1. Senior citizens can expect to cross with greater ease with longer green man time when they use selected signalised pedestrian crossings from 1 October 2009.

2. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be launching the Green Man Plus initiative at five locations with nearby health facilities and transport nodes. When activated, senior citizens will have up to five seconds more green man time when crossing the road using signalised pedestrian crossings. This initiative addresses the needs of elderly pedestrians who may require more time to cross the road.

3. Senior citizens can activate the Green Man Plus function by using their new CEPAS-compliant senior citizen concession cards on the card readers mounted above the standard push button on the traffic light poles. They do not need to press the push button prior to or after tapping their cards. Traffic light poles that have the Green Man Plus function can also be identified by the card reader and the information stickers pasted on them (please refer to Annexes A1 & A2).

4. The junction of Toa Payoh Central and Toa Payoh Lorong 4 is one of the five locations identified for the initial implementation of the Green Man Plus. The other locations are Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8 near Ang Mo Kio MRT station, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 near Yio Chu Kang MRT station, Jalan Bukit Merah near Blk 162 and Sinaran Drive near Tan Tock Seng Hospital (please refer to Annex B for the locations).

5. LTA will continue to identify other suitable pedestrian crossings, and explore the feasibility of extending this scheme to the physically disabled who may also need longer green time.

6. "Meeting the diverse needs of our road users is the key reason why we are implementing this initiative. As our population ages, we need to ensure that their mobility needs are met. We will monitor the usage at the first batch of selected pedestrian crossings before we fine-tune and expand the scheme to other suitable pedestrian crossings," explained Dr Chin Kian Keong, LTA's Chief Transportation Engineer and Group Director, Transportation and Ticketing Technology.

7. Mr Phua Kok Tee, Chief Executive Officer, Singapore Action Group of Elders (SAGE) said "SAGE is pleased to know that the Green Man Plus enhances the safety of senior citizens by providing them the choice of having more time when using the pedestrian crossing."

ANNEX A1: Green Man Plus Card Reader and "Cross with Care" information panel.

ANNEX A2: Green Man Plus instructional information

ANNEX B: Locations of pedestrian crossings with Green Man Plus