I had thought that Belisha beacon was becoming extinct, but there is a new thriving colony in Leighton Buzzard. Thee or four of the light-controlled type on West Street have been replaced by zebras, and the traffic seems to be flowing much better.
It's an edge of town location without throngs of pedestrians but quite a bit of traffic, which now doesn't have to queue in both directions after the occasional pedestrian has long gone, having pushed the button and nipped across well before the green man has even appeared.
There are speed tables at the crossings which keep traffic to a reasonable speed without being stupidly obstructive, and pedestrians can cross pretty well when they want.
From the council website:
"The works involve replacing the majority of traffic lights in the town with roundabouts and zebra crossings. A 20-mph zone will also be introduced.[...]Removing the traffic lights at junctions should reduce the amount of time drivers are kept waiting at red lights which, in turn, will help traffic flow along the roads.
Well done Bedfordshire County Council.
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Cheaper than the puffin crossings we have a lot of around my neck of the woods. Sensors to detect that someone is actually waiting and actually still crossing. Something drivers should be able to detect ;-)
And puffin... pedestrian user-friendly intelligent crossing
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We were up in North Wales over Christmas - major works in the local town centre (Caernarfon) - gone is the Pelican crossing to be replaced by a zebra, but raised onto a ramp type thing. Time will tell.
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All that's needed now is to educate pedestrians in the forgotten art of Zebra etiquette; that is, wait for the car to stop before stepping out.
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And cars do not have to stop until you start crossing (technically). Hang on that's why they have puffin crossings.
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>>educate pedestrians in the forgotten art of Zebra etiquette
Where I used to live the pedestrians had perfected the technique of walking alongside the road until reaching the Belisha beacon, then turning abruptly 90deg on their heel and stepping onto the crossing without any reduction in walking speed or indeed eye contact with approaching drivers... It got so bad I would slow down and prepare to stop if there was even one pedestrian in the vicinity of a crossing showing no sign of wanting to cross, and at least half the time it was warranted.
Dave TD.
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When learning to drive I was told off by my instructor for stopping for someone at a Zebra crossing. They had not made it obvious they wanted to cross so I should not stop. But with cars today I would not expect to start cross before expecting a car to stop.
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Living, as I do, right next to one of these new Zebras in LB I must say they do work well- or at least they would if Beds County hadn't left untouched the set of traffic lights by the turn off for Tesco which has resulted in traffic jams from hell building up at the end of the 'Zebra Run'.
In fact they didn't leave them totally untouched; no, they removed the right turn lane for Tesco traffic hence now even worse jams lol.
5/10 from me :)
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>>In fact they didn't leave them totally untouched; no, they removed the right turn lane for Tesco traffic hence now even worse jams lol.
Yes, I couldn't figure that out, the new island is a strange trapezoidal shape - but I don't think they've finished yet, they suspended works for December. Maybe it's a roundabout to come?
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> > Maybe it's aroundabout to come?
Yes I may be being unfair there. Let's hope there is more work to be done. A roundabout could be a good solution.
R40
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So the shape of things to come is er...round !
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Groan.............. lol ;)
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You try turning out of Bridge street onto West street. The continuous flow of traffic from your right makes this very difficult. The speed cushions seem to ensure the stream is bunched up enough to ensure a constant (although slow) flow. I make visits that necessitate using Bridge street. The only way I've found out of there is to push in front of something aggressively. If you get behind a mimser or two at that junction, it seems like you could be there all day.
Sorry to all readers who haven't visited leighton Buzzard lately.
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Ban them all ! I pass through about 4 or 5 Zebras and back some nights going to Motor-bike club in Trafford. The problem is that these things were designed when cars had no more than a 7inch sealed beam. Now, at night, if there is traffic coming towards you with headlights on, you just can't pick out any person about to step off the kerb. Pedestrians always seem to be in dark clothes.
Ted
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Sorry to all readers who haven't visited leighton Buzzard lately.
you're not doing a lot to encourage us! ;-)
Regarding Tesco's, we have a bit of an idiot setup in Carmarthen. All traffic light controlled in and out of the store, but would be 100% better if they'd thought to put a left filter on the entrance; the lack of this means that on busy days traffic backs up to the mini-island at the bottom which in turn blocks the whole town.
