The green arrow under the microscope of the Ministry of Infrastructure. An important change is coming
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The Ministry of Infrastructure is to prepare changes for drivers. Possible waiver of an important obligation
The proposed changes included: invalidation of the obligation to stop before the green arrow. As explained in the Sejm by Dr. Eng. Damian Iwanowicz from the Bydgoszcz University of Technology, research on 1,500 cases from six Polish cities showed that as much as 88 percent drivers do not stop before such a signal.
Despite the general disregard of the provision, the percentage of road incidents involving vulnerable road users in these situations turned out to be marginal — less than 1 percent all accidents at intersections, of which only 0.07 percent these are injury events. At approximately 45 thousand incidents at traffic lights per year were considered minimal. Therefore, experts concluded that the retention obligation could be waived provided certain engineering requirements were met.
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If the proposals are included in the regulation, green arrows will remain only where drivers have very good visibility, in built-up areas and on roads at speeds of up to 50 km per hour. In practice, this means that some signals may disappear, but those that remain will no longer require a full stop before turning.
Green light with countdown
Another recommendation from the team is changes regarding the use of seconds, i.e. devices that count down the time until the light signal changes. Drivers have been appreciating them for years for their predictability and a sense of greater control over the road situation. Currently, second hands are only installed in fixed-time signals, where the length of individual lights remains unchanged.
However, experts suggest extending the possibility of their use also on variable-time signaling, i.e. the so-called accommodative. This is a modern system thanks to motion detectors adjusts the length of light cycles to the current situation at the intersection. When traffic increases, the green light lasts longer, and when traffic decreases, cycles become shorter. As a result, after changing the regulations, there could be much more seconds, also in places with large traffic fluctuations.
Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Stanisław Bukowiec announced when exactly the proposed regulations may enter into force
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For drivers, it would be a significant improvement in comfort, and for traffic engineers – a new tool facilitating more effective management of road infrastructure. The idea is also to increase the predictability of behavior at intersections and reduce the risk of sudden starts or too slow reactions of drivers.
Changes for drivers will only take a few years
Although the experts' proposals seem advanced and widely documented, drivers will have to be patient. According to Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Stanisław Bukowiec, work on amending the regulations began with a two-year delay because – as he emphasized – the previous government did not continue working on the Red Book. As a result, the new regulations will not enter into force in 2026, but only in 2028.
