So I’ll use my blog to help me learn the stuff for my advanced test I thought. One question that came into my head this week followed a crash report on one of the Internet bike lists. They spoke about one of those crossings that has a green man, and a green bicycle. I couldn’t remember if it was a Toucan or a Puffin that had that.

So here goes, for me and you. Be quiet and listen 🙂

All this stuff is online as well as in print, so you can check and see if I got it right.

Well, to begin with, the crossing which allows cyclists to go is called a Toucan. On those, there is a wee green man standing beside a green bicycle.

Pelican crossings have a button for the pedestrian to push, and if you cross after a while they have the bit where the wee green man flashes to indicate that you should do that comedy effect of appearing to hurry but actually walking at the same speed. What the flashing actually means is that you shouldn’t start to cross, but you have enough time to finish if you are already on the crossing.

Puffin crossings have a button too, but have pictures of wee men right beside the button as well as up on the traffic light. These show red when you are to stay where you are, and green when you can go. There is no flashing stage, the wee men behave themselves on these crossings.