Update: crossings in the centre

A forwarded email from "dempster" hits our inbox, regarding whether or not these lights do anything useful for buses or bicycles.

Thank you for your email regarding the pedestrian crossing on Broad Quay. I assume you are referring to the crossing by the junction with Baldwin St. Cyclists are allowed to use this route as they are allowed to use all bus only lanes/routes. There are loops cut in the road surface that are designed to pick up cyclists but unfortunately due to the size of bicycles they are quite difficult to pick up. The loops are X shaped. If you position your bike over the centre of the X the loop should detect you and put a demand in for the lights. The lights will still take some time to change as they are linked to the lights on Baldwin St but they should change eventually. I hope this helps please let me know if you require any further information or continue to experience problems.

What this appears to mean is that if a bicycle chooses to get in the middle of the lane, and any following buses decides to stop for the red light, then it may change and the cyclist survive. We encourage cyclists out there to participate this experiment, and they or their next of kin to forward us the details

Broad Quay Signalling

A contribution from "dempster", along with some commentary. This is Broad Quay, where the council stole car, truck and even taxi access a few years back. Now it is for buses and cyclists. Our contributor raises a question about pedestrians.

"These lights have intrigued me for a while, as I have stood waiting at them on my bike, and watched as the green man turns red and then back to green again, without the lights for vehicles changing at all. I assumed this was a piece of radical anti-cycling infrastructure, lights that only turn green for motor vehicles. But the other day I waited there at the same time as an ambulance, and we both ended up skipping the lights as they never changed.


And then shortly after I took this photo, the bus in it skipped the lights. I don't think it waited long enough to work out that the lights would never turn green, presumably the driver knows this already. Although I'm sure I have seen it turn green for buses before.


So my two remaining questions are: What is it that triggers the lights to go green for vehicles? and What's the point of having a phase of the lights where it is red for both pedestrians and vehicles? Why not just leave the pedestrian lights on the green man? I suppose the answer to the second question is that we don't want pedestrians to feel like they can just cross roads willy-nilly. They need to learn to wait."

We think the reason is more subtle. Because the bus drivers know to ignore the signs, their sole purpose is to lure pedestrians out in front of buses. This reduces the number of pedestrians (good) and ensures that the bus schedules are always wrong (good). It also reinforces a fear of walking which helps the rest of the city's drivers.