Comedian Frank Skinner reports on the planned Tokyo-style ‘scramble crossing’ at Oxford Circus in The Times. According to Skinner, the crossings work in Japan and Canada because its inhabitants are, “extremely polite and civilised, so both crossings were a delight to use”. But in London, “It’ll only need a brushed elbow or a blocked step to spin the whole thing into a whirl of aggressive indignation”. In the 1960s, the Ministry of Transport developed ‘panda crossing’. Unlike its zebra-esque colleague, the panda road pattern took the form of triangles. It also had stop lights and a sign for pedestrians that said ‘CROSS’. However, it didn’t have a sign that said ‘DON’T CROSS’ because, quaintly, this would have contravened the existing right-of-way law. (The now defunct crossing used a coding mechanism based on flashing and pulsating amber phases which were subtle yet very significant.) Skinner laments the misuse of acronyms and lack of animal resemblance in this and other animal-inspired crossings, including the pelican crossing, puffin crossing, toucan crossing, and pegasus crossing. But “despite the DfT’s idiosyncrasies – maybe even because of them – I love pedestrian crossings. They seem to epitomise man’s struggle to tame technology”, says Skinner. Source: The Times, April 17 2009. http://tinyurl.com/czeahm03 July 2009
Pedestrian crossings: Animal kwackers
Comedian Frank Skinner reports on the planned Tokyo-style ‘scramble crossing’ at Oxford Circus in The Times. According to Skinner, the crossings work in Japan and Canada because its inhabitants are, “extremely polite and civilised, so both crossings were a delight to use”. But in London, “It’ll only need a brushed elbow or a blocked step to spin the whole thing into a whirl of aggressive indignation”. In the 1960s, the Ministry of Transport developed ‘panda crossing’. Unlike its zebra-esque colleague, the panda road pattern took the form of triangles. It also had stop lights and a sign for pedestrians that said ‘CROSS’. However, it didn’t have a sign that said ‘DON’T CROSS’ because, quaintly, this would have contravened the existing right-of-way law. (The now defunct crossing used a coding mechanism based on flashing and pulsating amber phases which were subtle yet very significant.) Skinner laments the misuse of acronyms and lack of animal resemblance in this and other animal-inspired crossings, including the pelican crossing, puffin crossing, toucan crossing, and pegasus crossing. But “despite the DfT’s idiosyncrasies – maybe even because of them – I love pedestrian crossings. They seem to epitomise man’s struggle to tame technology”, says Skinner. Source: The Times, April 17 2009. http://tinyurl.com/czeahm
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