Pedestrian crossing changes
Discussion
Norwich and surrounding areas are becoming awash with new pedestrian crossings that most people* seem to hate.
Instead of having the green/red men on the opposite side of the road giving an important psychological connection to where you're standing -- a "beckoning" from across the road if you will, the men are on the post where the button is located, meaning it's non-intuitive and of course easily gets masked by other pedestrians.
These new systems have replaced (at great expense) existing totally perfect systems. Why? Who made the decision and needs holding to account?
SM
*my unscientific random sample
Instead of having the green/red men on the opposite side of the road giving an important psychological connection to where you're standing -- a "beckoning" from across the road if you will, the men are on the post where the button is located, meaning it's non-intuitive and of course easily gets masked by other pedestrians.
These new systems have replaced (at great expense) existing totally perfect systems. Why? Who made the decision and needs holding to account?
SM
*my unscientific random sample
awful. The crossings you describe are puffin crossings (Pedestrian User Friendly INterface 
).
They are considered safer than the older pelican crossings because there is a sensor built into the system to detect if pedestrians are still in the road, and the lights shouldn't go back to green until the crossing is clear. As you say, the most obvious difference for pedestrians is that the green/red man is above the button and there is no flashing amber phase.
). They are considered safer than the older pelican crossings because there is a sensor built into the system to detect if pedestrians are still in the road, and the lights shouldn't go back to green until the crossing is clear. As you say, the most obvious difference for pedestrians is that the green/red man is above the button and there is no flashing amber phase.
). Every cloud has a silver lining.7db said:
R_U_LOCAL said:
The crossings you describe are puffin crossings (Pedestrian User Friendly INterface )
INtelligent, surely.
You are correct Sir!
Yet again, the Highway Code is your friend:
25: Puffin and toucan crossings. These differ from pelican crossings as there is no flashing green figure phase. On puffin crossings the red and green figures are above the control box on your side of the road. Press the button and wait for the green figure to show. On toucan crossings cyclists are permitted to ride across the road (see Rule 65).
Vaux said:
7db said:
R_U_LOCAL said:
The crossings you describe are puffin crossings (Pedestrian User Friendly INterface )
INtelligent, surely.
You are correct Sir!
Yet again, the Highway Code is your friend:
25: Puffin and toucan crossings. These differ from pelican crossings as there is no flashing green figure phase. On puffin crossings the red and green figures are above the control box on your side of the road. Press the button and wait for the green figure to show. On toucan crossings cyclists are permitted to ride across the road (see Rule 65).
And don't forget the Pegasys crossing or Tiger crossing either
Edited by vonhosen on Tuesday 15th May 00:38
vonhosen said:
And don't forget the Pegasys crossing or Tiger crossing either
I'd heard of Pegasus for horsey types, but not Tiger:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_cr
supermono said:
Instead of having the green/red men on the opposite side of the road giving an important psychological connection to where you're standing -- a "beckoning" from across the road if you will, the men are on the post where the button is located, meaning it's non-intuitive and of course easily gets masked by other pedestrians.
A beckoning which it is theorised makes it less likely a pedestrian will look to see if the traffic has stopped before they cross.
Which is why the Puffin crossings have the red/green man positioned so the pedestrian looks in the correct direction before crossing.
Parrot of Doom said:
A beckoning which it is theorised makes it less likely a pedestrian will look to see if the traffic has stopped before they cross.
Which is why the Puffin crossings have the red/green man positioned so the pedestrian looks in the correct direction before crossing.
That's actually a good theory that makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately I don't think it works quite so well in practice.
henrycrun said:
BTW does anyone know why there is such a looooooong delay between pushing the button and the lights changing ? It seems to be unique to the UK.
Is there always a long delay? I imagine the system is arranged to provide a certain minimum period for traffic flow before it can be stopped again. Without such a feature the traffic could be held up for long periods when there's a lot of pedestrians trying to cross the road.
Best wishes all,
Dave.
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