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Pedestrian Crosswalk: Tap foot, Lights blink in pavement, Cross street

W. K. Lis

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From StreetFilms.org:

Seattle Crosswalk: Tap foot, Lights blink, Cross street

Posted by Clarence Eckerson, Jr.

Along Seattle's historic waterfront I happened upon a unique pedestrian-activated crosswalk that blinks as people cross. Yes, I have seen over a dozen lighted ped signals before in myriad cities, but all required the user to press a button to manually begin the cycle. So you ask, why is this one different?

Well check this out - as you enter the crosswalk make sure you touch the yellow rectangle on the sidewalk. This activates the lights that line the crosswalk. Drivers stop and it should be safe to begin your adventure: you'll feel a bit like an airplane coming in for a landing. Frankly, it's very empowering and alot of fun!

Reason dictates A) there must be a sensor contained within the yellow pad, or B) there's a helpful gremlin who lives underneath and throws a switch for pedestrians. Regardless, anyone else seen one like it in their town?

Check out the video.
 
On the surface looks like a very cool system especially at night, hard to miss the blinking lights. Only consern would be that the touch pad may not be so snow plow friendly.
 
On the surface looks like a very cool system especially at night, hard to miss the blinking lights. Only consern would be that the touch pad may not be so snow plow friendly.

Ugh, it seems like the stupid snow ruins everything. Grass-covered LRT ROWs? Nope, can't do it because of the snow. Fancy crosswalks? Snow.

The winter makes us miserable enough as it is, does it have to keep us from having nice things in the summer too?
 
Ugh, it seems like the stupid snow ruins everything. Grass-covered LRT ROWs? Nope, can't do it because of the snow. Fancy crosswalks? Snow.

The winter makes us miserable enough as it is, does it have to keep us from having nice things in the summer too?

Snow plows tend to remove more then just snow...let's be practical okay. There's nothing wrong with the lights in the pavement, so we can keep the botton on the hydro pole to activate.
 
Vancouver experimented with one [non-signallized] crosswalk with flight lights embedded in the pavement back in 2001 - it found that drivers were confused by the configuration. The lights also do not illuminate the pedestrian very well at night, so all that you may see are the flashing lights in the pavement.

I think Vancouver has reverted back to the floodlight type lights that illuminate the crosswalk (and the pedestrian) for non-signallized crosswalks across major streets.
 
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I noticed in California the drivers would stop at pedestrian crossings if there was someone wanting to cross... haven't seen it in Canada very much except Nova Scotia.
 
Tapping a foot? Sounds like fun
50px-Larry_Craig_official_portrait_(squared).jpg
 
I noticed in California the drivers would stop at pedestrian crossings if there was someone wanting to cross... haven't seen it in Canada very much except Nova Scotia.

You don't get out much? :p

I certainly stop for pedestrians when I see them wanting to cross and I've seen others do so as well.
 

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