After living in London for a couple of years to study architecture, I missed out on most of the big changes that happened in my home town; one of these changes being the new fancy looking pedestrian crossing lights that have been imposed in some places. These crossing lights might be somewhere in London, but I have yet to come across one there.
What’s new about these Pedestrian crossings?
Instead of the old-fashioned and to an extent, internationally recognised lights that allow people to look up, across the road at a red or green man, these two coloured men have been moved to where you would press the button and wait.
For years we have all grown used to facing the direction in which we intend to walk in as it is convenient. That previous sentence is literally me stating the unnecessary obvious, which is actually painful but in this case necessary.
When I first encountered these pedestrian lights, after pressing the button I just stood waiting as you do. As I looked ahead I began to wonder when the lights were going to change (there weren’t any lights ahead but it hadn’t registered in my head yet…), only I hadn’t realised that they had already changed. There was no sound to indicate when this happened, which also didn’t help, and by the time I had noticed I presume the lights were about to change again, since the red man was already showing by the time I had reached the other side. Probably the most awkward pedestrian crossing I’ve had to use, was my first thought. But even that was an understatement. There was so much more to this that seemed completely off.
Whilst I was in architecture school, I felt as if I learnt more about how the world works then I did about buildings. When I started to really think about it, I realised exactly what was wrong about these pedestrians lights and just how awful and backwards they really are. At the beginning I tried giving it the benefit of the doubt, by convincing myself that I probably needed to get used to the idea of staring down to my side and break out of the old habit of looking across. That was until I realised that I wasn’t the only one finding these pedestrian lights awkward. As I walked by another pedestrian crossing with the same features, I noticed some seniors standing on the other side of the road waiting to cross; however the lights had already changed and it had taken a while for them to realise it. It was a two part crossing so once they had finally realised that the lights had changed it was too late, they ended up being stuck halfway.
Both seniors and younger people were finding these new pedestrian crossings just as awkward and unhelpful as I did. Normally I’m not one to waste my energy on focusing on things I disapprove of, but I think some of the issues with these new pedestrian lights need to be addressed.
Convenience
Going back to what I mentioned about convenience in facing the direction you’re walking in. What made the old (and current in most places) pedestrian crossing convenient was where it was positioned. Having it located across the road in a high spot allowed it to be visible to everyone of all heights, however this particular convenience is removed for whatever reason.
The new design restricts visibility of the pedestrian crossing lights, especially when there’s a lot of people and someone’s standing right in front of it. Taller people would also find it inconvenient especially when standing too close to the bloody thing. Regardless of one’s height, it is more convenient to look up across towards the direction you’re walking in then it is to look down to your side, that is if you can see anything at all.
Another issue with where it’s positioned is that you can’t see the lights as you cross the road, so there is no indication at to when pedestrians should start to hurry across.
Safety
The main issue for me however was how unsafe these new crossings seemed to be. Convenience was just a minor rant at the beginning and perhaps I may sound like I’m exaggerating about this point, however I do believe that there was a lack of thought and consideration put towards these new crossings on how they would affect the people using them. Due to the lack of clear indication of when the lights change due to their awkward positioning and lack of sound, the user doesn’t always immediately know when to cross the road. As a result individuals may cross just as the lights are about to change and because the pedestrian lights are not visible once someone has left the pavement, there’s no indication when the individual should start to walk faster or run if necessary, or even just remain on the pavement.
In central London where I had lived for some time, most of the pedestrian crossings had a countdown to give people an indication of when they needed to be at the other side of the road. That particular feature seemed to be a step forward in my opinion, so seeing that someone in the UK decided it was a good idea to remove any indication whatsoever of when the lights are about to change again, seems to be a huge step backwards however way I try to look at it.
Maybe there’s a good reason…?
At the beginning I didn’t want to lean on one side of the fence, I kept trying to think of good reasons for why this new design may have been imposed in the first place. Perhaps it was to save money on construction materials? Although I do wonder why repairing existing lights would cost more than making new ones from scratch? …Perhaps is it to encourage people to not cross the road last minute? …Perhaps they hadn’t considered the different possibilities as to how it could affect the public? Which I thought would have been their main priority in new designs that affect public safety.
In the end I couldn’t think of a decent reason as to why these new lights were imposed in the first place, if anyone out there knows what the reason is for the way these new pedestrian lights were designed, then I would be more than happy to hear it.
In all honesty it wouldn’t have been a bad idea if the old pedestrian crossing at the other side of the road had remained, with the new one being an additional feature for children or shorter people to look at, but sadly we can’t have both.
The ones I used didn’t have sound which made things even worse. Although there are some locations which use sound to indicate when to cross, which may solve the problem a little, however it is still a disadvantage to those who may have impaired hearing. There’s always room for improvement with anything, even for pedestrian crossings old or new. We can’t address every single issue, but even that doesn’t seem to justify in my opinion the enormous step back that’s been taken.
Final thoughts
The pedestrian lights don’t have to be perfect, but points need to be considered:
-Are the lights visible to most of the pedestrians using them?
-Is it immediately obvious when pedestrians should cross?
-Is it even safe to use?
No, no and no you might as well jaywalk it, that seems to be a much safer option since it requires you to look at whether the cars are coming, and not rely on a green light you can’t even see.
In a way, you could argue that these pedestrian lights show just how much we took the old ones for granted by their overall safety and convenience.
HANA 