Countdown helps. Traffic Signals in London, an amber numerical countdown display, indicating to pedestrians the time remaining to cross the road. This discourages pedestrians and cyclists to start to cross.
Unfortunately, it also encourages drivers to gun it when there's only a few seconds left on the countdown ("I still have seconds to get through the intersection!") - which increases the number of cars running red lights.
The countdown is only shown when the pedestrian crossing is on green. Drivers don't get a countdown on their green signal. Most also have a plastic shield around the countdown so you can't see it from where the driver is sitting to avoid people preempting the signal change.
