Saturday, September 16, 2006

Little green man


Yes, this is one of the traffic light signs that tell the people they can cross the street. In Paris, let's be honest, they are not very well respected. I am not talking about cars - fortunately cars tend to stop when the light is red(!) but about the pedestrians. Like in a lot of big cities (except in Germany maybe...) people don't wait for the little man to turn green before they cross the street. They just wait for the car flow to stop (when it does...)

22 comments:

  1. After the "Great Man" walking, this "little man" walking looks really small in many ways ;)

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  2. I don't do that if i see kids around, it gives a lot of work to explain them why do we have this signs:)

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  3. Nice Shot! I know what you mean when I was there no one followed the little green man. It was the same in Rome.

    I took a very similar shot yesterday as well but it was a red arrow light.

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  4. Hey! You have a walking theme Eric! Look how much little green walking man's form looks like de Gaulle's! Cool! (=

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  5. It is uncanny how similar the pose and stride are in the de Gaulle statue and the green light walking man icon.

    I am not sure how de Gaulle would be as a pedestrian.

    Peace Steve in sunny Chicago. I'm off for a bike ride early this morning.

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  6. so familiar little green man...
    yes, esp. in China, most people dont respect him, and his beside fellow: little red man.
    In Shanghai, you could see people or cars across the street as there is not traffic light sometimes. :(
    ...
    hope the situation in Shanghai is changing better.

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  7. My wife actually follows these signs very faithfully even when no one else will. I have learned to do the same (when she is with me).

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  8. In Budapest we have traffic lights being green for so short time that its mission impossible to get to the other side of the road. We call this kind of lights:
    "make run the grandma!"

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  9. Why Eric, you forgot to mention that the French "walk" man's form is modeled on photos of Charles de Gaulle striding on the Champs Elysees! ;^) VERY clever follow up post (and love the POV on this one!).
    -Kim

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  10. Ok, I won't comment on the driver/pedestrian relationship here in Paris as it seems to have been covered, but nobody mentioned the other little green men referred to in Eric's waterfall post. Is there any relation?

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  11. And also, how many times I have seen people crossing the street against the light AND making the traffic have to stop. So different here.

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  12. I had a friend visit me last month here in Paris and when I described how these signs work for Parisians (as you described), she commented "Oh, those (crosswalk signals) are for tourists!"

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  13. Here in Kentucky the little "go" man is white. There is a second countdown that tells you how long you have to cross the street in seconds. The time is so short you must run to "make it." This is a university town...We have a few pedestrians that get hit every year. We are amazed at the number of drivers who race the red lights and drive right through them.

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  14. i spent sometime in Paris, and now back in North America, my friends commented on how i am an "agressive pedestrian" - no doubt because i picked up some of the habits abroad!

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  15. Our little go man here in St. Louis is white with a count down too, JohnnyParsons. We even have a few scattered around that make noises so that the blind may also cross safely. It's the most annoying chirping sound, but it certainly gets your attention, even in the middle of rush hour. I must say, I pretty amazed at how many people actually follow it. Generally it's just those under 18 who tend to tempt fate at the intersections.

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  16. this post made me laugh.....

    i have a french friend who works for the World Bank here in Washington DC and whenever we go out together and get to a big intersection, he will AUTOMATICALLY look both ways and begin to cross!!!

    I've done my fair share of crossing also but he does it on the big intersections too! i tease him about it..."julien, you're SO parisian" :-)

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  17. soosha_q: regarding the banjo comment, just to be sure I don't get your hopes up, "dixieland" is not "dixie" music (bluegrass). I'm not so sure I'd get along with your hubbie's family if they sit around with moonshine and "pickin' & grinnin" going on. Ok, well maybe the moonshine would help.

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  18. Its called "jaywalking" and here in Houston, for the past year police have been issuing tickets for jaywalking and for crossing the street where there is no crosswalk. gggggrrrrr !!!!!! So now we look both ways for traffic and for traffic cops, then if coast is clear, we cross! ;)

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  19. Hi great boss:

    I love this photo. The image is so clean, nothing of noise and you used good zoom. The green of the little man gives joy to the shot.

    Greetings from Perú

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  20. Eric, are these LED traffic lights?

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  21. Exactly! I do the same sometimes, not often.

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