please empty your brain below
|
|
I swear the crossing on Grove Road just up from the petrol station before the railway bridge already does this - half the time you press the button, it lights up and 30 seconds the light goes off without any sign of a green man.
James | 21.08.12 - 7:08 a.m. | #
|
|
From what I've seen, most of the existing ones stretch or contract the light time based on peds crossing the road (or not). There aren't many that check for people waiting before the lights even change, though they do exist.
Chz | 21.08.12 - 7:25 a.m. | #
|
|
It'd help if some crossings didn't take so long to respond when the button's pushed. One near where I live takes ages to stop the traffic (particularly if someone hasn't pushed it in a while) and almost inevitably a gap appears before the pedestrian light turns green. I too feel guilty for dodging across and then watching all the traffic stop for no reason, but if I see a chance to cross safely before the lights change, there's no way I'm going to ignore it.
Baldassaro | 21.08.12 - 8:50 a.m. | #
|
|
Three days with no mention of a major sporting event. Is this blog broken?
madge | 21.08.12 - 8:57 a.m. | #
|
|
I think this trial was mentioned in some TfL Board or Surface Panel papers earlier this year. Your mention is not the first I have heard of the proposal but I hadn't realised the trial had been and gone. I do wonder if early August during the Games was the most sensible test of the equipment at this particular location!
PC | 21.08.12 - 9:24 a.m. | #
|
Looking at those 'countdown timer' lights as a driver / motorcyclist / cyclist, the principal is a good one but with many of them there is a potentially dangerous flaw.
After reaching zero, the lights *should* (in my view) turn straight to green in favour of the traffic, but often, instead, there is a pause. Maybe the designer thought it would build in a margin of safety, but in practice the effect is the opposite.
The pause can be just long enough for some pedestrians to think, 'hey, so it was a bluff. Maybe I DO have time to cross, after all... '
And that's exactly what they try to do :(
RogerW | 21.08.12 - 9:34 a.m. | #
|
|
I am fairly ambivalent about the countdown timers when I've experienced them in other countries. I'm sure I'm not the only one who speeds up if they see the timer ahead getting close to zero which surely makes things more dangerous than if there were no timers.
Whiff | 21.08.12 - 9:39 a.m. | #
|
|
I'm sure when I've encountered countdown signals in other countries (Denmark, possibly Sweden) they countdown how long you have to wait until the green man appears, which is a much more sensible approach than encouraging people to rush across the road.
jones | 21.08.12 - 10:23 a.m. | #
|
|
The pedestrian lights seem to activate quicker if the buttons on both sides of the road are pressed. can anybody with knowledge confirm this.
Freedom Pass Holder | 21.08.12 - 10:42 a.m. | #
|
|
yes, and if you press harder and more often (according to my girl friend)
@Freedom Pass Holder | 21.08.12 - 10:53 a.m. | #
|
|
In the busy centre of Copenhagen they have pedestrian countdowns for both red light and green light and everyone keeps to this. Also I thought that TFL wanted to stop too many people going on the Parliament Square island because it was unstable after all the tunnelling work for the Jubilee Line.
KissenMe | 21.08.12 - 11:27 a.m. | #
|
I think this is based on a false assumption. The reason that there is no pedestrian waiting when the light changes is that it has taken so long to change.
Take one crossing with which I am familiar, Mile End Road at Stepney Green. It is a staggered crossing, and both sides have buttons to press. On the south side, the button does precisely nothing; the pedestrian light goes green when the traffic light goes red and stays green until shortly before the traffic light changes. On the north side, however, if the button is not pressed, the pedestrian light doesn't go green; if it is, you get a few seconds early in the cycle. So, crossing from south to north, by the time you get to this point, you have missed it (even if it did change) and if you are law-abiding you have to wait an entire cycle of the lights. Of course nobody does. Indeed, since the railings went, pedestrians don't even follow the stagger, but just amble straight across wherever they happen to be.
A system such as proposed is worse than useless unless there is a guaranteed (and not too long) maximum wait time for pedestrians.
If London were to be more encouraging to pedestrians, maybe there would be slightly less traffic...
Peter Cameron | Homepage | 21.08.12 - 11:56 a.m. | #
|
|
I feel uncomfortable about "traffic smoothing" in general. What is the aim? More capacity for cars or faster journeys for cars will lead to more traffic.
Ian Brooker | 21.08.12 - 12:46 p.m. | #
|
|
I guess this will also deal with a problem I sometimes come accross when someone has helpfully stuck chewing gum over the button so the pedestrian crossing constantly activates when there is no one there, which quickly causes traffic queues.
Jon Combe | 21.08.12 - 1:02 p.m. | #
|
|
If they're anything like puffin crossings, look forward to seeing them cancel the pedestrian request anytime that the sun is setting in view of the pedestrian sensor.
o | 21.08.12 - 1:11 p.m. | #
|
|
There is at least one crossing in the Bournemouth/Poole conurbation which pedestrians have to stand on a certain part of the crossing otherwise the lights don't change. I've only seen this particular one here, but could this be the answer? Not sure how well it would work for visually impaired pedestrians given that there is a sign telling people where to stand, although the surface of the pavement is slightly different.
Richie G | 21.08.12 - 2:17 p.m. | #
|
|
I was going to question your use of 'didn't used to' but did a quick google to confirm i wasn't wrong only to end up buried in a veeeeeery long languagelog comment thread about the topic that has probably just confused me more.
Geoff | Homepage | 21.08.12 - 6:31 p.m. | #
|
They replaced almost all the crossings in central Manchester with puffin crossings a few years back, they all monitor if you are there or not, and if you've got all the way across or not.
Dunno why London thinks it's so new...
Kirk | 21.08.12 - 7:32 p.m. | #
|
|
@ Ian Brooker - in crude terms it is so the Mayor can say he has done something positive for motorists in accordance with his manifesto. Whether it makes any sense in transport terms is another question altogether.
PC | 21.08.12 - 10:51 p.m. | #
|
|
@ Geoff, "didn't used to" is surely geezerspeak, ie part of dg's unique style which is why we read his blog
amber | 22.08.12 - 9:43 a.m. | #
|
@Geoff, arghhh! This is an ongoing cause of dispute between my partner and me. I have always said (and continue to say) "usen't to", but when I finally got around to validating its correctness online, I found little support for what I had always thought was correct and still believe to sound better.
Would you like to join my team on this one?
| 22.08.12 - 12:57 p.m. | #
|
|
That was me, EskimoPie.
EskimoPie | 22.08.12 - 12:58 p.m. | #
|
|
@eskimopie - I'm actually in the 'didn't use to' camp which i always assumed was right, in the same way as 'didn't have to' instead of 'didn't had to' but it turns out to be far more complex than that!
Geoff | Homepage | 22.08.12 - 1:25 p.m. | #
|
|
Yes, yes, yes! Remember that Dave Gorman show 'Genius' where people would submit silly ideas that just might work? I always wanted to submit an 'off button on pedestrian crossings', so that if you press the button but then see a gap before the lights change, you can cancel your request and leave the drivers in peace. There've been so many times as a pedestrian that I wished I'd had one, and almost as many as a driver that I wished other people had one. This isn't quite as simple, but it's a start.
Graham | 22.08.12 - 9:08 p.m. | #
|
@Geoff - aha. 'Didn't had to' sounds just wrong! You could say 'hadn't to' but that's simply odd. Which is what people think about 'usen't to'. Ah well...
But hey, better not turn poor DG's comments box into a grammatical forum :-)
EskimoPie | 22.08.12 - 11:49 p.m. | #
|
|
|
TridentScan v2.10.0 | Privacy Policy
|