Not read the report but i was in Spain last week and a lot of lights had red and green man timers. Pedestrians and drivers knew how long they had to wait.

The system was intelligent and the waiting times changed depending on traffic and pedestrian numbers. Sometimes you would have 20 seconds to cross, sometimes it was a minute. Worked really well for both parties.

There is a pedestrian crossing near me with the countdown displays, though I've no idea if the timing varies.

There are one or two interesting aspects to traffic lights in Spain. Many radar-triggered lights at the approach to urban areas hold incoming drivers on red until their speed drops to the urban limit (usually 50 km/h, but 30 is becoming more common). Sadly, many of these installations are in disrepair and they are not connected to cameras, so they act more as a warning to unfamiliar drivers, i.e. tourists!
The delay from one road on red to an intersecting road on green is, by UK standards, too long, which enables (more like "encourages") amber and red gamblers. Very few junctions outside major cities have automatic fine-issuing cameras, and pedestrians and drivers all seem to know how the system works, and all are prone to running an "early green" (i.e. it's still red!) or an "early red" (only just changed),
Vitoria-Gasteiz was a pilot city for the "Europolis" traffic management project in the 80s, which in its day promoted road safety on the burgeoning new wide avenues and roundabouts as the city grew, by holding every flippin' light on red as frequently and as long as possible! Legend has it that the timing for green man stages was set by the mother of the then mayor crossing the main thoroughfare (Avenida Gasteiz) at her usual pace!. Modern day concerns of reducing braking and keeping traffic flowing have yet to be addressed. My car's start-stop circuit gives up after three sets of lights and there are a dozen more before I get to my usual destination.

""Green man gets SLOWER to give elderly and overweight Brits more time to cross the road | Daily Mail Online""

These crossing seem to vary as it is. If some get any slower you will be able to exit your car help someone across and get back in before the green! As a pedestrian there are not enough of these in strategic places as it can take me and Sammy dog ages to cross. Sometimes someone takes pity on us and lets us cross but can be a bit dodgy if traffic on the other lane is inclined otherwise!

So on one hand you want more pedestrian crossings and make the timings longer...and make journeys for car drivers slower...but don't think 20MPH speed limits are good as they slow car drivers down and enable people to cross the road easier?

Are you a member of MI5 by any chance you must have a dossier on me a mile thick I reckon with everyone doing 20 well quite a few it will be even harder to cross as there will probably be less gaps. I will wait and see I said nothing about making the timings longer. i can get across pretty smartish as some might understand if they had a spaniel.. Talking of which when I do use one of these crossing which are now silent in my area the dog can still hear something operating in the pole which I cannot and starts barking before we even get to the kerb

There should be a minimum of 10 seconds for pedestrians to cross before the flashing phase starts. It's ironic that while the authorities are trying to slow motorists down in towns and cities, they're trying to hurry pedestrians up!

I do a lot of driving but I very rarely drive into the centre of my home town. I nearly always walk. The crossings give people just enough time to cross, but why should it only be 'just enough?'

I haven't noticed people struggling to cross in time but sure it happens. I think the bigger problem is the 'chancers', those who think they can still get across even after the green man starts flashing and the bleeper stops. Lengthening the time will not stop these people.