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Green man road crossings 'too fast' 
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Green man road crossings 'too fast' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41010020

I've the sort of legs and feet made for fast walking and even I think those averages seem off.

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Tue Aug 22, 2017 12:37 pm
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I don't see the time the pedestrians walk lights are on as an issue tbh. According the Highway Code as I remember it, as long as the green man is still showing when someone steps onto a crossing, they retain right of way and can take as long as they have to to cross. If it's going to take you more than say 30 seconds to get across you probably should be thinking about getting a mobility scooter or some such but still, any driver who makes an issue over it is an utter knobhead. Unless someone is actually obstructing the carriageway deliberately (i.e. is sat down in the middle of the road) then just let them get on with it.


Tue Aug 22, 2017 2:37 pm
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That was my recollection as well Jon.

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Tue Aug 22, 2017 5:26 pm
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There's a crossing near me that barely gives you time to get across before drivers start to look impatient. Funnily enough the traffic lights are also badly timed at the same junction as if you go through even just as the first signs of amber appear the other direction are already on green before you clear the junction - which some drivers see as an opportunity to drive at you warp-10 to teach you a lesson or similar assuming you went through a red.

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Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:57 am
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Traditionally, traffic lights that were purely for pedestrain crossing (ie stayed green unlesss someone pressed the button) had flashing amber lights that car's were allowed to go through if the pedestrians had cleared the crossing. Due to drivers getting aggressive with pedestrians who were still crossing when the flashing amber lights (flashing green man) were on, they've started to used lights that stay on red much longer, but then don't have any flashing amber at all. (Much like traffic contol traffic lights).

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Wed Aug 30, 2017 7:34 am
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What is interesting in Germany, is that most pedestrian crossings are on road junctions.

In this situation, the traffic lights turn green for traffic to move off in one direction, but if you turn off the road that has green, the pedestrians also have green and have right of way.

E.g. imagine a crossroads (+)

North and South get green light for traffic and the pedestrian lights for north and south are red. However, whilst East and West traffic is now red, East and West pedestrian crossings are green and the pedestrians have right of way (as do cyclists, if there is a cycle path across the junction). That means all traffic turning into the side street have to wait for pedestrians to clear the crossing before they can proceed. This can cause problems if you are crossing oncoming traffic for the side road, you have to check that there are no pedestrians crossing / will be crossing by the time you reach the crossing, otherwise you will have to wait, meaning you will illegally block oncoming traffic...

Coming from the UK, it was a bit of a shock at first, but you get used to it and people here have grown up with this system, so there are usually no real problems.

Another interesting traffic rule in Germany is that traffic merging from the right has priority over traffic driving straight ahead on some roads (generally small country roads and residential streets). Sometimes it is obvious, because they daub a give-way striped white line on the main road as well as the side road, but if the side road does not have a give-way marking, then it has priority and you have to give way to merging traffic.

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Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:21 am
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big_D wrote:
What is interesting in Germany, is that most pedestrian crossings are on road junctions.

In this situation, the traffic lights turn green for traffic to move off in one direction, but if you turn off the road that has green, the pedestrians also have green and have right of way.

That's the same as Canada. It was very unnerving to be a pedestrian there until you got used to it.

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Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:48 am
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I could always pop back to Rome where green, amber and red - for both pedestrian and vehicles - mean the same thing i.e. have a go, see if you make it :lol:

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Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:50 am
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veato wrote:
I could always pop back to Rome where green, amber and red - for both pedestrian and vehicles - mean the same thing i.e. have a go, see if you make it :lol:


IME it's like that everywhere in Italy.

I was in Whitby last week where the crossing in front of the Co-op, which is the main supermarket in the town centre, and which crosses the only road load leading to the main car parking areas, doesn't stay green long enough for any pedestrian to make it to the other side unless they step off at the instant it changes from red and run.

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Wed Aug 30, 2017 2:25 pm
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We have one here which counts down until green man goes. It adds a little bit of excitement to the crossing. It}s a well known accident spot, with pedestrians being hit quite often. There’s a subway too, which no one uses. The pedestrian crossing was put in because people just tried crossing the road anyway (dual carriageway, 40mph speed limit).

They have crossing countdowns in London too, but I expect that’s just to tell you how many seconds you have until the air pollution kills you.

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Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:26 pm
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paulzolo wrote:
We have one here which counts down until green man goes.

Yup, they've just installed those in all the crossings near my work. Just in time for the influx of international students who have no idea how crossings in the UK work anyway, and seem perfectly happy to just walk into the road when and where it takes them.

Seriously, every major University campus in the UK, you'll see everyone driving at like 3 miles an hour for the next two weeks.

They don't seem to know how lifts work either, oddly.


Mon Sep 04, 2017 1:32 pm
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