US-style countdown pedestrian crossings to be trialled in London

yeah Dave was spoiled on his visit to Nottingham - some of the crossings in Bath take so long to let pedestrians cross, that I often seriously start to wonder if they are broken, set off across the road only for them to finally change when I'm either half way across or, more usually, when I'm already on the other side.

It's an odd idea in the UK where pedestrians are supposed to have priority over other traffic. Not that any drivers know/take any notice of that.

We've got a crossing at the end of our road - I've complained about how long the lights take to change - the Council claim they're set to change within 20 seconds of the button being pressed (although it seems longer than that - basically until there is no traffic!) and that’s the least amount they're allowed to use. This of course is a lie - other crossings will change as soon as the button is pressed - as evidenced by dave_atkinson above.

Quote:

Pedestrian crossings really seemed designed to enable cars drivers to carry on driving (often at high speeds), rather than stop to allow people to cross roads

when i was at uni i used to visit some mates in nottingham and the traffic lights on the big roundabout outside campus (a busy road) always changed as soon as you pressed the button. always. it was ace, we always used to wait until there was some traffic

We've got one of them 'doon the toon' in Glasgow (unless it's been ripped out in the last couple of weeks) on the corner of Argyle Street and Queen Street - a busy city centre junction.
It seems to work. You won't see too many attempting a Usain Bolt-style dash across the road just as a flying 61 bus takes the corner if they know the lights are going to be turning green in their favour in a few seconds time.

Should be more of them.

I'd like to know why it is that pedestrians have to push a button and then wait (perhaps in the cold, wet etc) while cars continue to hurtle past? Pedestrian crossings really seemed designed to enable cars drivers to carry on driving (often at high speeds), rather than stop to allow people to cross roads. Why shouldn't car drivers have to push buttons and wait? Roads management need to be re-prioritised in favour of pedestrians and cyclists. For example pedestrian crossing should turn from green to amber, then red as soon as someone pushes the button to indicate that they want to cross the road. Crossings should all be fitted with cameras, too, and the owner of any vehicle going through a crossing on amber or red should be prosecuted - this would have the affect of slowing traffic down as it approached crossings rather than speeding it up as often happens nowadays. This proposal is not really going to do much positive to affect road safety as far as I can see.

They also have these in China, both to let pedestrians know how long to wait, and for cars and other road uses too. Theyre pretty good, you know exactly when to stomp the pedals or drop the clutch.

I used these in Romania last year. Very useful as sometimes you could choose to walk to another crossing that had fewer seconds remaining on the display.