A new pedestrian crossing strategy

In the UK, the Pelican is the most common type of signal-controlled pedestrian crossing. Pedestrians wanting to cross press the pushbutton to register a demand with the traffic signal controller which responds by illuminating the pedestrian "wait" sign. Some time later, vehicles are signaled to stop and the signal for pedestrian changes from a red figure (red man) to a green figure.

Pelican crossings were designed to operate efficiently by providing a variable period for pedestrians to complete their crossing of the road. The flashing green figure signifies that pedestrians should not start to cross and the flashing amber traffic signal indicates that drivers should move only if the crossing is clear. This ought to work well, but complaints from pedestrians indicate that drivers often start to move early, and drivers complain that they are frequently stopped when there is no one wanting to cross. Many pedestrians find the flashing signal confusing, and the operation of Pelican, where a fixed-time blackout period replaces the flashing green figure.

A new approach was needed to provide common operation at all crossings, remove confusing pedestrian signals, give positive vehicle control, and vary the timings automatically according to the demand. The resulting crossing is Puffin: the pedestrian user friendly intelligent crossing.

Tasks for the text:

1. Find out the words: кнопка, соединение.

2. Find out the sentence: Загорание зеленого света озна­чает, что пешеходам не следует начинать переход, а загорание оранжевого света означает, что водите­ли могут трогаться с места только если переход сво­боден.

3. Complete the sentence using these words: crossing, providing.

Pelican ____ were designed to operate efficiently by ___a variable period for pedestrians to complete their ____of the road.

4. Give the title for each part of the text.

5. Is it right or wrong?

The flashing green figure signifies that pedestrains must not start to cross.

6. Make the sentence in a different way, using verbs without -ing (crossing — cross).

Many pedestrains find the flashing signal confusing and the operation of Pelican crossings is to that at traffic-signalled junctions, where a fixed-time blackout period replaces the flashing green figure.

Text 2 Before reading the text, match the words and definitions listed below.