This is one of the reasons I prefer roundabouts over signalized four-way crossings. No waiting, just walk - the cars are forced to slow down to navigate the roundabout, so the chances of them actually stopping when legally required is higher.
This depicts very precisely how I feel crossing roads in the US and Canada.
Compare and contrast with what happened in my town in SW France:
- Council installed one of those super secure crossings that take forever to let people cross the street. Twice if you want to cross diagonally
- Some old people don’t give a shit because they must be thinking that life is too short for this, and they yolo it
- Most drivers stop but some are unattentive
- A couple of accidents happen
- The old people lobby give some shit to the mayor
- A different crossing is installed that stops the drivers all the time
- Most drivers are OK, the shitty ones are angry
- Everybody nice profits, another victory for the old gits who cross when and where they want. They’ll do it again
I press the button even if I don’t intend to cross just to force it to cycle. Fuck em
This looks like exclusive phasing and it’s despicable when it’s at every damn intersection.
I like exclusive phasing when there’s a high volume of pedestrians crossing in all directions. However it’s horrible on stroads because it’s done under the pretense of pedestrian security while being mainly to maintain a heavy flow of cars in as much directions as possible. And it makes waiting longer.
It’s one of my pet peeve when I visit Quebec city. All of their fucking pedestrian crossings are exclusive phasing, and I loathe it. It’s nice and useful in the the old town, but it becomes so annoying as soon as you walk outside of the walls.
