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The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) is the leading learned society for the academic study of US foreign policy history. Founded in 1967, SHAFR is best known for two activities. First, the society’s journal, Diplomatic History, is generally thought of as the most prestigious journal in its field. Secondly, the society holds an annual conference each June. It generally alternates between Washington, D.C. and various other North American towns and cities with major universities. Recent hosts have included The University of Kansas (2006), The University of Texas at Austin (2004) and the University of Georgia (2002).

External links

• Official SHAFR Website

The is an expressway in Japan that connects nine of the Geiyo Islands together, including Ohshima, Umashima, and Innoshima. The expressway contains ten bridges, including the Kurushima-Kaikyo Bridge, the world’s longest series of suspension bridges, and the Tatara Bridge, the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge. It was opened on May 1, 1999, and is approximately 60 kilometers long, sporting four lanes and separate paths for pedestrians and cyclists.

External links

• Nishiseto Expressway at the Honshu-Shikoku Bridge Authority
• Map of the Nishiseto Expressway

DDK is a three letter abbreviation which can mean several things:

• In software development, a driver development kit
• Used on the hull of a ship United States Navy ship, it indicates a Hunter-Killer Destroyer.
• Dysdiadochokinesia, a symptom of cerebellar ataxia
• Dimpho di Kopane, a South African theatre company.
• Daniel Dae Kim, a Korean American actor
• DDK or Dbf4-dependent kinase, a kinase in the Origin Recognition Complex
• (Microsoft) Driver Development Kit, now called Windows Driver Kit
  

Best hits live ~ Save the Children SPEED Live 2003 was Japanese J-pop girlband, SPEED’s collection of live songs recorded during one of the concert they performed in 2003. This album was released on February 25, 2004. This album was release part of the “Save the Children” charity project in 2003.

Track listing

1. “Be My Love”
2. “Go!Go!Heaven”
3. “STEADY”
4. “ALL MY TRUE LOVE”
5. “Snow Kiss” (Unplugged)
6. “my graduation” (Unplugged)
7. “ALIVE”
8. “Walking in the rain”
9. “Long Way Home”
10. “Stars to shine again”
11. “Body & Soul”
12. “White Love”
13. “Breakin’ out to the morning”
14. “Wake Me Up!”
15. — (Tropical Night)

Meta-analysis is a method used to combine the results of different trials in order to obtain a quantified synthesis. The size of individual clinical trials is often too small to detect treatment effects reliably. Meta-analysis increases the power of statistical analyses by pooling the results of all available trials.

As we are trying to use the meta-analysis to estimate a combined effect from a group of similar studies, we need to check that the effects found in the individual studies are similar enough that we are confident a combined estimate will be a meaningful description of the set of studies. In doing this, we need to remember that the individual estimates of treatment effect will vary by chance, because of randomization. Thus we expect some variation. What we need to know is whether there is more variation than we’d expect by chance alone. When this excessive variation occurs, we call it statistical heterogeneity, or just heterogeneity.

When there is heterogeneity that cannot readily be explained, one analytical approach is to incorporate it into a random effects model. A random effects meta-analysis model involves an assumption that the effects being estimated in the different studies are not identical, but follow some distribution. The model represents our lack of knowledge about why real, or apparent, treatment effects differ by considering the differences as if they were random. The centre of this symmetric distribution describes the average of the effects, while its width describes the degree of heterogeneity. The conventional choice of distribution is a normal distribution. It is difficult to establish the validity of any distributional assumption, and this is a common criticism of random effects meta-analyses. The importance of the particular assumed shape for this distribution is not known.

External links

• Identifying statistical heterogeneity in systematic reviews

References

• Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviewers

For the metro station formerly called Middle Henan Road station, see East Nanjing Road (Shanghai Metro)

Henan Road () is a street in the city center of Shanghai.

Orientation

Running in a North-South direction, it is divided into three sections:

• North Henan Road ()
• Middle Henan Road (rarely: Central Henan Road; ), crossing Nanjing Road (Shanghai) (E.) pedestrian street, the most important shopping street of Shanghai, and Suzhou Creek
• South Henan Road ()

Transportation

Shanghai Metro Line 2 crosses Middle Henan Road at

• Nanjing Road (E.) station, near Nanjing Road pedestrian street and close to The Bund.

