crossing on red

When you cross a road via a light-controlled crossing, do you follow the signals? Or do you cross when you deem it safe to do so, regardless of the state of the lights governing the crossing? What follows is an account of my reasons for taking the second option. I should start by pointing out that here I’m discussing the crossings associated with light-controlled road junctions. Isolated light-controlled pedestrian crossings follow a different operating logic: the traffic is stopped only when someone presses a button at the roadside; and if the crossing hasn’t been used for several minutes, the traffic is stopped immediately.

However, the crossings associated with light-controlled junctions operate differently, and most are not pedestrian friendly. The exceptions are the junctions that have a universal pedestrian phase, where all crossings are green simultaneously. There is a sequence of three such junctions along Ma Sik Road, a dual carriageway that used to mark the northeast boundary of Fanling. There is one small problem: unless someone presses one of the buttons, the pedestrian phase doesn’t kick in. A surprising number of people don’t know this: I often see small groups of people waiting to cross the road at these junctions, but nobody has pressed the button.

Anyway, here is a closer look at some of the junctions/crossings that I have to negotiate regularly, either on foot or on my bike. The first junction I will discuss is one that I never used to go anywhere near, but with the construction work associated with the Fanling North New Development Area (NDA), I now have no other option. It is the junction between Sha Tau Kok Road, which is the main road here, and Ma Sik Road. The first two photos illustrate the problem at this junction:

Notice that the pedestrian lights in the first photo on both parts of the crossing are red. This is because a lot of traffic on the main road turns right here, and a lot of traffic off Ma Sik Road turns left (I must have taken this photo early on a Sunday, given the lack of traffic in the photo).

In the second photo, the pedestrian light is green for the second half of the crossing, yet it’s red for the first half. This means that traffic is still turning left here, while traffic in the right-hand lane of the main road has the green light to continue to turn right. This is the only time in the entire cycle when the exit road from a junction is green for pedestrians, but by the time you get the green light for the first half of the crossing, the second half has turned red again, and you will have to wait several minutes before it turns green again, hence my comment about such crossings being pedestrian unfriendly.

Crossing is easier when coming in the opposite direction. In the next photo, the second half of the crossing is green, but the first half is red. However, the only direction from which traffic may come is the left-hand lane in the second photo above, and in this case, a quick glance over the right shoulder shows that the lane is empty, so I cross:

Incidentally, this is quite a complex junction, so to illustrate the general principle of crossing when it’s safe to do so, regardless of whether the little man is red or green, I will discuss two T-junctions on Fan Leng Lau Road, which we have to negotiate whenever we cycle ‘out west’.

Although the next photo shows a red light for the first half of the crossing, I can see just from the photo that it’s safe to cross: the traffic light is red for traffic on the main road travelling in the same direction, while there is absolutely no sign of traffic coming in the opposite direction:

This is the same crossing from the opposite direction:

It isn’t possible to judge from the photo whether it’s safe to cross the second half, but there’s certainly no traffic coming in the opposite direction.

Here are two views of the second junction:

The first photo shows a green light for the first half of the crossing, which only ever happens when the second half shows a red light. However, if you cross in a leisurely manner, the second half will probably have turned green by the time you’ve negotiated the central refuge.

The second photo shows a need for more urgency in crossing. The green taxi is clearly going straight on, but the white car is probably turning right, although because it’s still almost stationary, you can still cross. Just don’t hang about! You can dawdle across the second half, because next in the cycle is the traffic travelling in the same direction.

To illustrate the kind of absurdity produced by a system in which the only time the exit from a junction is green is when the entry to the junction that corresponds with that exit is red, I will conclude with two photos of a crossing on Sha Tau Kok Road that we have to negotiate whenever we are on our way home after a bike ride. You can’t describe this junction as a crossroads; it’s just two minor roads that happen to join the main road at the same point and are governed by the same set of traffic lights:

In the first photo, the first half of the crossing is red (a minibus has just pulled out into the main road), although the second half is green. However, by the time the light for the first part of the crossing has turned green, the light for the second part has turned red again, and you will have to wait several minutes before the green man reappears. And here’s the ludicrous part: almost the only traffic that turns into this side road is coming from Fanling, and it’s subject to a discrete phase in the traffic light sequence so is easy to look out for. I’ve never seen a vehicle turn left here or cross over the main road from the other side road, although if I want to cross the main road here on a bike, I ignore the pedestrian crossing and wait on the side road for the traffic light to turn green. I may not obey the signals when crossing a road on foot or on my bike, but if I’m actually cycling on a road, I always follow any traffic lights, which a lot of cyclists ignore, both in Hong Kong and in the UK.

I should conclude this analysis by pointing out that it’s actually a legal requirement that cyclists get off and push their bikes on all road crossings, but hardly anyone does, and I think it’s safer to ride across, especially if you wait for the green man on all designated crossings, which, as I’ve just been explaining, I don’t do. However, I don’t take silly risks either.