This is a continuing feature on misbehaving traffic signals which are added to the Knowledge daily
Why does this traffic signal for trail users turn red 24/7 — even when nobody’s around?
Drivers and activists are calling for the removal of a traffic signal for a walking trail in Newham, London, which forces pedestrians to wait for a total of three minutes before pedestrians can cross the road. The green cone has been directed to cyclists for the past year and a half at a crossing in Basildon Road, Islington, which also features a pedestrian crossing on the other side of the road. However, the cones have been replaced for three of the past four mornings, clearly to cause confusion to pedestrians and cyclists. At peak times, this resulted in more than 100 cyclists and pedestrians queuing up outside and failing to cross. They even delayed some trains passing the crossing. At the two crossings before the sign on Basildon Road, users could cross within two seconds of the signal being turned green.
Group Disability Network London, the Campaign to Protect Rural England and the Transport Focus network of transport and the environment groups have all backed the installation of a “bus only” crossing point next to Basildon Road, by Hammersmith and Fulham council. The crossing is adjacent to a commercial scheme by the estate agent Perkin Hutton. However, when traffic was stationary outside, despite the stop-start flow of traffic, the crosswalk worked normally.
Steve Allen, an urban transport campaigner with Campaign to Protect Rural England, said the signal is causing major disruption to the daily lives of the two million commuters who use bus routes it serves, and complained it was difficult to understand exactly what it meant that a pedestrian must wait until the “bus stop time” is up.
At the Birkenhead junction of the A50 and the northbound M5. Photograph: Roop Khanna/GuardianWitness