Salacca is a genus of 20 species of palms native to tropical southeastern Asia. They are very short-stemmed palms, with leaves up to 6-8 m long. The leaves have a spiny petiole; in most species they are pinnate with numerous leaflets, but some species, notably S. magnifica, have undivided leaves.

The fruit grow in clusters at the base of the plants, and are edible in many species, with a reddish-brown scaly skin covering a white pulp and one to two large inedible seeds. The Salak (S. zalacca) is the species most widely grown for the fruit, which has a slight acidic taste.

The Mid-Manhattan Expressway was a planned (but never built) expressway which would have crossed Midtown Manhattan in the vicinity of 30th Street.

Initial Proposals

Plans were first proposed in 1937 for an expressway link crossing midtown Manhattan near 34th Street, then, as now, a heavily-traveled crosstown surface street. The original idea was a pair of two-laned tunnels, the Mid-Manhattan Expressway or M.M.E. (sometimes called the Mid-Manhattan Elevated Expressway) connecting the West Side Highway on Hudson River and the Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive on the East River.

By 1949, Robert Moses, New York City Parks Commissioner and Arterial Coordinator, proposed a six-lane elevated expressway along 30th Street. The expressway was to connect to the West Side Highway and the Lincoln Tunnel on the west side of Manhattan, and the Queens Midtown Tunnel and FDR Drive on the east side of the island. It would be constructed within a 100-foot-wide right-of-way immediately south of 30th Street. The viaduct would require substantial demolition of high-rise buildings within Midtown Manhattan. To cover the costs of construction, Moses suggested charging tolls on the new roadway, which was estimated to cost $26 million to construct plus another $23 million for the land needed for the project.”MID-CITY TOLL ROAD BACKED BY MOSES; Elevated Crosstown Highway at 30th Street Would Cost $26,000,000 to Build TOLL ROAD BACKED FOR MIDCITY AREA PROPOSED CROSSTOWN EXPRESSWAYS”, The New York Times, December 30, 1949. p. 1

A later proposal had the roadway situated ten stories above the most valuable real estate in the world. Air rights above the expressway would be sold and new high-rise buildings would be constructed above the expressway; buildings would be constructed below the viaduct as well.

One fanciful variation favored by then Mayor William O’Dwyer involved running the roadway through the Empire State Building itself, occupying the tenth and eleventh floors.

Plan of 1963

In 1963, plans for the expressway were finalized and it received the interstate designation Interstate 495.

Beginning from its elevated connections to NY 9A or the West Side Elevated Highway, the Mid-Manhattan Expressway would begin as a six-lane depressed roadway in the center of a widened 30th Street to Tenth Avenue.

At this point, it would swing to the north side of 30th Street to make connections between Tenth and Ninth Avenues, with the Lincoln Tunnel Third Tube Approaches.

Traveling east from this area, it would underpass Ninth Avenue, but rise so as to overpass Eighth Avenue and ultimately continue across Manhattan as an elevated structure.

In an area between Eight and Seventh Avenues, the roadway would recross 30th Street and occupy a 100 ft wide right-of-way immediately south of the thoroughfare.

From here it would travel east as a six-lane elevated expressway route, ten stories above the city streets to allow for commercial development both above and below the skyway deck.

After overpassing Second Avenue it would swing north to follow the 30th Street alignment as a four-lane elevated expressway route to connections with the East River or F.D.R. Drive.

Between First and Second Avenues, ramps would be constructed to provide access to the Queens-Midtown Tunnel.

Cancellation

In 1971, Governor of New York Nelson Rockefeller struck a huge blow. Because of rampant community opposition, and the disruption the expressway would cause, the Mid-Manhattan Expressway, along with about a dozen other highway plans, including “Interstate 78 Through New York City”, which another crosstown highway known as the Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX) was part of, was officially cancelled and demapped.

References

External links

• NYC Roads Mid Manhattan Expressway

See also

• Interstate 495 (New York)
• New York State Route 495
• Route 495 (New Jersey)
• Cross-Bronx Expressway

A traffic break is any separation in the flow of traffic—naturally occurring or otherwise—along a road or highway. In heavily congested traffic, natural breaks occur rarely. Thus the term traffic break generally refers to the manual separation of traffic, normally conducted by highway patrol officers. In the UK, this manœuvre is known as a rolling roadblock.

Most such traffic breaks are used to clear a hazardous obstruction from the road ahead or allow a stalled vehicle to safely make its way off the road and onto the shoulder. For example, a highway patrol officer may arrive at the site of the accident and then radio to another officer to initiate a traffic break. The second officer enters traffic before the site of the accident, turns on his/her lightbar, and begins weaving across multiple lanes to signal that other drivers are to slow down and remain behind the officer. The speed to which the officer slows is based on the amount of time needed to clear the accident ahead. It is not uncommon for an officer to completely stop traffic to yield larger separation. The second officer then radios ahead to the first officer, who is still at the site of the accident, and gives him/her a description of the last vehicle traveling ahead at regular speeds. The first officer will use this information to determine when it is safe to move the accident off the road and onto the shoulder.

Traffic breaks may also be conducted to gradually slow traffic in preparation for a large accident ahead that has caused traffic to stop abruptly. This greatly reduces the chance of subsequent crashes due to motorists not braking in time. Other traffic breaks may give time for minor repairs such as adjusting the placement of a traffic sign. In very rare circumstances, civilian motorists have initiated traffic breaks. For example, in 2004 one Alameda County man ran a traffic break to aid in the emergency landing of a small Cessna 172 on Interstate 580. [1]

When a single traffic break does not allow sufficient time to complete a task, multiple breaks may be conducted in series. This practice is commonly called “running a round-robin”.

See also

• Road traffic control

Casualty may refer to:

• Casualty (person), a person who is killed, or injured, in a war or disaster
• The emergency department of a hospital, also known as a casualty department
• Casualty (TV series), a long-running UK television series set in a hospital casualty department
• Casualty insurance, a type of insurance

On wheeled or tracked vehicles, body roll is a reference to the load transfer of a vehicle towards the outside of a turn. When a vehicle is fitted with a suspension, it works to keep the wheels or tracks in contact with the road, providing grip for the driver of vehicle to control the its direction. This suspension is compliant to some degree, allowing the vehicle body, which sits upon the suspension, to lean in the direction of the perceived centrifugal force acting upon the car. Anti-roll bars are a part of the suspension specifically designed to address body roll.

When a vehicle is fitted with a suspension there is compliance between the mass of the vehicle and the vehicle’s contact with the ground. Body roll is the noticeable (either perceived or measureable) deflection produced when load transfer acts on the compliant elements of the suspension. Anti-roll bars directly impact body roll but their design intent is actually as a tool to adjust roll couple percentage or roll moment distribution.

Under the botanical nomenclature of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP), a cultivar group is any gathering of cultivars designated by common traits. Designated groups may include a group of yellow-flowering cultivars, a group of cultivars with variegated leaves, a group of cultivars resistant to a particular disease, etc. A cultivar may belong to more than one group (for example, it may be yellow-flowering, with variegated leaves and resistant to the disease at one and the same time).

ICNCP Art 9 Ex 10: “Solanum tuberosum ‘Desiree’ may be designated part of a Maincrop Group and a Redskin Group since both such designations may be practical to buyers of potatoes …”

Another reason for designating a group is when a well-known plant loses its taxonomic status (e.g. it ceases to be a “good” species or subspecies and becomes a synonym). Its botanical epithet may become a “Group epithet”. For example:

• Tetradium hupehense is sometimes regarded as being part of
• Tetradium daniellii and the plants in question may be referred to as
• Tetradium daniellii Hupehense Group.

Bray v. Alexandria Women’s Health Clinic, was a United States abortion rights case (January 13, 1993), which affirmed that Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 could not be used to halt blockades of abortion clinics.

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 506

The phrase die hard was first used during the Peninsular war to describe the 57th Regiment of Foot (Middlesex regiment). This was as a result of the action at the Battle of Albuera (1811) of Colonel Inglis who upon being badly wounded refused to retire from the battle but calmly and repeatedly said “Die hard 57th, die hard!” as he himself lay dying on the field, his regiment exchanging brutally close range musket volleys.

The term was later used to deride several senior officers of the Army who sought to maintain unchanged the system bequeathed to them by the Duke of Wellington, and who strenuously resisted military reforms enacted by Parliament in the late 1860s and subsequently.

In British politics the term “die hard” was later used to describe those members of the House of Lords who, during the crisis caused by the Lords’ rejection of Lloyd George’s “People’s Budget” of 1909 refused to accept the diminution of the Upper House’s powers by the Parliament Act.

