If you’ve traveled through Davis Square, you’ve likely noticed that many pedestrians don’t wait for the walk signal when crossing the street and after some data analysis we understand why. If you only cross when you have the walk signal it could take you more than five minutes to get around the square. Although crossing without the walk signal isn’t the safe choice, it has been the fast choice.

So to help keep everyone safe and make it easier for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers to get through the square, we’re going to be changing the signal timing in the main Davis Square intersection on Wednesday, June 27. Pedestrians should wait for the walk signal at each leg of the intersection (it won’t take you as long to get through, we promise), and drivers and cyclists should be aware of pedestrians in the crosswalks and yield to them.

If you want to learn more about how signal timing affects the flow of traffic and find out more about some working going on ahead of the signal timing switch, visit somervillema.gov/signaltiming.