We also have a "non-Zebra" crossing in Carmarthen; specifically a block-paved road-hump which has neither lights nor markings; strangely it does seem to work quite well, probably because no-one is sure who has right of way so both parties treat each other with equal caution.
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I've been to Camarthen - the Tesco design is a nonsense (no doubt enforced by Planning requirements) and how, in the name of reason, do you get to Halfords ? I ended up there on a Sunday afternoon needing oil for the bike - I gave up and rode to Aberteifi where I found a shop on the main drag. Ended up being chased by a Turkey that afternoon but that's another story.
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I've been to Camarthen - the Tesco design is a nonsense (no doubt enforced by Planning requirements) and how in the name of reason do you get to Halfords ?
Ended up being chased by a Turkey that afternoon but that's another story.
For Halfords, take the A484 Llanelli road from the main A48, first island by Morrisons take the second exit and Halfords is on the right.
If you're daft enough to go to Cardigan without a passport then it serves you right if you get set on by the locals! ;-)
I hope the mods will forgive this aside but it bears telling; a few years ago during the Bird Flu scare I was delivering feed to a turkey farmer in Cardy, who was fretting about the seemingly impending disaster; not the brightest lad this one. Told him that he'd be OK, but tell his customers not to put any lemon in the Christmas stuffing.
When he asked why, I told him that our firm add Lemsip to the feed so the birds don't get flu.
The next week the story was all across the county; silly fool believed me! :-0
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That was a "different" place to be - I could find nowhere to B&B that night, in the end rode up to Newquay and had a very pleasant evening in a local pub and got somewhat plastered.
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OK, PU, if you're going to call Cardigan by its Welsh name, Aberteifi, then why refer to Caerfyrddin as Carmarthen?
Sorry to be pedantic, it's just my nature.
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It's MrsP's influence I'm afraid. She's adopted the country as her own despite being as English as they come. Totally baffled me tonight listening to Only Men Allowed singing in Welsh going by another name (Cantorion or similar).
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History of pedestrian crossings, and lots of other interesting road-related facts ........... tinyurl.com/9mfgnr
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Well L'escargot - thanks ! I have now tasked myself to research their inventor Belisha ! Was he an unrecognised war hero (much in the vein of Chamberlin) or the bungling idiot as portrayed in the history books........??? I love this site !
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Well L'escargot - thanks !
You're welcome, Pugugly. I like to be helpful whenever I can, especially in this season of good will.
Edited by L'escargot on 04/01/2009 at 07:28
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We had a zebra crossing our village - trouble was, it was right outside the newsagents, where people congreated for a morning chat. Drivers got cheesed off stoppng at the crossing thinking they were waiting to cross....
Council replaced the crossing with traffic lights - now people just cross the road and ignore the green man.
You just can't win!
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Spot on Manatee, a roundabout it is.
I was kept awake during the night by the works to install a roundabout at the Tesco junction. going through this morning it was working quite well.
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Well L'escargot - thanks ! I have now tasked myself to research their inventor Belisha ! Was he an unrecognised war hero (much in the vein of Chamberlin) or the bungling idiot as portrayed in the history books........??? I love this site !
He wasn't the inventor. Leslie Hore-Belisha was the Minister of Transport who introduced them.
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Leslie Hore-Belisha was the Minister of Transport who introduced them.
Quite right - and he was the first government minister to appear on television (1936, I think).
An 'Honest John Pub Quiz Team" might be pretty formidable, don't ya think :-)
Edited by OldSock on 16/01/2009 at 10:55
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rtj: >>When learning to drive I was told off by my instructor for stopping for someone at a
>>Zebra crossing. They had not made it obvious they wanted to cross so I should not
>>stop. But with cars today I would not expect to start cross before expecting a car to stop.
My mother failed her driving test first time for stopping for somebody who wasn't already on the crossing. By the early nineties, my driving instructor gave me an earful for NOT stopping for somebody who was standing by, but not on, the crossing.
As a pedestrian, I always place a toe on the crossing, then wait for the car to stop (or make it clear he is stopping) and then cross.
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