Part 1
Part 2
The drivers are privileged in the Civic Centre, the area being favourable to those who drive and unfavourable to those who walk, anticipating the transformation of this space into a transit-oriented area rather than a residential or relaxation area, considering the proximity of the park.
At the traffic lights from Toamnei Street towards Hărmanului Street, in order to improve traffic flow, a different strategy has been adopted, namely the pedestrians have longer waiting times than the drivers, but they can press a push button which, if not pressed regularly, will not allow the lights to turn green. Those who press the button, unaware of this strategy, expect the traffic lights to turn green immediately and as this won’t happen, they come to believe either that the button doesn’t work optimally, either that it has a rather psychological role and has no impact on prioritising pedestrian crossing.
The excessively long waiting times for pedestrians has led to atypical interpretations and tactics to deal with this situation: either they refuse to push the button believing it has a mere decorative role, either they push it frenetically several times as if it didn’t work properly if simply pressed, either they push it several times intermittently in order to “create the impression that several persons are waiting to cross the street”, which, in their opinion, will prompt the traffic lights to turn green for pedestrians.
The last two tactics get pedestrians involved into actions that call for attention focusing and create the impression that time elapses faster, therefore, those who practice them state that these solutions they have found by means of trial and error actually work and the traffic lights turn green faster than if they pushed the button only once. Neither after crossing the first half of the street the patients are not allowed to walk at a normal pace. They must remain vigilant and maintain an alert rhythm on the pedestrian crossing in order to be on time for the green light of the second traffic light which shifts quickly to red, thereby imposing a second waiting time at the pedestrian refugee in the middle of the boulevard.
