Absurd pelican crossings

Sheldon_Cooper

Vent

Near where I live there is a pelican crossing provided for a busy main road on which traffic is travelling at or near the 60 MPH limit.

It would be a useful facility EXCEPT for the fact that it is set to not respond for 40 seconds after a pedestrian has pressed the button. This is the case even if no one has used the crossing for some time.

From the pedestrian's viewpoint this is hopeless as it means that the crossing appears to be malfunctioning and there is almost always a good, safe, gap in the traffic well before the lights change.

From the motorist's perspective it means that they are forever having to stop for no good reason (and the crossing time is very generous) which is not only frustrating but means that several dozen vehicles have to waste energy by coming to a stop and then accelerating back up to speed.

It's a crazy, and almost useless system that, more often than not, just wastes time and money and adds, unnecessarily, to road traffic pollution.

Exile_geordie

Sheldon_Cooper wrote: »

Vent

Near where I live there is a pelican crossing provided for a busy main road on which traffic is travelling at or near the 60 MPH limit.

It would be a useful facility EXCEPT for the fact that it is set to not respond for 40 seconds after a pedestrian has pressed the button. This is the case even if no one has used the crossing for some time.

From the pedestrian's viewpoint this is hopeless as it means that the crossing appears to be malfunctioning and there is almost always a good, safe, gap in the traffic well before the lights change.

From the motorist's perspective it means that they are forever having to stop for no good reason (and the crossing time is very generous) which is not only frustrating but means that several dozen vehicles have to waste energy by coming to a stop and then accelerating back up to speed.

It's a crazy, and almost useless system that, more often than not, just wastes time and money and adds, unnecessarily, to road traffic pollution.

So you cross the road, at a crossing when you have pressed the button and have not been given the all clear to cross? Id say thatit was you who was a danger to motorists.

ThumbRemote

Exile_geordie wrote: »

So you cross the road, at a crossing when you have pressed the button and have not been given the all clear to cross? Id say thatit was you who was a danger to motorists.

???

Are you saying you would stand at the side of an empty road waiting for the crossing to change, rather than just crossing it?Surely no same person would do that.

Or are you just unable to read the post you replied to?

mad_dr

Definitely worth complaining to the local council about that one. They may refer your complaint to a highways agency of some kind but it's likely to get a response. They should have a shorter delay and a long amber to encourage pedestrians to wait and cars to stop.

I've had to complain a few times about seemingly-idiotic traffic light sequences/intervals around here and they've almost always been looked into and adjusted to make them more efficient.

Digression below:

One of them was a very large, fast, very busy 3-lane wide roundabout with three high-volume main road dual carriageways and a fourth no-through-road industrial estate (with around 4000 cars per day based there). Each of the three dual carriageways have traffic lights to let them onto the roundabout but the busiest junction at rush-hour (the industrial estate) does not!

Getting onto the roundabout from the industrial estate in the evening was a misery: cars already on the roundabout are approaching 45mph by the time they pass the industrial estate junction so there's almost no chance of being let out or pushing your way out. The only chance you have is when the preceding dual carriageway is stopped by their red light.

However, then you're already being approached by the OTHER dual carriageway traffic because there is NO time period when both of them are being held on a red light: as soon as one goes red (and the red-light jumpers have gone past the industrial estate, the stream of vehicles has already been caught up and joined by the amber-gamblers from the other entrance.

A 10 second dual-red hold was added to this and the traffic now flows FAR better from the industrial estate with a negligible effect on the other traffic. Anyway, I digress. Email the council.

Cycrow

ThumbRemote wrote: »

???

Are you saying you would stand at the side of an empty road waiting for the crossing to change, rather than just crossing it?Surely no same person would do that.

Or are you just unable to read the post you replied to?

i've done that on numerous occasions, does that mean im not sane?

Sheldon_Cooper

Cycrow wrote: »

i've done that on numerous occasions, does that mean im not sane?

No, just excessively nervous. Unless you have some medical condition that means you can only walk slowly or cannot trust your eyesight. I've sometimes seen an old person waiting when the road was completely clear.

browneyedbazzi

ThumbRemote wrote: »

???

Are you saying you would stand at the side of an empty road waiting for the crossing to change, rather than just crossing it?Surely no same person would do that.

Or are you just unable to read the post you replied to?

The OP said there were gaps in the traffic enough to get across, not that the road was empty. TBH on a 60mph road I would wait 40 seconds for the light to change rather than risk trying to get through a gap in the traffic...especially as around here if a road has a 60mph limit you can expect some twonk to be doing 75-80mph. What might look like a decent gap can suddenly disappear if you're not careful.

That said, there's no harm in contacting the council and asking them to consider changing the programming on the crossing.

VitaK

We have so many accidents in trafic because people make poor decisions. Even the best of us can misjudge distance and speed of a moving vehicle.

I would rather spend a minute more getting to work safely than risk ending up under a car. If that make me look not-sane or excessively nervous, so be it.

Azari

browneyedbazzi wrote: »

The OP said there were gaps in the traffic enough to get across, not that the road was empty.

He actually said: "A good safe gap".

But, as usual, people on this forum fail to get the real problem and dive off at tangents.

The OP wasn't trying to justify people not waiting for the lights to change, he was pointing out that the stupid timing was encouraging such potentially undesirable behaviour.

And, in my experience of similarly badly timed lights, (albeit on 30 mph roads), it also encourages motorists to jump red lights because they become used to certain crossings forever activating when there is no one waiting by the time the lights turn red.

Again, that's not trying to justify bad behaviour on the part of the motorists but is pointing out how the council's incompetence leads people to make potentially unsafe decisions.

ThumbRemote

Cycrow wrote: »

i've done that on numerous occasions, does that mean im not sane?

Yes. Seek psychological help

Exile_geordie

ThumbRemote wrote: »

???

Are you saying you would stand at the side of an empty road waiting for the crossing to change, rather than just crossing it?Surely no same person would do that.

Or are you just unable to read the post you replied to?

He stated a 'good,safe gap' not that the road was empty. Did you read the post I replied too?

Azari wrote: »

He actually said: "A good safe gap".

But, as usual, people on this forum fail to get the real problem and dive off at tangents.

On a road that has a 60MPH limit I find it very hard to judge what would be a 'good,safe,gap' in the traffic flow. Its very hard to judge what speed people are going at if they are doing 60MPH. That car that looks just a fleck on the horizon will be on you within seconds so I always wait for the crossing to change.

40 seconds is not an outrageously long amount of time and it not only keeps you safe from getting hit but also the driver from any trauma of hitting someone.

Im surpsied I was accused of not being sane for actually being safe when crossing the road - something that was instilled in me as a small child and I still follow today. And if any of you think that is wrong then it is you who is not sane.