Crossing the road used to be so easy, you could stroll up to a crossing press the button and wait for the little green man to appear in front of you, whilst your peripheral vision took care of psycho cyclists and amber gamblers.
That was all because the little green man was waiting for you on the other side of the road, high enough up so everyone could see him, and most definitely in the direction you were about to walk.
Not so now, have a look at this photo.
Now the little green man is placed on a post at chest height to the left and right of the crossing next to the button that operates the crossing, this means that:
- The first person to press the button now obscures the green man from everyone else at the crossing
- You have to look to your left or right to see the green man, which is obscured by all the other people at the crossing, rather than in the direction you are walking
- You can no longer see from a distance whether the crossing is green as the signal is either obscured by other people or just not visible unless you are standing next to the signal light
I find these lights some of the most bewilderingly badly thought out street signs. Have the designers spent any time observing people crossing the road or how they use the signals. What rationale did they use in their design?
From a simple easily understandable mental model has come a tricky and poorly realised model that I don’t understand and from my casual observations no one else seems to either.
