As a traffic engineer, I know where terrible designs come from

"As a traffic engineer, I know where terrible designs… come from: not from "bad" engineers, but from the rules and incentives that traffic engineers follow and the software they use. Synchro, the standard software they use, is based on minimizing auto delay, and it doesn’t even calculate pedestrian delay. "Level of Service" criteria give engineers an incentive to minimize auto delay, often at the expense of pedestrian service (which isn’t measured)."
—Peter Furth in Pedestrian-Friendly Traffic Signal Timing Policy Recommendations he presented at a Policy Briefing hosted by Boston City Council’s Committee on Parks, Recreation, and Transportation, http://bit.ly/2n3I9Ja

from CenterLines, the e-newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking.