Anti-pedestrian measures to speed up traffic

A couple of extremely interesting posts in Futilitarian's Cycle of Futility blog. The entry from two days ago explains one of Boris Johnson's methods for smoothing traffic flows; chasing pedestrians across the road with countdown timers and shortened pedestrian phase timings. 

In recent weeks, two elderly people have been mown down and killed by construction lorries in North-East London. Both had made the fatal mistake of trying to cross a Transport For London controlled road at a pedestrian light. Neither was athletic enough to make it. 

If Boris has his way, old folk will be corralled into their immediate neighbourhoods where they do no damage to the motoring economy. Today, Futilitarian pubilshed his response  to Transport For London's Draft Network Operating Strategy for the management our city's streets. Well worth reading.