Pedestrians will have a longer period of time to cross the street at College and Beaver avenues due to a borough-wide initiative to re-time traffic signals to improve safety.

State College Public Works Director Mark Whitfield said the new system will give pedestrians a three-second head start from traffic turning into the crosswalk by giving them the "walk" sign before the traffic receives a green light.

"One of the problems in the past [has been] the pedestrian right of way. By giving them a three-second head start, it assures them right of way in the crosswalk," he said.

Whitfield said $52,000 was spent on an engineering traffic study to research the re-timing of the lights and $9,800 was spent to implement the three-second re-timing.

"We started working on this in 2002, so it's been three years in the process," he said. "The study was conducted in fall 2003 [to] spring 2004."

Borough Manager Tom Fountaine said the borough worked with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to obtain permission to re-time the signals.

"The [State College] borough traffic consultant and engineering department [were] working to amend the permits to allow for the re-timing of signals," Fountaine said.

Whitfield said the re-timing was approved by the State College Borough Council last September and received approval from PennDOT in November. The contractor was available to re-time the lights during winter break, but the project was delayed until this semester, Whitfield said. "We really wanted to have it implemented while Penn State was in session, so they could be informed [that] there was a change," he said.

Traffic flow will not be significantly affected by the new timing, Whitfield said. Because pedestrians will have an early start, there will be "about a 10 percent" reduction in time and traffic congestion.

He added that an average of 30 signal changes in one hour would increase to 40 signal changes with the new timing.

"I think pedestrians will notice [the re-timing] more than motorists," he said.

Though the majority of pedestrian signals were re-timed throughout State College, some intersections could not re-timed due to protected left turns permitted at those intersections, Fountaine said. These intersections include College Avenue and Garner Street, College Avenue and Burrowes Road, College Avenue and Atherton Street, and Beaver Avenue and Atherton Street.

Collegian staff writer Rebecca Short contributed to this report.