Some things are culturally universal. Just like in Canada, parents in Israel teach their children to not talk to strangers, respect their elders, tie their shoes before playing outside and to look both ways before crossing the road. One thing that you also teach your kids in Canada: you do not hang out in the middle of the road.
Teaching your kids to stop in the middle of the road is a unique Israeli quirk as a result of some civil engineers for whom pedestrians could only have been an afterthought. Often there are one or two medians in the street and completely separate pedestrian traffic signals for each lane. And the timing of the little green walking man never makes any sense. You are often stuck on median for 30 seconds to a minute before you can get to the next median or the other sidewalk. The one in the pick here has fences but many just have you perched on your average three foot wide median, with up to six lanes of traffic buzzing past you.
For years I have been trained that when little green man shows himself, I should get across the street quickly and directly. It is so ingrained that I have walked out into traffic here several times almost getting run over and being honked at in anger in the process. And there have also been a few near misses when James hauled me back to median with a swift yank to the back pack (either my head was in the clouds or I was in the middle of telling one of my many stories- either way I was distracted). I was a dangerous walker here at first, but I am much better after a year and a bit of practice.
How does The Chicken cross the road?
In Israel, with stops and starts.
6 comments:
This peculiar phenomenon actually also features in some places in England, in the caged version. I don't remember where all I've seen them, but I am positive that they do this on much smaller roads, as 6-lane roads are rather rare in spatially confined Britain. ;)
There is at least one in Munich too.
As the resident traffic engineer in the family, perhaps I can try to explain...
These "staged pedestrian crossings" are designed to improve pedestrian safety, by controlling "filtered turns", where motorists turn at traffic signals and then mix it up with pedestrians crossing the road they've just turned into.
The main problem is that we've allowed just too many cars to dominate our lives and our cities. Six lane roads are symptomatic. Four lane roads are bad enough! Eventually we will reduce the dominance of cars and reclaim our cities, but that's another story. In the meantime, try to walk, cycle or take public transport when you can, ask for lower speed limits in your neighbourhoods and don't complain when fuel or vehicle prices or related taxes go up. We're all part of the problem here (and can be part of the solution)!
Staged pedestrian crossings have been described in conference papers done by my colleagues at ViaStrada Ltd in Christchurch, New Zealand. Here's a link to our website - all you ever wanted to know about staged pedestrian crossings:
http://viastrada.co.nz/pub/staged-pedestrian-crossings-tc
Enjoy!
And while we're on the topic of excess traffic and urban design, check out this video clip on "The high cost of free parking: the movie"
http://ow.ly/WRub
Well I am glad some social engineer is designing roads to piss off pedestrians to turn them against cars. How else will the freedom of movement that is the personal vehicle be banned by the eco-fascists.
Sigh.
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