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OLDER PEOPLE do not have sufficient time to cross the road safely at many pedestrian crossings in Dublin as a result of the way traffic lights are currently sequenced, a new study has found.

The research, presented at the annual scientific meeting of the Irish Gerontological Society in Kilkenny at the weekend, found that while the green light at pedestrian crossings is usually on for six seconds, the length the amber light stays on varies with the width of the road, allowing a second for each 1.2m of road width that pedestrians cross. This assumes a minimum pedestrian walking speed of 120cms per second but the Technology Research for Independent Living Centre in Dublin found older people didn’t walk that fast.