There are actually a few of these 'sloping' mast arms going in now. I have seen a few dotted around: http://www.nal.ltd.uk/index.asp?section ... &subid=207Gareth wrote:Meh, they're okay I guess but I'm not a huge fan. I don't know what it is about the UK and brackets, rather than the sexier sloping curve that mast arms and lamp standards usually have in continental Europe and elsewhere. Still, those examples are many times better than the motorway gantry-style ones, especially when they're used to support tiny helios signals, like those ones on Queens Drive. Seriously, those look so ridiculous.traffic-light-man wrote:Something like these TfL Standard ones?Gareth wrote: - a new design for mast arms that are more similar to continental designs and doesn't look like a motorway gantry.
I'd also like to see some continuity added to Toucans - perhaps the introduction of a red cycle for farside installations. It's alway irritated me that nearside Toucans have a red cycle aspect, but the farside ones don't.
Yes, farsides are within line of sight along the expected crossing path, but nearsides encourage you to look towards oncoming traffic. Installed and positioned correctly, nearsides should be no harder to detect than farsides, with the added bonus that you can be pretty confident that your pedestrian has had to look in the direction of traffic and not crossed just because the green man is lit.jouef wrote:It seems to me that crossings are an exercise in ergonomics - the design of equipment that fits the human body and its cognitive abilities.
Farside indicators make ergo...
You mention the confirmatory feeback at zebras be observing traffic but I feel most people probably take the same stance at signallised crossings, I certainly do. In my experience I find nearsides create less confusion. If the signal changes when your mid way across the road, you don't know about it. More importantly, unless you are crawling across the road, it doesn't really matter. You will make it across the road before traffic green. I see people become nervous and hesitant with farsides as when they lose green man they suddenly feel like they shouldn't be mid crossing, so either quickly turn back or speed up to cross quicker.
I'm not saying your wrong or right, I think a lot of this is down to opinion. Just thought I would throw in some ideas / observations of my own.
One of the ideas behind nearsides is to encourage you to look towards oncoming traffic, so if the nearside signal is on your left, NORMALLY traffic will be approaching from the left.Fenlander wrote:A question about near sides, (I'm thinking of a junction just up the road from me) what about where there's an island between the opposing lanes - one half might be green but the other red, there's a pair of near sides on the island itself, how do you know which is for the direction you're facing?