What is the deal with these new traffic signals showing up?
Apr 19, 2016, 7:27 AM | Updated: 11:50 am
There’s a new type of pedestrian signal working its way onto streets across the Puget Sound region, and there seems to be a little learning curve for drivers.
It’s called a HAWK beacon — High-Intensity Activated crossWalK. This has nothing to do with the Seahawks.
J from Bellevue asked me if I had seen these new signals around Renton where they’ve been showing up.
“The city has been putting them in over that past two or three years. We have two of them in now with a third going in,” said Renton Public Works Director Gregg Zimmerman.
These light signals are a little different than what drivers may be used to — three lights with two on top and one on the bottom.
How it works
They are usually placed in school zones, and are usually in the middle of long blocks where there are no crosswalks. They are dark, unless a pedestrian comes by and activates them.
Once activated, the bottom light starts flashing yellow. It then turns to a solid yellow.
“Any time you are going through and it’s flashing yellow, that’s to get your attention. If you see a solid yellow, look at it like a yield sign,” Zimmerman said. “You should really be slowing down there because that means somebody might be getting into the intersection.”
After the solid yellow light, the top two lights turn a solid red. That means drivers have to stop.
But here’s the part that has drivers a little confused. Those top two red lights will eventually start flashing. I watched a lot of drivers remain stopped, but what they should have done is stop and then pull forward once the crosswalk was clear. The signal, at that point, is a simple flashing red. That means it’s simply a stop, look, and go.
“It takes a little time for people to get used to. They do have questions for what all this means,” Zimmerman said. “But the longer it’s there, the more comfortable people get with it. And the more of these HAWK signals we’re seeing, people get used to it.”
I have seen these signals in Snohomish County and they are being installed elsewhere around the region.
Zimmerman says the goal is simple: to get both the driver and the pedestrian engaged so everyone is paying attention.
