Actually its both, depending on the amount of traffic.

Pelican crossings are the safest kind of pedestrian crossing, as the completely stop traffic with a red light. They also cause less disruption on busy roads, as the cars only have to stop occasionally, rather than every time someone wants to cross the road.

Zebra crossings are far more convenient for pedestrians, as they allow them to cross when they get there.

So, the idea: Traffic lights with beacons on top sit next to the road. During the day they operate as traffic lights, complete with a button for pedestrians to press. At night, after the road becomes less busy, the beacons light up, and a set of bright lights are used to project the zebra pattern onto the road.

How the idea would be improved: There would be a better way of showing lines. Bright lights add to light pollution. A method that could work during the day during non-busy periods would also be desirable.
-- RobertKidney, Nov 21 2004

Will this do? http://www.southglo...agement/signals.htm
Just scroll down slightly. (And no, I don't have any connection with south gloucestershire.) [RobertKidney, Nov 22 2004]

The vocabulary is from civil engineering?
-- bristolz, Nov 22 2004


More the peculiarities of the British road system. Robert: you might want to post links to explain pelican and zebra crossings.
-- DrCurry, Nov 22 2004


There are also crossings named puffin, toucan and pegasus, though they're nowhere near as common as pelican and zebra. Additionally, the pelican crossing replaced the earlier panda crossing.
-- lyserge, Nov 22 2004


I was going to include an explanation, but then I had another look at the ideas in this category and they seemed to do fine without.

I'll add something now.
-- RobertKidney, Nov 22 2004


You could use the flashing amber state from the pelican to replace the Belisha beacons used in the Zebra state.

[+] for a basically sound idea. [-] for adding yet another crossing type to the UK's baffling array of road furniture.

Factoid: the Belisha Beacon was named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, British Minister of Transport who introduced them in 1934.
-- wagster, Nov 22 2004



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