To think if you press the button on the crossing it should be fucking illegal to cross before you get the green man?

[nicenewone1]

If you are stopping the traffic, do not cross when there is a gap in the traffic, you pressed the fucking button so you wait for the green man!

All the stopping and starting adds to the pollution and it really fucks me off when I stop and they have already crossed and are on their merry way!

It can't be just me can it that thinks people who do this are inconsiderate, selfish and rude with no thought for the environment?

So I have to stop for a green man. Fine. No problem. The emissions are unavoidable. But if I stop for Mr Nobody, I have increased the emissions unecessarily

So the logical inversion of this could also be that the car driver should turn off their engine and wait until a pedestrian does cross the road in order to make the act of stoping environmentally neutral.
If the environment was really the argument..but it's not is it..it's not about the environment at all. Or logic.

If I am crossing, rarely, a high street, town centre, but there is no traffic for the whole of my eyes view, in either direction, I don't press the button, I just cross.

I cross at a zebra crossing everyday. 50% of motorists do not stop. I assume because their journey is more important than mine.

IME only a man refuses to admit he's mistaken in the face of this much opposition.

Oh do fuck off with that shite.

I work in highways engineering. Most councils are gradually upgrading signalised crossings to ones with sensors that can tell if a pedestrian has walked away (by either crossing prematurely or changing their mind). They work quite well and I even suffered at one where a lorry had bashed the sensor out of line and I had to hold the button down to get the lights to change! You should find it becoming less of a problem over time but if there's one particular crossing that is a repeat offender, point it out to the local council and they might bump it up the list.

Think someone said they have cancel buttons in Germany. Is that right bigchoc?

I get that it's irritating to have to stop car at an 'empty' crossing, but...I often cross very slow-moving, lone-driven, petrol-guzzling, emissions-chugging traffic in order to reach bus stop to get home - I'll push the button, but go early if a gap arises as it might mean getting one earlier bus. Luckily for the environment, I cycle when I can

Ah yes, it takes me 25 minutes to walk to the shops from my house, 9 of those minutes are spent waiting for the green man to come on.
At one crossing you get left in the middle of a dual carriageway while the lights go through a full cycle to let the vehicles move, whether or not there are any cars there.

YABVVVU, if more people walked and priority was given to pedestrians perhaps less people would drive and therefore reduce pollution.

I agree about giving priority to cyclists and pedestrians. We have to get all unnecessary car use right down, and this is one measure that really needs to come in straight away. Choosing to drive needs to be less attractive than taking public transport, a push bike, or walking.

You sound like the kind of person who is very obsessed with rule-following, OP. I hate to tell you this, but in many other places in the world, the rules for crossing roads are far more relaxed than they are here and way more informal.

Has anyone else here been to Tokyo?
The time you get to cross the road is huge. I went over that big scary crossing. It was fine. Pedestrians are not treated as second class citizens.

for God's sake ask your husbands about this, they are more likely to get it. Then get them to explain it to you

In nicenewone's world,

...pedestrians cause pollution, not cars...

...our delicate little ladybrains are too fragile to understand that there is some ineffable process whereby a car waiting at a crossing where someone is walking across somehow causes less pollution than a car waiting at a crossing where nobody is walking across.

But I don't have a husband to explain it all to me, so I will never understand. Woe is me!

I dislike those pedestrians that approach a busy pelican crossing and then press the button even though there are about 10 people already stood there. No we didn't think of pressing the button you

Actually this is often me, people in London just don't press the button! I know this because when I come along and press the button the Wait sign lights up and the lights actually go red! They're completely oblivious.

I know ha ha! It's like they are waiting for the button pressing fairy to press it! Now that is annoying.

Annoys me too!
Trying to teach my toddler about road safety and crossing when the green man is there, and then people just stroll across when there's a gap (that's not always a safe gap!).

You've pressed the button, just wait. Crossings like that are usually only on busier roads anyway, to make crossing safer.

That's a good lesson for your toddler sendcoffee. You should never assume it is safe to cross just because someone else does.

So you expect everyone to wait for you and your toddler

not at all @mountain

They can make their own choices, it's a free world. Simply giving context to why it annoys me, in the same way others have

This thread makes me want to go for a walk round town and press all the buttons at all the crossings, just to annoy people like the OP.

YABU. If you are driving and the light is red, you stop and wait, same as you would with any other traffic lights, whether at a pedestrian crossing or a busy crossroads. I am sick of entitled drivers thinking they have priority over anyone else using the roads, eg the twats near my work tearing through red lights at busy junctions when pedestrians are waiting to cross in the tiny gap between the lights changing. And yes I am a driver too, and I always do my best to be considerate to pedestrians and cyclists. It's possible to co-exist without getting all self righteous.

Lakielady do it

Slarti I used the rider IME for a reason. There may be many women who are just this stubborn. But I haven't met any personally that I have been aware of. All the endless arguments of this type I have been involved in have been with men. i.e one man refusing to submit to the logic of several opposing viewpoints.
But that doesn't mean women don't do it too I guess.
I am now going to use a phrase that has stood me in good stead over the years.
You may be right.
Some arguments are not worth having.

The only way you would not BU is if you were suggesting/ campaigning for a "cancel" button on the pedestrian crossings.

Believe me pressing the button means nothing where I live! There is a busy dual carriageway with two crossings at various parts and most cars in rush hour just drive straight over even when the green man is showing. The amount of old ladies I've shouted at because they are paying attention to the car in front and not what's going on around them!! I have a 3&4 year old and I've lost count of the amount of times I've had to screech at them to come back to the side of the road, even when the green man is showing, because some impatient arsehole isn't paying attention!!
So it works both ways, love.

So yes YABU. Like most of the other selfish drivers on the roads nowadays.

Yes Lakie do it!! I always tell my kids not to press the button unless we are crossing, out of consideration for drivers, but after reading the ramblings of this selfish twat I'm having second thoughts!