Flashing green lights on way

The newly introduced flashing green lights and red light violation systems at the Wali Al-Ahad Avenue were the focus of the Works Ministry’s pavilion at the Traffic village. The systems were implemented experimentally on Wali AlAhad Avenue at the entrance to the military hospital and at the intersection of Al Fateh Highway with Sheikh Daij Avenue, Kadhem Ali Abdullatif, the Director of Roads Planning and Design Directorate at the Ministry of Works, said.

The systems provide advance warning before switching on to yellow and red lights thereby giving drivers sufficient time to prepare for a safe stop. The Traffic Village at the Avenues Mall, part of Traffic Week 2019, which began yesterday will continue until 16 March 2019. Explaining, Abdul Latif said that new system with intermittent green flash was based on a decision by the technical committee of Traffic Council following citizens’ demand to install digital light signals which cannot be applied to the current system in Bahrain.

He pointed out that this is because the current signals are operating automatically using sensors to detect the internal traffic volume in the intersection and thus extend the green signal time or stop according to traffic. “The duration of green light for any direction varies in each time cycle of the light signals and varies from site to site also to be proportional to the internal traffic volume and thus improve the efficiency of the operation of the signal to the maximum extent possible,” added Abdul Latif.

The programming of the Kingdom signals automatically plays a major role in reducing traffic congestion and reducing accidents on the road network. The experimental phase, the director said, is being monitored and evaluated before it being deployed at all light-managed intersections.