Maribor traffic lights criticized for safety issues

The Coalition for Sustainable Transport Policy (KTPP), a group of 23 non-governmental organizations and experts, has launched the ‘Semafor brez for’ (Traffic Light Without Tricks) campaign to highlight problematic traffic light settings in Slovenian cities, including Maribor, Ljubljana, and Kranj.

In Maribor, analysis of several intersections revealed significant issues such as excessively long waiting times for green lights and insufficient time for pedestrians and cyclists to cross safely. At the intersection of Titova and Partizanska roads, researchers noted that pedestrians often face wait times of up to 92 seconds, while the green light for crossing lasts only seven seconds. These settings reportedly force many pedestrians to cross against red lights, with one study observing that approximately 80 percent of people crossed illegally at a specific location due to the poor layout.

Other identified issues include the lack of default green lights for pedestrians, requiring manual button presses that can lead to missed intervals, and systems that grant green lights to vehicles before pedestrians and cyclists have safely cleared the crossing.