THE EFFECT OF TRAFFIC LIGHT COUNTDOWN TIMER ON RED LIGHT RUNNING

Red-light running occurs when a driver enters an intersection after the traffic
signal has turned red. This situation then resolves to minor accidents and even lost of life.
Due to this critical problem, countdown timer is installed at the traffic light with a hope
to reduce the number of red light violent. However, the effect of this countdown timer to
the red light running in Malaysia is never been studied. This project evaluated the case in
detail and clarifies the findings. Two intersections are chosen which are with and without
countdown timer that representing an upstream and a downstream. Three stations are
identified, namely Station 1 (Intersection Balai Polis Pekan Baru), Station 2 (Intersection
Silibin) and Station 3 (Intersection Pasir Puteh). Traffic survey is conducted by leaving
the video camera at the right angle of the intersection to capture the intersection
movements. The recorded data are run through a television to project the visual and
traffic count is performed. The levels of service (LOS) of all the intersections involved in
the traffic survey are obtained through aaSIDRA software. The percentages of red light
running were derived from the data summary. The Chi-Square statistical analysis is
carried out from those percentages. The statistical analysis shows that the effect of
countdown timer on the number of red light running for Station 1 and Station 2, are not
significant but shown a significant effect on Station 3 at 95% confidence level. By
percentages, the road users who comply with the red light, cross the intersection during
amber and violate the red light are approximately the same for both intersections with and
without timer at Station 1. The percentages of road users who violate the red light and
cross the intersection during amber were approximately reduced by half at intersection
with countdown timer in Station 2. The percentage of compliance to the red light was
tremendously higher at the upstream compared downstream intersection in Station 3 case.
The percentages of road user who violate the red light and cross the intersection during
amber were remarkably lower at intersection with countdown timer. Results obtained
showed that the installation of countdown timer at the signalized intersection able to
reduce the number of red light running.