It was later used to describe those members of the Conservative Party, including Winston Churchill, who refused to accept any moves towards Indian independence in the 1930s. Again this opposition was powerfully concentrated in the House of Lords.

Many of the die hards, though obviously not Churchill, flirted with Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and some even became active sympathisers with Adolf Hitler and called for a negotiated peace in the crisis of 1940.

The term is now commonly used to describe any person who will not be swayed from a belief, and was used as the title of the popular action movie series Die Hard.

The Innocent Age is the seventh album by American singer/songwriter Dan Fogelberg, released in 1981 (see 1981 in music). It was also one of his most successful albums; three Top 10 singles (”Hard to Say”, “Same Old Lang Syne”, and “Leader of the Band”) were from this album.

Track listing

all songs written by Dan Fogelberg, except where noted

1. “Nexus” – 6:04
2. “The Innocent Age” – 4:15
3. “The Sand and the Foam” – 4:19
4. “In the Passage” – 8:28
5. “Lost in the Sun” – 3:53
6. “Run for the Roses” – 4:18
7. “Leader of the Band” (concludes with an excerpt from Washington Post March arranged by Laurence Fogelberg, performed by the UCLA Band) – 4:48
8. “Same Old Lang Syne” – 5:21
9. “Stolen Moments” – 3:12
10. “The Lion’s Share” – 5:10
11. “Only the Heart May Know” – 4:09
12. “The Reach” – 6:30
13. “Aireshire Lament” – 0:52
14. “Times Like These” – 3:02
15. “Hard to Say” – 4:00
16. “Empty Cages” (Fogelberg, Russ Kunkel, Norbert Putnam, Mike Utley) – 6:24
17. “Ghosts” – 9:16

Personnel

• Dan Fogelberg - guitar, keyboard, vocals
• Don Alias - percussion
• Michael Brecker - saxophone
• Michael Brewer - vocals
• David Duke - horn
• Jesse Erlich - cello
• Jimmie Fadden - harmonica
• Mike Finnigan - organ
• Glenn Frey - vocals
• Richie Furay - vocals
• Emmylou Harris - vocals
• Heart of Darkness - choir, chorus
• Don Henley - vocals
• Jerry Hey - horn
• Chris Hillman - vocals
• Russ Kunkel - drums
• Joe Lala - percussion
• Gayle LaVant - harp
• Marty Lewis - percussion
• Joni Mitchell - vocals
• Kenny Passarelli - bass
• Al Perkins - steel guitar
• Norbert Putnam - bass
• Tom Scott - saxophone
• Sid Sharp - concert master
• Mike Utley - keyboard
• UCLA Band - Marching band

Production

• Producers: Dan Fogelberg, Marty Lewis
• Engineer: Marty Lewis

Charts

Ionotophoresis is a process of reducing sweat in parts of the body by placing them underwater, and then targeting the areas with an electric current.

Excessive sweating, hyperhidrosis, can also be treated using drugs or counselling.

External links

• Other hyperhidrosis or excessive sweating treatments, Causes and Information
• Diseases of the sweat glands

A spaghetti stack (also called a cactus stack) is an N-ary tree data structure in which child nodes have pointers to the parent nodes. When a list of nodes is traversed from a leaf node to the root node by chasing these parent pointers, the structure looks like a linked list stack. You can just pretend that the one and only parent pointer is called “next” or “link”, and ignore that the parents have other children, which are not accessible anyway since there are no downward pointers.

Spaghetti stack structures arise in situations when records are dynamically pushed and popped onto a stack as execution progresses, but references to the popped records remain in use.

For example, a compiler for a language such as C creates a spaghetti stack as it opens and closes symbol tables representing block scopes. When a new block scope is opened, a symbol table is pushed onto a stack. When the closing curling brace is encountered, the scope is closed and the symbol table is popped. But that symbol table is remembered, rather than destroyed. And of course it remembers its higher level “parent” symbol table and so on. Thus when the compiler is later performing translations over the abstract syntax tree, for any given expression, it can fetch the symbol table representing that expression’s environment and can resolve references to identifiers. If the expression refers to a variable X, it is first sought after in the leaf symbol table representing the inner-most lexical scope, then in the parent and so on.

