dilly dilly

london crosswalks
2004-07-03 6:28 am

believe it or not, one of the most intense and stressful experiences while in london was trying to cross the street. not only is the traffic traveling on opposite sides requiring very different patterns of looking left and right, but traffic lights and crosswalks work a teensy bit differently than the US.

there are still three lights for the traffic (red, yellow and green), and still two signals for pedestrians (red hand and green walking person).

BUT the traffic light changes from
STOP to GET READY to GO to HURRY UP to STOP,
rather than STOP to GO to HURRY UP to STOP.
at the same time, the crossing signal is a red hand, a green walking person, or a flashing green walking person.

get it?

let me illustrate further...

the traffic light is STOP and crosswalk signal is a solid green WALKing person. pedestrians now have about 10 seconds to jet quickly across four lanes of traffic. if you pause to figure out which way to look before crossing, forget it, you've run out of time and now you have a flashing green walking person indicating RUN if you are still in the midst of crossing, or if you're on the sidewalk, DON'T YOU DARE START CROSSING. simultaneously the traffic signal has changed from STOP to ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET... letting drivers know they can begin edging forward and prepare to take off full speed ahead. at this point, you should already be on the opposite sidewalk. if you missed the chance to cross you definately must wait for the next light. now, the moment the crosswalk signal becomes the red hand indicating DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT the traffic light immediately changes to GO!. if you are still crossing at this time you will be run down.

two thoughts on this system...

British people are clearly assumed and encouraged to be quick thinking and somewhat intelligent in order to survive - i like this.
if you are stupid, you will die. its easy, its simple, its Darwin. in America, our government encourages us to be dimwitted and slow (mentally and physically). crossing the street in the US requires little more than color recognition. and even that is questionable since we are accustomed to wandering into the street at our leisure. in fact, we've made crossing the street little more than a fun game of cat and mouse where pedestrians sadistically taunt drivers by strolling across the street, stopping traffic, and even begging for change. crossing the street in the US requires little thought or intelligence, and very little sense of urgency.
the UK means serious business. crossing the street is no joke. there is no BSing here - i find this refreshing.
in the US our crosswalks give pedestrians ample time for a liesurely stroll across the street. you can begin crossing any time during the flashing red hand and there is often a thoughtful warning countdown letting you know you have 10...9...8...7 seconds before the light changes. the traffic light even allows you a couple extra seconds to finish crossing after the red hand becomes solid and before the traffic light changes to green. we are ignorant, slothly, spoiled rotten little prissy-pants Americans with no sense of consequences. if you need evidence, i give you George W. Bush.

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previously:
weather or not - 2006-03-07
My Flight - 2006-03-02
poetree in motion - 2006-02-28
ultimate personality test - 2006-02-25
limerick e-trip - 2006-02-22