Here is another video from Road Guy Rob. This time he observes that crossing the street on your bike should be easy and safe. There are stop lights to help you, but they also invite cars onto your bike route. Engineers in Tucson, Arizona solve this dilemma with two special signals just for bicycles: Toucans and BikeHAWKs.
In British Columbia, we call Toucans Elephant's Feet crosswalks.
It's interesting how, in different places, they uses different bird references for crosswalks. In the UK, you have pelican crossings and puffin crossings. So I guess that's the logic behind Hawk and Toucan crossings. Anyways, that was a great video, and clever traffic engineering solution.
Meanwhile, although they also have Zebra crossings in the UK, these Elephant's Feet crosswalks seem to be an unknown to many BC drivers. Maybe they never saw an elephant with square feet. Remarkably often, they fail to associate the clearly marked bicycle routes with these. And I work with experienced drivers, who have just recently obtained their Class 4 Learner License - so you might expect them to be up to date.
- Log in to post comments
- Log in to post comments
Animal or Avian?