Use in programming language runtimes

The term spaghetti stack is closely associated with implementations of programming languages that support continuations. Spaghetti stacks are used to implement the actual run-time stack containing variable bindings and other environmental features. When continuations must be supported, a function’s local variables cannot be destroyed when that function returns: a saved continuation may later re-enter into that function, and will expect not only the variables there to be intact, but it will also expect the entire stack to be there, so it can return again! To resolve this problem, stack frames can be dynamically allocated in a spaghetti stack structure, and simply left behind to be garbage collected when no continuations refer to them any longer. This type of structure also solves both the upward and downward funarg problems, so first-class lexical closures are readily implemented in that substrate also.

Examples of languages that use spaghetti stacks are:

• Languages having first-class continuations such as Scheme,
• The Felix programming language

See also

• Persistent data structure

References

The three-awns are a genus Aristida of grasses distinguished by having three awns (bristles) on each lemma of each floret. The genus includes about 300 species, found worldwide, often in arid warm regions.

Aristida stems are ascending to erect, with both basal and cauline leaves. The leaves may be flat or inrolled, and the basal leaves may be tufted. The inflorescences may be either panicle-like or raceme-like, with spiky branches. The glumes of a spikelet are narrow lanceolate, usually without any awns, while the lemmas are hard, three-veined, and have the three awns near the tip. The awns may be quite long; in A. purpurea var. longiseta they may be up to 10 cm.

Species

• Aristida stricta (pineland three-awn)
• Aristida purpurea (purple three-awn)
• Aristida pungens (drinn)

References

• Jepson manual, pp. 1234-5

Joel Hurt (1850–1926) was an important businessman and developer of turn-of-the-century Atlanta.

Born in Hurtsboro, Alabama (a town named for his father, Joel Hurt, Sr. ), he went to college at Auburn University and graduated from the University of Georgia in 1871.
He was in the railroad business, surveying first out West the bed that became the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, next he surveyed a small spur off the Richmond and Danville line to Athens, Georgia.

He moved to Atlanta in 1875 and made a quick impact. He organized the Atlanta Building and Loan Association which he ran for thirty-two years and co-founded the Trust Company and starting in 1895 was its president for nine years. In 1882, he organized the East Atlanta Land Company where he designed and developed Inman Park connected to the city by his Atlanta and Edgewood Street Railway Company which opened along Edgewood Ave in 1886 as Atlanta’s first electric streetcar line. In 1880, he filed what would be for an interesting thermal water valve then in 1887, he filed No. 374,188 for a new style of Valve Cock for faucets handling water under pressure.

To anchor the downtown end of his streetcar he built Atlanta’s first skyscraper, the Equitable Building which in 1893 became the home of the two year old Trust Company.

His next land deal was to be Druid Hills for which he hired the Olmstead Brothers to design along a linear park around Ponce de Leon, but he sold the enterprise to Asa Candler for half a million dollars in 1908. He also built Atlanta’s first fireproof theater, the Atlanta Theater (also on Edgewood) and his masterpiece, the Hurt Building (which still stands).

In 1940 land was donated to the city by the Trust Company and a park was dedicated as Hurt Park which lies across Peachtree Center Ave from the Hurt Building.

Notes

• http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT365258&id=RNJBAAAAEBAJ
• http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT374188&id=CMdRAAAAEBAJ

References

• Edge, Sarah, Joel Hurt and the Development of Atlanta, Atlanta Historical Society, 1955
• Martin, Harold, Three Strong Pillars, Trust Company, 1974

WIA is a three letter abbreviation standing for Wounded In Action.

It is used to describe soldiers who have been wounded while fighting in a combat zone during war time, but have not been killed. Typically it implies that they are temporarily or permanently incapable of bearing arms or continuing to fight. [1]

For U.S. Army members becoming WIA in combat generally results in subsequent honoring with the Purple Heart.

See also

• KIA – Killed In Action
• MIA – Missing In Action
• POW – Prisoner Of War

The 7 arrondissements of the Pas-de-Calais department are:

