Interesting Article On How Cars Took Over the Road

wrote in message news
Unfortunately it would seem most of the crossings in this country have no
pedestrian or traffic detection systems built in or are just poorly
programmed. There's one in my high street that seems to have been
programmed
to stay green to traffic when the road is clear but as soon as a car comes
along to switch to red and let the pedestrians cross. But as you say, by
this
time the person who pressed the button has already crossed.

There is a very long bridge across the Thames near where I used to live.
It's only wide enough for one lorry (though two cars can just about pass in
opposite directions) so it has single-alternate-line working, controlled by
traffic lights which have sensors.

Late at night, when there's very little traffic, the lights tend to stay
permanently on green in the direction that the last car passed. However if a
car approaches from the green direction, the lights always turn red for a
few seconds as you approach and then back to green as soon as you've stopped
at the line - it is guaranteed that traffic from either direction will
*always* have to stop. I'm not sure what the logic is for that perverse
programming.

That bridge (at any time of day) is one of the worst for cyclists ignoring
the lights: very often when I was crossing on green I'd meet a cyclist
coming towards me (*). And it's not that the lights don't allow enough time
for cyclists to get across: I once cycled through just as the lights turned
red, and when I got to the other side, their lights were still red, so there
is evidently a long period when both directions are red to allow for slow
vehicles like cyclists and tractors.


(*) Bizarrely, a lot of them then tried to pass me on my *left*.
Instinctively if you meet a vehicle coming towards you when you aren't
expecting it, you move to your nearside (left) to give them room to pass,
and it's unnerving if the oncoming vehicle moves in the same direction...