BOTH Cllr Gary Malcolm and Cllr David Millican need to realise that dividing the time for pedestrians and motorists at traffic lights is simply a matter of how a cake of a fixed size is sliced (Boris Johnson sees red over traffic lights, Letters, March 20).
There is nothing mad in calculating the time taken for an average alert person to cross a road, adding a few seconds for those a bit slower, and saying that is the length of the green pedestrian phase.
There will always be those who are very slow because they are old, disabled or with young children, and those who start to cross when the green light is flashing, but the slowest should not be the norm.
Then there are the millions who press the button but are too impatient to wait for the green pedestrian light, and cross in a gap of motor traffic while their light is still red - plus the children who take a delight in pressing any crossing button they pass by, just for devilment.
It is these people who Mr Johnson was taking a pop at.
Two ideas would help both pedestrians and motorists. The first would be to copy India and Thailand and introduce countdown indicators to all traffic lights, showing how many seconds are to elapse before the lights will change from red to green or vice versa.
The second would be to stop irresponsible pressing of crossing buttons by making it necessary to press the button a second time to obtain the green crossing light. No second press (because there is no one waiting to press the button) and the lights for motor traffic stay at or go immediately to green.
I have visited India and Thailand, and found the use of timers beneficial both for pedestrians and for motor traffic. Mind you, I found a generally more relaxed attitude to road use out there, especially in Thailand.
There is none of the frenetic rush by walkers, cyclists and motorists seen in Britain. Perhaps we should all become Buddhist.
As for Cllr Millican's suggestion to "bag over" some traffic lights, particularly off peak, another idea from the East could be adopted and the lights switched to flashing yellow, so that motorists would need only to slow down and not stop at junctions.
There again, it works in the East - but are Britain's motorists self-disciplined enough to do slow down? I doubt it. And think of the lost revenue from those going through red lights on empty roads at three o'clock in the morning.
Cllr Millican wants suggestions: let's hope he reads my letter.
E C HAYMAN
Ealing
