On Thu, 9 May 2019 at 23:26, Nick Bolten <nbol...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Yes, but a traffic light for whom? I've seen mappers who assume it means > "walk"/"do not walk" lights like this: > https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Do_Not_Walk_sign,_Great_Neck,_New_York.jpg. > I've seen mappers who assume it means there is a sign *just* to warn > traffic about pedestrians, as can be found in the UK. I've seen mappers who > assume it means there is a nearby traffic light that means cars sometimes > stop at this location, but it doesn't say anything about having a > "walk"/"do not walk" sign. >
Yes, there are warning lights in the UK. Zebra crossings on public roads have a flashing yellow globe on a pole (Belisha Beacon) to highlight that there is a crossing. But nobody refers to it as a traffic light. Some crossings by schools have flashing yellow lights (in a similar sort of style to US railroad crossing lights) but they're not traffic lights either. Traffic lights control the flow of traffic by telling drives when they must stop and when they can go, they're not warnings that there is a crossing. We have crossings with lights that control both pedestrians and traffic, the Pelican (PEdestrian Light CONtrolled) crossing. As far as motorists are concerned it looks like any other set of traffic lights except there's an additional flashing amber phase telling cars they can go if there are no pedestrians on the crossing. As far as pedestrians are concerned it looks like traffic lights for motor vehicles but also has lights for the pedestrians (and a button, which may or may not do anything) for the pedestrian to let the lights know somebody is waiting to cross). I don't recall seeing (in the UK, in other countries it might be different) lights that control pedestrians but NOT traffic. It doesn't seem to be a sensible idea. A signal that tells pedestrians it's now OK to cross without telling motorists they should have stopped seems like a recipe for disaster. To summarize: in the UK there are traffic lights that control motor vehicles and there are traffic lights that control both motor vehicles and pedestrians; warning lights are not traffic lights. -- Paul
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