Project Report 47 Toucan crossings for cyclists and pedestrians

Publication Year

1993

Document Status

Current

Abstract

Describes the evolution of the TOUCAN crossing - a signal-controlled road crossing at which cyclists and pedestrians cross in the same area at the same time. The practice of sharing of crossings has been well established in recent years by the widespread but illegal use made by cyclists of PELICAN crossings. Following extensive studies showing that this sharing of crossings appears not to pose any safety problems or any other adverse effects, a trial of TOUCAN crossings was begun. Sharing of the crossing space by cyclists and pedestrians has proved satisfactory. The design of the TOUCAN, with push buttons on either side of the waiting area, appears to be working well. Cyclists obviously have no difficulty using the push buttons, and sometimes use the low pole on which the push button plate is mounted for leaning on while waiting. The overall conclusion is that the TOUCAN shared cyclist/pedestrian crossing is a viable alternative to the current design of parallel crossing but that it may operate more safely with a variable crossing time governed by detection of people using the crossing. The one TOUCAN crossing modified with infra-red detection has been found highly successful.

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