When does a Zebra crossing become a Zebra crossing ?
Discussion
A new Zebra has been built just up the road from us. For most of the week, the road had been painted black&white, but there were no "Belisha beacon" yellow lights. Yesterday, the lights were put up, but they're not actually flashing yet.
It seems quite dangerous to build them like this, as I'm sure pedestrians would tend to assume the crossing was fully operative, even when the beacons weren't installed.
I'm assuming that in fact it doesn't count as a Zebra crossing with pedestrian priority until the whole thing is constructed ? So it would be safer to paint the road last.
This is a Zen-like question.
An existing zebra crossing is still a zebra crossing when the lights don't work; so is a new zebra crossing a zebra crossing if the lights don't (yet) work?
The same thing happened locally too, and after several weeks notices appeared on the poles supporting the orange globes stating: "Crossing not in use". As the crossing was situated at a "natural" crossing point, these notices were ignored by pedestrians ... but recognised by motorists. This led to some interesting confrontations, though, fortunately, none of a damaging nature.
But what followed was typical. A gang arrived and wired up the lights. Now the crossing was in full working order. But the "Crossing not in use" signs were not removed (I imagine the gang were not specifically tasked with this). This persisted for several days until the signs were removed (I suspect a neighbour, as the signs were simply stuck in hedges on their respective sides of the road). Of course, whilst the lights were flashing and the signs were still up, there were more confrontations between pedestrians and motorists, leading to at least two minor "fender-benders", but no pedestrian injuries.
Streaky
An existing zebra crossing is still a zebra crossing when the lights don't work; so is a new zebra crossing a zebra crossing if the lights don't (yet) work?
The same thing happened locally too, and after several weeks notices appeared on the poles supporting the orange globes stating: "Crossing not in use". As the crossing was situated at a "natural" crossing point, these notices were ignored by pedestrians ... but recognised by motorists. This led to some interesting confrontations, though, fortunately, none of a damaging nature.
But what followed was typical. A gang arrived and wired up the lights. Now the crossing was in full working order. But the "Crossing not in use" signs were not removed (I imagine the gang were not specifically tasked with this). This persisted for several days until the signs were removed (I suspect a neighbour, as the signs were simply stuck in hedges on their respective sides of the road). Of course, whilst the lights were flashing and the signs were still up, there were more confrontations between pedestrians and motorists, leading to at least two minor "fender-benders", but no pedestrian injuries.
Streaky
There's a cloudy memory in the back of mind about a driver that unfortunately hit a pedestrian on a Zebra crossing, but faced a lesser charge when in court due his lawyer arguing that that the zig zags were the wrong way round (the zigs were zags and the zags were zigs) so it wasn't technically a Zebra crossing.
Is that true or another urban myth?
Is that true or another urban myth?
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