestrian crossing phase. I have noticed that during the day the pedestrian phase will still be active (Ie. the pedestrian crossing 'Green Man' will illuminate when it is time to do so) even if nobody has pressed the button to request to cross the road. I have also noticed, that at other times, when the button is not pressed, the lights will cycle between the traffic phases (Ie. it will continually display a 'Red Man'). 1. Would you please advise me how these traffic lights are set to determine whether to give a pedestrian phase or not (eg. if the pedestrian phase will only become active at certain times, please let me know what times you are required to press the button)? 2. At times when then the pedestrian phase does not appear automatically, it appears that there is a certain time before which the pedestrian phase would be active, that the button has to be pressed. What is the minimum time before which the pedestrian phase would normally become active and the pedestrian being able to cross or the lights cycling all over again and the pedestrian having to wait for the next time around?

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TfL Ref: 2484-1819

Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 18 December 2018 asking for information about a set of traffic lights with associated pedestrian crossing phase at the junction of the A1 Archway Road and the B550 Southwood Lane/Muswell Hill Road (by the Woodman Public House).

Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.  I can confirm that we hold the information you require.

At all times of day the pedestrian phase will only appear if someone has pressed one of the buttons to request to cross the road at this traffic light junction. If nobody presses a button, the pedestrian phase will not appear in the overall signal cycle and the green man will not illuminate.

You need to have pressed the button at least 10 seconds before the time at which the pedestrian green man phase would be active within the traffic light cycle. If the button is pressed less than 10 seconds before the time which the green man would illuminate, the pedestrian will have to wait until the next opportunity for the green man in the next cycle. The total cycle time is usually 104 seconds, although this drops to 80 seconds from 7pm to 7am on weekdays and from 7pm to 10.30am at weekends. The green man illuminates for 6 seconds and then pedestrians are given a countdown of 10 seconds on most arms to cross the road safely. This time is based on the width of a junction and timed at an average walking speed of 1.2m/second. This means that a pedestrian would wait up to 88 seconds if they arrived at the crossing and pressed the button at the point the countdown timer had reached zero. This traffic light junction operates on our dynamic control system, which means that the timings will adjust based on detected traffic conditions, so the numbers we have provided here are based on an average day of operation.

If this is not the information you are looking for, 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

Sara Thomas

FOI Case Management Team

General Counsel

Transport for London

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