Pedestrian crossings like you never imagined them

We have a Pelican pedestrian crossing coming up ahead. It looks very similar to the Puffin crossing we encountered a while back but with one significant difference. Do you remember the distinguishing characteristic of the Puffin? Yep, that ‘U’ in puffin makes it a Ruby crosser. There are essentially two types of crossings, the RUby and the flashing Amber, the PelicAn crossing we are coming up to here is of the latter variety, identifiable by the ‘A’ in its name. Clever right? But how does that translate into reality? (here's the science bit) whereas the PUffin ‘rUby’ crossing was controlled by infra-red which dictated when the lights would return to green, an amber crossing is controlled by a timer, thus, once the Pelicans lights have been at red for a specific amount of time they will begin to change back regardless of whether the pedestrian has reached the other side or not. This changing of the lights must, in no way, be interpreted as an invitation to take off if the crossing is not yet clear.

I trust by now that you have taken a look back at my ‘puffin pedestrian crossing’ post just to refresh your memory and will not need me to remind you that the infra-red of the ‘ruby’ crossing tracks the pedestrians progress and holds the lights at red until said pedestrian had finished crossing, only then allowing the red light to change back to green right? Great. Although the Pelican ‘Amber’ crossing appears to have a less caring attitude toward its clientele it will not simply and callously return the lights to green, instead it will go to an intermediate flashing amber signal which informs all parties concerned that it is ready to go green. It is this flashing amber signal that distinguishes it as an Amber crossing.

The following is a list of the five different types of crossing in use on UK roads today (1) PelicAn (2) PUffin (3) ZebrA (4) ToUcan (5) EqUestrian. Now you know one of ‘The Demon Road: A Theory Test Novel’s’ patented memory techniques can you determine which of these crossings are infra-red controlled and which are timer controlled? The Toucan and the Equestrian crossings both have a ‘U’ and an ‘A’ in their names you say? Before that smug look takes complete ownership of your face let me tell you, this is not a problem for the demon road, in both cases the ‘U’ comes before the ‘A’ which makes them both rUby crossings. www.facebook.com/TheoryTestNovel  http://twitter.com/theorytestnovel