Welcome to hell; please drive carefully | Hacker News Reader

Welcome to hell; please drive carefully

2earth.github.io

106 points2earth28 comments

In my experience, the Puffin crossings are setup correctly precisely 0% of the time.

If you are going to pay presumably a lot more money for all of the extra detectors and electronics then they need to deliver 2 things as mentioned by OP: 1) They make sure that anyone on the crossing has time to cross rather than stopping traffic for a fixed amount of time (useful outside schools) and 2) If there aren't any people crossing, the traffic should be stopped for a short amount of time no worse than if they were just a normal Pelican crossing.

However.

Even when no-one is crossing or in some case someone crossed and is about 50 metres up the road, the crossings are still usually on red for a total of often 20 seconds, which is way longer than most Pelican crossings that are on red for usually 5 to 10 seconds max.

I don't know if no-one notices or cares but it is really annoying!

My biggest annoyance are the ones that wait for a gap in the traffic. And by the time it goes green you have already crossed. They seem to be configured to be irrelevant for any able bodied person. And completely ignore current traffic conditions in favour of some hard coded delays.

Most around me seem to be in this mode. The traffic crawls past at pedestrian speed whilst a steadily growing group waiting to cross stand in vehicle fumes. There's a pretty clear principle here of flow conservation. If the light stopping traffic does not reduce overall flow then the light should change for pedestrians immediately. If the traffic flow is low, then a small reservoir is built up which clears immediately. If the flow is slow and saturated the gap that opens up can be refilled quickly. The flow range where the change actually impacts local vehicle flow is rather narrow (high, but not too high). Of course there are second order effects at associated junctions, but at that point maybe the first order interests of pedestrians should be prioritised.

This was great although I have to protest super-glue-exuberance ("gluexuberance") and instead suggest "ex-glue-berance" as a better portmanteau. ;)

Thanks for the project write up and shaking up the Halloween costume mix a little.

Oh that is so much better! I'll to a footnote with credit.

Thanks a lot, glad you enjoyed!

I wonder how the environment impacts how well these crossings work. The road in the photo looks very narrow, an environment where drivers probably have to pay attention, maybe even slow down in general.

In my neighborhood there’s one at a two lane road but the street itself is very wide so people generally drive very fast to begin with and are often distracted.

Lots of conflict at that crossing even with LED flashers. I don’t know what to do to make drivers pay attention to the strip of road right in front of them.

This is a well-known effect, it does make a significant difference. People feel safer driving slower when the road has obstacles closeby or when it's curved. You can use this to slow people down with bollards, small curves, or even trees near the road in rural areas.

> The road in the photo looks very narrow, an environment where drivers probably have to pay attention, maybe even slow down in general.

I’ve seen roads in Japan where the lines marking car lanes narrow as you approach crosswalks, creating the impression of an environment where drivers should slow down.

It's a set of design features called Traffic Calming. It's widely used in New Zealand - using visual cues, narrowing, curves, obstacles and texture changes to slow traffic.

A one-day electronics project to make two flashing-LED Belisha beacon outfits. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for sharing your fun project. Do you mind eli5 the logic of the circuit for someone unfamiliar with circuits?

Sure!

The battery provides approx 6V - the timing circuit uses a 555 IC to create a pulsed signal. The combination of resistor and capacitor values determines the period of oscillation. Then, the output signal from this circuit is used to switch a transistor on and off. That makes/breaks a connection from the battery to the LED strings.

I also added a switch to select between the red LED and Yellow LED strings.

Will draw the final circuit if I get some time :)

>He had been demonstrating the new "C" pedestrian

What does this mean?

I think they missed the word "crossing" after pedestrian, though it's still a bit vague with that in place.

A type C Zebra crossing is one that doesn't have the Belisha Beacon lights at either side. Rare now but it existed before that innovation.

> Mr. SIMMONDS asked the Minister of Transport whether he is aware that the erection of signs bearing the letter C is inadequate to differentiate between controlled and uncontrolled pedestrian crossings; and whether in the interests of public safety, he will have these two types of crossings painted upon the roadway in an unquestionably distinctive manner?

> The MINISTER of TRANSPORT (Mr.Hore-Belisha) The present arrangements are experimental, and I am watching them closely with a view to making such alterations as experience may show to be desirable in the interests of public safety.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard//commons/1934/jul...

I think "controlled" means drivers are legally obliged to stop to let pedestrians cross.

I believe "controlled" means "has traffic lights" (controlled by pedestrian signals, or on a cycle).

"Uncontrolled" crossings I think include Zebra crossings.

I thought so, but then read "Zebra crossings are a type of controlled crossing" on Wikipedia. This may be a mistake (possibly in the source).

Edit: found a definition in a document by the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation. "Uncontrolled crossings do not afford pedestrians any particular priority over motorised traffic", and so it classes zebra crossings as controlled.

I'm impressed by the method of cutting copper foil to produce circuitry. Saves you the acid and/or ordering from Shenzhen.

To be honest, it seems like a waste of copper. The way he did it, might as well use stiff copper wires, or better still - prototyping boards.

Well, we did have some copper sheet leftover ...

From TFA.

This was surplus sheet. Doesn't scale, but fits the reduce/reuse/recycle model well, 2nd mode.

It looks like it was fun, and I think that was the point.

I've done freeform electronics before, using wiring that was mainly the snipped-off legs of through hole resistors. I guess if you were fancy you could buy some bus wire. The assemblies are horrific to look at, and I love them.

Chris Spargo has a great YouTube channel, glad (and unsurprised!) to see it referenced in an article posted to Hacker News.

I still don't get the argument against Pelican that it turns on Red+Yellow for cars when still showing Blinking Green for pedestrians

If that's a problem... then just don't do it? Turn on RY only after you show R to walkers

I don't see the point for a total redesign

That background is a bit hard on the eyes.

Reader-mode, if your browser supports it.

Firefox does, including on mobile platforms.

Op here. Noted; it was a 'halloween special'. But maybe I can find something more readable as well as fun for the theme

It's a cracking article. I think I recognise that pub, too, though I haven't been there for a while.

From the title, I thought you are talking about Bengaluru.

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