Reply to post: Re: Yellows, no

Uber wasn't to blame for robo-ride crash – or was it? Witness said car tried to 'beat the lights'

Alan Brown Silver badge

Re: Yellows, no

> why "pelican"?

PEdestrian LIght-CONtrolled crossing - a traffic light away from any intersection, which only exists to stop traffic and let pedestrians cross.

Toucan - is a pelican with an adjacent cycle lane - "Two can cross"

There are a bunch of other silly bird-related names.

They seemed like a good idea at the time but statistics show that there are more, and more serious injuries at these crossings than at the Zebra crossings they replaced, so they're strongly discouraged by the transport department and it's trying to encourage their removal too.

(This is mostly because drivers speed up when they see long-duration greens and try to barge through on orange even if the crossing isn't clear - unlike the USA, cars never have right of way over pedestrians (there's no such thing as jaywalking in most of the world, That was something that the carmakers managed to get the USA government to pass as part of car culture))

Because of the safety problems, London's trying to remove as many as possible - along with "Safety fencing" - which isn't at all safe for anyone if it's hit by a vehicle, and parking restrictions (yellow lines).

The statistical perverse effect of virtually all (expensive) roadside furniture intended to "improve safety" is to make the roads more hostile to pedestrians by speeding up drivers and giving them "tunnel vision" due to a perceived increased demarcation between road and footpath that doesn't actually exist. Even painting narrower road lanes or centrelines speeds up traffic. Local authorities generally refuse to admit they got it wrong, so instead of undoing a bad decision, they then add even more stuff to try and correct the increased danger, usually with even more negative results - like the old lady who swallowed a fly.

If you're interested in this level of geekery it's worth reading the "Safer London 2020" road documents.

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