please empty your brain below
Plus the other one that goes "If I run fast enough cycles will be able to stop faster"
At least it is better than in parts of the US.
Red man: Almost certain death.
Green flashing Man: Cross at your peril and hope cars turning right give way as they are supposed to.
Green Man: Non-existant.
They have a similar system in Germany. In the former West Germany they have two red men just to really get the message across. They also allow vehicles to turn right when the green man is present but they must give way to pedestrians - which is not a problem in Germany because the rules are observed.
In the former Russian sector of Berlin the men are of non-standard design and are arguably much better (they have a special EU derogation to allow them to have these).
Red means danger but he's standing still...a red man walking would be more accurate would it not? Maybe this is why folk walk when they see the red man...they think it means it's dangerous to stand still?
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Proper comment:
The worst thing is people who run to a crossing when it is flashing and then walk across the road. KEEP RUNNING, FOR GOODNESS SAKES, YOU'RE ON MY TIME NOW!
Yes, I suffer from pedestrian rage.
I recall some junctions where it used to be known for people to get out of a car and press a button on the crossing thingy, just to get a chance for their car to go through, if you see what I mean.
I've always thought that these buttons should be pressed by everyone waiting to cross and the crossing time increased on a special sliding scale to allow that number of people to cross. This would also have the advantage of passing on contagious diseases and rapidly wiping out all pedestrians. (j.k.)
Some New Yorkers were not happy when they were told that their "Walk"/"Don't Walk" signs were to be replaced with little green men. That was a few years ago. I don't know whether they changed them or not.
As regards the sound that seems to become increasingly frenetic, presumably for blind people, the ones in Dublin have a much nicer sound, positively pleasant by comparison.
Don't you hate that sirens have all to be so effective now, that they try to make them imitate screaming? It's like the way they try to make public health warnings ever more aggressive and sensational, as with the anti-smoking campaign where people are impaled through the mouth by fish hooks and dragged on a Whitehall sleigh-ride through offices.
Bring back the tinkling bells. We're all going to die anyway, might as well have some sort of life before we go.
Question for any US readers: can you turn right on a red if the crossing in front of you (not the crossing in the street you are turning into) is showing a green man/cross now?
In Australia (or at least my bit of it), it went Green, Flashing Red, Red. Flashing red was a sign that you shouldn't start crossing, but it was perfectly safe to continue if you were already there. Some crossings in bigger cities change from green to flashing red almost immediately.
Of course, in Australia we also don't have the "orange-red" traffic lights that come before green, so everything tends to go a bit faster. (Since, I assume, here they need to account for people going on orange-red, so they have to put extra seconds of waiting in there... Perhaps they should have an extra light before orange-red, to tell you it's coming
)You just can't wait for the green man to appear in London - sometimes it never does
But you're right, he's got that sequence wrong...
I've been away from the UK long enough to have missed the lack of flashing green man, but it surely must have been a better method than no light on at all!
Here (in Frankfurt) many crossings have signs above them suggesting "Den Kindern ein Vorbild" (show a good example to children), in other words, only cross on red if there are no children around. It's *mostly* well-adhered to, and I'm quite pleased about that.
Here in Manchester most of the main city centre crossings are now Puffin crossings, that time the green according to the number of people.
But there is a road that runs through the pedestrian area in town, and an old crossing on that. Everyone ignores it, much to the annoyance of the drivers...
A history of crossings you say? www.cbrd.co.uk has a very interesting one.
And when i'm a "free" pedestrian where there's no speed-calming measure to slow me down, or a "pedestrian cam" to take my picture and fine me £60 if I walk faster than 3mph, then i like to walk as fast as i possibly can, take short cuts, and don't want to be told when and where i can cross the road.
mind you, give it ten years and we probably WILL have "pedestrian cam". after all, there was a plan once discussed to have people on patrol in Oxford Street to hurry along gawkers and window shoppers who were getting in the way of office workers trying to get from the tube station to their desk on time.
And i think that's the longest comment i've ever posted here. Must go for a lie down and breath.
I never bother to wait for the green man if nothing's coming. Different in USA, I know.
http:/
ews.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magaz...ine/
6251431.stm
<ahem>
Those pesky "red and amber" and "amber" lights should now be the right way round.
Wow! Big ups for the bloke or blokes that thought that was a good idea! Not...
In most parts of the world, after the red man has communicated that it is not cool to cross, he nips off to save energy and make a cuppa (or give the LEDs a rest maybe) but you can summons him back with a press of the button.
I must say I also prefer the traffic lights, which tell you how much time you have on either men. And I have grown up (in Latvia) with 3 lights - red (stop), orange (beware/get ready) and green (go). And finally - jaywalking is illegal in Latvia. It can cost you at least 5 pounds if a police-man catches you....
* The national minimum green man time is 4 seconds. In London, however, a minimum of 5 seconds is used.
* This is an "invitation to cross", which means you can step off the kerb if there are no vehicle coming. The reason there's such a long time between the green man going out and traffic starting up is to allow you to finish crossing. So, you're not supposed to be able to cross the road while the green man stays on!
* To be pedantic (!) the amber between green and red lasts 3 seconds. The red/amber is indeed 2 seconds.
* The puffins are supposed to be safer, as they have no flashing amber, no "black-out", and pedestrians have to look to their right at the signal pole to see the red/green man, i.e. have to look towards the approaching traffic. At conventional crossings, some people look across the road, see a green man, and step off the kerb without checking to see if anything's coming!
* Interestingly, putting in a pelican at a crossing where there was previously just an island an no lights does, on average, increase accidents as pedestrians are less careful as they (wrongly) feel safer stepping into the road with lights there.
* As to whether to press the button or not, it depends. Some crossings are only "called" when the button is pressed. Others come in automatically, and have no button. Some come in automatically during the day but at night the junction sits with the main road on green by default, so you have to press a button to call the pedestrian stage. Hence some buttons appear to be pointless if you never have cause to use them at 3am!
* The DfT has been trying to phase out the flashing amber because 1) not all drivers or pedestrians behave, and respond better to being told what to do with red/green lights, and 2) so they can reclaim the flashing amber for other use - for example, in other countries, flashing amber is used at night to tell you the traffic lights have been switched off so give way, and in many countries it means proceed but give way to pedestrians.
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