What would you do at this crossing . . . .
It looks like a common light-controlled pedestrian crossing, with push buttons for pedestrians and movement detectors for both road traffic and pedestrians. BUT, It was specially designed to favour cyclists crossing the road.
The path which crosses the road has a separated cycle path and footpath, and that cycle path has its own sensors, so, when a cyclist approaches, the lights will change in favour of the cyclist(s) (unless the road traffic has only been green for less than 7 secs.).
And the system responds to the approach adequately quickly for even a fast cyclist to carry on across the road without much loss of speed.
Great so far! And pedestrians get a good share of the system's response too.
But what happens if you're an on-road cyclist (as I am) who stops at red lights and never cycles on pavements?
What happens is that the on-road cyclist comes to a gradual stop before the red light, only to see another cyclist zoom across the road in front of them, unhindered, then patiently wait for the lights to turn green again.
Its odd. Where else does one cyclist stop on account of a red light to let another cyclist cross in front?
The oddest thing is the expression on the face of the cyclist who zooms across the road seeing that another cyclist has come to a stop to let them cross (which cyclists wouldn't do in the absence of lights). Which goes to show that there's something innappropriate about the use of lights designed for vehicles when you're on a bike.
Innapropriate, but you won't get me disregarding them!