New Hampshire Crosswalks Gets New Pedestrian Safety Signals

New pedestrian safety signals have been installed at busy crosswalks in the New Hampshire communities of Epping and Meredith.

They’re called Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons and they’re either on roadsides or on mast arms over marked crosswalks. They have two round, red lenses side-by-side above a single yellow lens.

The Department of Transportation says when activated, the device flashes yellow, alerting drivers that the light is about to change. The light then goes to a solid yellow to alert drivers that they should stop. Then the top lights turn to red. At the same time, the crossing pedestrian or bicyclist will see the “Walk” symbol. When that changes to a flashing “Don’t Walk,” the highway signals will start to flash.

The signals are at Route 125 in Epping and at Route 25 in Meredith.

The Federal Highway Administration says the installation of the devices has been shown to provide up to a 69 percent reduction in pedestrian crashes and up to a 29 percent reduction in total roadway crashes.

“We are requiring this type of system in order to approve crosswalks in high traffic volume and/or multiple lane locations, typically greater than 12,000 to 15,000 vehicles per day,” said Bill Lambert, state traffic engineer. “In addition to Epping and Meredith, we have approved Pedestrian Hybrid Beacons for two locations in Goffstown.”

The average cost of the system is between $75,000 and $100,000.