"Ian F." wrote in
:

As a Balham resident, I'm still reeling that allegedly £1m was spent
on this crossing when we have had one outside Balham station for over
four years! It is said to have cost £100k to create.

I'm old enough to remember when pedestrian phases at traffic lights were
first introduced in Edinburgh, where I then lived. The first one was at the
intersection of the Bridges and the High Street, and instead of red and
green men there was a white-on-black 'CROSS NOW' light (and merely the
absence of it to indicate that you shouldn't).

That one and all subsequent ones for some time gave the pedestrians a
dedicated phase, where they could cross diagonally if they wished - though
without the natty stripes on the road.

Some considerable time later, they started introducing ones where you
couldn't cross diagonally and there was a bit of publicity (and grumbling)
about the fact that you could not rely on being able to cross in any
direction. I don't recall anyone being squashed, but there was less
traffic about in those days.

To change the subject slightly, I see that (many? all?) new crossings have
the red and green man (person?) mounted at waist height at the side of the
road one is waiting at, rather than opposite. I suppose we'll get used to
it, but I've already seen people:
- look across the road, see no light and assume that there isn't a
pedestrian phase, especially where there are others waiting and obscuring
the new-style light, and
- even more worryingly, look across the road (say south to north) and see
the green man for the pedestrians crossing east to west, which is aimed
directly south, and plunge across the road into the traffic.

The second occurrence was after dark, on a road that went uphill south to
north, so the green light was at about the right height for an old-style
one.

Peter

--
| Peter Campbell Smith | Epsom | UK |