If you have crossed the busy intersection of Portage Avenue and Donald St. recently, you may have noticed something new. Winnipeg’s first pedestrian countdown signals have been installed here as a pilot project, hopefully with more to follow. The signals allow pedestrians to gauge how much time they have to cross the road before the light changes, and prevents people from dashing out just before a light change, leaving people stranded on a Portage Island until the next light cycle.

Pedestrian countdown signals are popular and widely used in many other cities across Canada, the U.S., and internationally. Hopefully we will see many more of these handy devices in Winnipeg in the future.