Names for Road Crossings

A discussion of slang and the changes it undergoes.
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Slava
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Names for Road Crossings

Postby Slava » Sun Aug 31, 2014 6:01 pm

Here in the ol' US of A, I know only zebra crossings. The plain old black and white stripes designating a pedestrian zone. A while ago I came across some terms from Old Blighty, and they threw me for a loop. Can anyone help me out by describing what these types of crossings look like?

Pelican
Toucan
Puffin

I don't get them at all.

Thankee in advance.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

bnjtokyo

Re: Names for Road Crossings

Postby bnjtokyo » Mon Sep 01, 2014 4:43 am

Wikipedia
A Pelican crossing is a type of pedestrian crossing featuring a pair of poles each with a standard set of traffic lights facing oncoming traffic, a push button and two illuminated, coloured pictograms facing the pedestrian from across the road - a red, stationary person to indicate that it is not safe to cross, and a green, walking person to indicate that it is safe to do so. The name is derived from PELICON, a portmanteau of pedestrian light controlled

A toucan crossing is a type of pedestrian crossing found in the United Kingdom that also allows bicycles to be ridden across.[1] Since two-can, both pedestrians and cyclists, cross together, the name toucan was chosen.

Toucan crossing signals
In the UK, toucan crossings are normally 4 metres (13 feet) wide, instead of the 2.8-metre (9 feet) width of a pelican crossing or puffin crossing.

A pedestrian user-friendly intelligent crossing (puffin crossing) is a type of pedestrian crossing in use in the United Kingdom.

It differs from a pelican crossing, which this design is now replacing, in that the lights controlling the pedestrians are on the near side of the road, rather than on the opposite side. The system also utilises sensors which detect the presence of pedestrians waiting at the crossing, and as they are crossing the road.

Although not stated, I infer "puffin" is derived from Pedestrian User-Friendly [F] INtelligent => PUFFIN

There are photos in Wikipedia.

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Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8014
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: Names for Road Crossings

Postby Slava » Mon Sep 01, 2014 10:50 am

Thanks. I somehow never even thought of trying Wikipedia for these.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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