Study on Chinese setting standards for countdown display units for traffic lights

As a kind of auxiliary facility, countdown display units for traffic lights have been widely used in China. It can display the remaining time of the corresponding traffic light, so that road users can know the real-time change of the traffic signals. However, since the old national standard for countdown display units lacks unified setting requirements for countdown display units, the setting of countdown display units in different areas differ greatly and this brings much inconvenience to the road users. Therefore, the revised standard GA/T 508-2014 is released to stipulate the unified setting standards for countdown display units. This has important practical significance in scientific and standardized law enforcement, and improves the traffic efficiency at intersections in urban areas and the elimination of the traffic safety hazards. The paper investigates the existing problems of countdown display units and introduces the new standard.