Uninteresting post 1: My local pelican crossing isn't working properly. If you know the area, it's the crossing next to St Mary's, the church on an island in the middle of the busy A11, just up from the Bow Flyover. It's a staggered crossing, with a short walk required between the two halves to bypass the red-handed statue of Gladstone and the old boarded-up public conveniences. Anyway, the council recently carried out some work on both crossings, adding those dimply paving slabs on either side to help visually impaired pedestrians feel their way safely to the edge of the road. And by the time the workmen had completed all their digging and stuff, and moved on, both crossings were malfunctioning. Normally if you want to cross the road at a pelican crossing you press the button, and a sign lights up saying 'Wait', so you wait, and eventually the lights change and you cross. Well, at my local crossings you don't need to press the button any more. Every time the main traffic lights change back to green, the 'Wait' light lights up automatically without needing to be pressed. And then, after the usual minute-or-so's pause, the lights go red and the traffic stops. It's like some phantom pedestrian is pressing the button, halting the traffic every 60 seconds, even if nobody actually wants to cross. It's an appalling way to treat car drivers on one of Britain's main trunk roads, especially during the small hours of the night when there's no earthly reason for them to stop. But it's brilliant for us local pedestrians, because the lights are often changing just as we arrive at the crossing, rather than us having to press the button ourselves and wait around for the traffic to stop. Goodness knows why or how it happened, but long may this malfunction continue.
