RAG Status

If ever there was a reason to rethink pedestrian crossings it was this. I had just crossed the road outside Bow Rd Tube and had managed about 10m along the pavement when I head the screech of brakes and turned in time to see a bloke in his go faster Toyota twat plow into a Chinese girl. Mounted the bonnet and bounced her off the windscreen.

Managed to get to her immediately to keep her still and stop the Toyota driver reversing over he legs. She just kept crying and in between she kept saying 'green light' 'green light' over and over again.

Bow Rd crossing has seen has more than its fair share of incidents. Having lived there for over 12 years I know the dangers. Its a long straight rd with 30mph limit and 2 lanes in each direction. Sadly the drivers morning and evening treat it like a motorway. Probably 3 or 4 crossings per week cars will go through the lights when the go red and it is double that number when they rush straight through the flashing amber at the end of the crossing period.

Now I can make no judgment as I cannot say that I actually saw that the guy ran the flashing amber. But it strikes me that when lying on the tarmac with both legs broken and head having just cracked the windscreen of the car you don't rationally think of an alibi as to why it was not your fault. She was not thinking after the fact in hospital whether she crossed on green.

So here's what I suspect was happening. The Toyota (Asian kid with girlfriend in front seat and mate on back) was driving as they do down Bow Rd like a boy racer. Both his car and a white van braked hard as they went through the crossing in each lane. Neither was accelerating having stopped at the lights, they were already going and were doing about 30. Girl sees the green (not flashing) man and starts to dash across the road. I suspect that as she starts the green man starts to flash and the red light turns to flashing amber. The rest is, as they say, history.

It occurs to me that some changes to the lights might help. The whole idea of a flashing Amber (go if clear/pedestrians have finished crossing) is madness when you think about it. People do not think twice about going through amber flashing lights. Nobody goes through amber lights if they are not clear but the point is that a pedestrian can start crossing on green and be only 1m from the edge when the green man starts to flash. For 2 lane roads it leads to one lane sometimes moving on before they can see the pedestrian.

Mixing cars and people is just not sensible. At all. Think about it, we do not do the reverse. We do not have a flashing amber at the start of the lights sequences where the pedestrian is allowed to cross if the road looks clear of cars!

Why not have the lights changed as follows.

Traffic lights turn Red
Wait 3 seconds
Green man shows for (variable but say) 10 seconds (long enough to cross, so depends upon road)
Green man goes out and red man (do not cross) come on 10 seconds. Note that the red man time is long enough for a crossing to deal with the person starting on green and getting 1 step in.
THEN
the Amber traffic light flashes
Then Green traffic light.

The difference is that the Amber light does not start to flash UNTIL the red man has been showing for long enough for the person to make a crossing.

Yes, it means crossings will take longer and traffic will be a little slower. People may be kept and extra minute on their journey.

I reckon that Chines girl would agree that less accidents is worth a minute or two extra on your car journey.