how many seconds to cross the street

from: Malcolm, Andrew H. "New Signals Give Pedestrians the Time to Make Wise Decisions," Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2005.

"As part of an ongoing response to citizen concerns over traffic congestion and in anticipation of more pedestrians, Santa Clarita officials have installed trial crosswalk signals at two locations, one near City Hall and the other at one of the quickly expanding community's busier intersections, McBean Parkway and Creekside Road.

Instead of a flashing red hand simply telling pedestrians their time is nearly up, the $300 devices count down in seconds the time remaining for the walker to reach the curb.
Such devices are common in more established urban areas where sidewalk traffic is heavy and pedestrians cross intersections in steady flows.

But in the new sections of Valencia, the master-planned portion of Santa Clarita, people actually moving on two legs across streets can seem as rare as a condor drifting overhead.

It is the car that rules transportation in such rapidly growing areas honeycombed with sidewalk-free cul-de-sacs. Here, teenagers shun short walks to rise early and drive to school in time to capture precious parking spots. At the Promenade mall, even adults have been known to drive from Pavilions across the parking lot to the dry cleaners on the other side.

In front of the Promenade during one 30-minute span on a recent weekday morning, a total of four people crossed the nine wide lanes of McBean Parkway beneath the new flashing timer. Two were joggers, one was a delivery man and the fourth an elderly woman who made it to the curb after 29 of her 30 countdown seconds."