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

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

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified