Aaaaarggghh! *Sparrow* Crossings.

It seems to differ from a Toucan crossing only in details, being functionally the same. And as others have said, beg buttons on any cycle route immediately render it second-class status.

I read the headline for this and honestly thought you were on about a crossing for sparrows (like hedgehogs, toads, et al) <face/palm>

The crossing itself seems ok - clear for all road users. I would prefer automatic sensors for cyclists rather than a beg button (or even green default with sensors for cars - I can dream!) but that's a minor gripe. 

But I did have a nosey around on Streetview, and as is all to frequently the case, this piece of "nice" infrastructure seems to be pretty isolated and not thought through in terms of all the ways it might be used. In particular, 50m down the road there's the classic "Cyclists Rejoin Carriageway". Looks OK if you're heading westbound onto Newlands Ave, but there's no good way of joining Gillbent Road. There's also no good way of getting onto the cycle track if you're coming eastbound on Newlands Ave (there's a dropped curb but you're simply hoping no cars turn down Newlands Ave if you take that route). If you're heading southbound on Gillbent Road and want to turn left to cut through to Woodstock Ave, it looks like a nastily sharp corner to do it properly - and strictly speaking if the lights on Gillbent Road were red you would have to wait for them to change before taking that corner. Lastly, if you've come from Woodstock Ave and want to turn left onto Gillbent Road southbound, there's no good way of doing that.

As chrisonatrike says, it was probably designed with one very specific journey in mind (getting kids from a certain area of housing to a certain school) and no consideration was given to anyone else who might want to use the facility as part of a different journey. 

New to me.  First look - messy but functional.  Width is good, clear demarcation of cycling and pedestrians is good, kerbs etc.  As you say though missing detector loops (whoops) and in about 50 yards it's already diverted you from a straight line, but... OK.  When he says "links Thorn Grove right up to St. James" ... it doesn't appear to link anything?  It seems from what I can see in the video and Streetview (over a year ago mind) to get you to a couple of roads on the other side of the main road.  That's... it?  Even if you did need to get to St. James from the primary school it looks like you'd have to backtrack on yourself some distance.

Is this a very early green shoot, a "quick win" with the hope of then extending the infra along the main road?  Or is there an important local flow here?  Otherwise it's nice but basically a very fancy and expensive pedestrian crossing serving a school.  Good, not nothing, but without more context you get nervous it's the UK standard "Look!  Here's 100 yards of cycle infra!  But why no cyclists?  Clearly people don't want to cycle."