Ten pedestrian crossings in Hertfordshire are set to be altered to give greater priority to those on foot.

Currently the signals on pedestrian crossings across the county give automatic priority to motorists.

That means approaching drivers will see a green light unless a pedestrian has pressed the button and is waiting to cross.

But officers at the county council have been looking at ways pedestrians could have priority over cars – so they don’t always have to wait.

And now it has emerged that the county council is looking to trial the alternative approach at 10 sites within the next year.

That would mean that at these 10 sites traffic lights would be red by default and the pedestrian  ‘man’ signal would be green – unless cars were detected.

‘Priority locations’, it is understood, have already been identified. However, the list of projects is still being finalised.

The progress emerged at a recent meeting of the county council’s growth, infrastructure, planning and the economy cabinet panel (February 7), during a discussion on plans for the A414 corridor.

And the approach fits with the council’s latest local transport plan -known as  ‘LTP4’ – which sets out to encourage more walking and cycling.

Meanwhile, at the same meeting, councillors also backed a move by the county council towards a ‘place and movement’ approach to roads.

This is an approach designed to recognise different road users, as well as cars.

And it could be used to develop a design toolkit for roads in the county or to assess requests for speed limit changes.

According to an officer’s report: “For decades streets have been designed for traffic movements and their contribution to economic, environmental and social life has been neglected, often resulting in poor street environments for pedestrians and cyclists.

“Continuing to provide additional highway capacity is neither sustainable nor affordable in most circumstances.

“A key challenge is therefore to balance the needs of a diverse range of user groups on the network.

“In particular there is a need to improve the attractiveness of sustainable modes relative to car use in line with Policy 1 of LTP4 which prioritises the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and passenger transport users over those of private car users.

“In order to do this, the county council needs to have a better understanding of how highway networks function with an increased focus on the place function of streets rather than just vehicle movement.”