Counter-intuition exercise

When it's time to cross a busy intersection, where would you expect to find the all-clear sign? Maybe across the street on a poll a little above the level of your head. You're likely looking for a little green walking man or some other "walk now" indication.

But in England, a brilliant idea helped "upgrade" crosswalks with a most counter-intuitive "improvement."

Engineers did away with the farside indicators (the little man on the other side of the road). Instead, you get a hard-to-notice "nearside indicator" (an electronic sign only visible to you on the side of the road you want to leave).

How does this even begin to make sense? This change is so illogical that it necessitated a strange sign that reads:

"Your red/green man signal is on the pole next to you"

Sure, humans are for the most part adaptive. We have a unique ability to get used to some of the dumbest stuff, but this is just crazy. Seems to me it needlessly invites trouble with someone not knowing when to cross.

This site also includes some curious documentation detailing how the same English town unknowingly became a test location for chemical warfare years ago.