how do you make a spaniard cross?

First of all, I have admission to make: before last week I'd never been to Spain. Then the opportunity arose to make a quick dash across the border, and at first I thought I ought to set the Guggenheim at Bilbao as my destination. But then that would mean I was only really visiting a building, not visiting Spain. So instead I set off across the mountains for a destination that I thought might give me more insight into the heart and soul of Spain: the city of Pamplona.

Now don't worry, this blog isn't about to turn into a running commentary on my holiday jaunts. I just happened to be there, and I saw something that interested me, and thus I thought it might interest you. I'd not really prepared myself, because Pamplona was a snap decision and I'd therefore not done any prior research on the city. But sitting somewhere in the back half of my brain cells (what little of them are left) were the novels of Ernest Hemingway and tales of the madness of the bull run. So my expectation was that I was about to visit a city which is on speaking terms with the notion of danger. What I hadn't expected was to come away having seen something which is so blindingly simple, but which is devised to make the city safer.

So let me explain: in Pamplona (or at least in the centre of the city), the pedestrian crossings are controlled by lights - as they must now surely be in every other city in the world. But Pamplona's also have a count-down clock, like this:

So you can immediately see that you have just six seconds to wait until the light goes green. It's such a brilliantly simple idea, but it removes the urge (which is surely inbuilt in all of us) to take a risk and cross against a red light if you can't see any traffic approaching. And when the light goes green, the clock then tells you exactly how much time you have to get across safely, like this:

So I knew I was in no danger when I took this snap as I was halfway across the road.

Brilliant, eh? And believe me, it works - very effectively. You ought to campaign to have them installed in your home town or city. It surely wouldn't cost that much, would it?

Comments

[Daniel]

They have one of these on the mega-crossing at Oxford Circus. It's rather exciting, and adds a nice game factor to crossing the road – can you beat your high score?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8337341.stm

Of course it does mean the middle of the road is full of people bumping into each other as they stare at the countdown.

[Beverley]

We have these in some places in Canada - Banff and Nelson (in the Kootenays) are two places I've seen them. Some start off normal and then count down the last 10 seconds others are like the ones pictured although none give quite that much time in our small towns.

[Antonio]

In Mexico as well. Only the guy in the lights walks when green and speeds up as the timer approaches zero. I thought it was really nice.

The best part is that the guy standing when the light is red, taps his foot on the ground while waiting. Brilliant!

[Mymatedaves]

We just came back from a holiday in northern Cyprus and they had these controlling the car traffic too.

At first we were amused by the novelty of them too.

But it didn't take long before we began to find it frustrating sitting there in our hire car watching the countdown every time we got caught at a red light.

I remember thinking to myself, a watched pot never boils as it seemed the countdown in seconds didn't ever match up with seconds in real life.

I also remember, ashamedly, speeding up towards them on approach when i saw the green countdown at the 4/3 second mark just to avoid the 60 second wait at the red light I knew we'd have to endure.

As much as it's good for them to remind you of how much/long you have to wait and therefore something to look forward to, I couldn't help but sit there and be reminded of how much/long I have already waited and more so the time I have wasted.

Without the timer I was oblivious and unawares and ergo happier.

As you can tell, I had a lot of time on my hands to think about this this!