1. Arrondissement of Arras, (prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department: Arras) with 20 cantons and 397 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 299,123 in 1990, and was 300,785 in 1999, an increase of 0.56%.
2. Arrondissement of Béthune, (subprefecture: Béthune) with 14 cantons and 99 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 282,966 in 1990, and was 279,783 in 1999, a decrease of 1.12%.
3. Arrondissement of Boulogne-sur-Mer, (subprefecture: Boulogne-sur-Mer) with 8 cantons and 75 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 158,703 in 1990, and was 163,159 in 1999, an increase of 2.81%.
4. Arrondissement of Montreuil, (subprefecture: Montreuil) with 7 cantons and 140 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 98,264 in 1990, and was 99,288 in 1999, an increase of 1.04%.
5. Arrondissement of Saint-Omer, (subprefecture: Saint-Omer) with 8 cantons and 116 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 148,189 in 1990, and was 153,523 in 1999, an increase of 3.6%.
6. Arrondissement of Calais, (subprefecture: Calais) with 5 cantons and 28 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 114,702 in 1990, and was 118,311 in 1999, an increase of 3.15%.
7. Arrondissement of Lens, (subprefecture: Lens) with 15 cantons and 39 communes. The population of the arrondissement was 331,256 in 1990, and was 326,719 in 1999, a decrease of 1.37%.

See also

• Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department
• Cantons of the Pas-de-Calais department

Rail transport in Britain

Rail links with adjacent countries

• Wales - yes
• Scotland - yes
• France - yes - Via Channel Tunnel
• Ireland - No - proposed
  

See also

• England

The Society for All British Road Enthusiasts (SABRE) is an association interested in the British road network. It also features an outlet to discuss roads throughout the world despite the name. However, the bulk of discussion is around British roads. It is a full society, with both elected and appointed officers.

Most of SABRE’s activity takes place online, but also with regular awaydays held in locations throughout the United Kingdom. SABRE also features comprehensive information on the UK’s road network.

SABRE is neither a pro-roads nor an anti-roads site. It has no formal links with motorists’ organisations or the road construction industry; neither does it have associations with the environmental lobby or pro-road groups. Rather, SABRE is interested in the history, geography and structure of the British road network.

The Society’s website contains the Roaders’ Digest - the UK’s largest database of British Roads, with details of every single classified road in the country. For the motorways, there are links to detailed information on SABRE member sites. For most of the major A roads (A1 to A999), the SABRE website hosts information on the history and present routes of these roads.

The website also contains an ever expanding photo gallery containing over 13500 images - mostly of British and Irish Roads.

Mission statement

The Society has a mission statement, originally written by the founder Brad Jackson.

1. To promote the study and appreciation of existing, obsolete, shelved, renumbered, declassified, defunct, projected, planned and fantastic roads.
2. To act as a forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions held by the individual. These could range from the shelving of 1960s motorway schemes to your favourite road to Bath.
3. To be the hub through which snippets of information can be exchanged. It is hoped that we can all increase our knowledge of this subject through the unfettered movement of information.
4. To generate a better understanding of the UK Road Network. It is in everyone’s interest to know their geography.
5. To gain a good understanding of the history of our roads.

External links

• Society for All British Road Enthusiasts
• SABRE Forum

An infant born with an abdominal wall defect has an abnormal opening on the abdomen. This often causes the intestines and other organs to form outside of the body.

There are two types of abdominal wall defects - omphalocele and gastroschisis.

Diagnosis

These types of openings in the abdomen can usually be detected by AFP screening or a detailed fetal ultrasound. Genetic counseling and further genetic testing, such as amniocentesis, may be offered during the pregnancy as some abdominal wall defects are associated with genetic disorders.

Treatment

If there are no additional genetic problems or birth defects, surgery soon after birth can often repair these birth defects.

External links

• Overview at University of Sydney
• Overview at University of Iowa

The panda crossing was a type of signal-controlled pedestrian crossing used in the United Kingdom from 1962 to 1967.

Background

In the early 1960s, the British Ministry of Transport, headed by Ernest Marples, was looking for a way to make pedestrian crossings safer under increasingly heavy traffic conditions. The successful zebra crossing design was not considered safe enough for busy roads and could create traffic delays as pedestrians crossed whenever they wanted. Off-the-shelf light-controlled systems were available but were too expensive for widespread use. Some cities had innovated their own one-off crossings but the lack of standardisation was considered a safety issue. Furthermore, all existing signalled crossings tended to have two major drawbacks: stopping traffic for long periods of time and violating contemporary right-of-way law by signalling “Don’t cross” to pedestrians.

The panda crossing was introduced in 1962 as an attempt to combine the best features of available and experimental crossing systems. The first public example was opened on 2 April of that year outside Waterloo Station, London. The majority of the initial sites used for this experiment were in Guildford where all 13 existing crossings were converted, and in Lincoln where 10 crossings were converted. Further sites across England and Wales increased the size of the experiment to more than forty sites in all.

Design and operation

The layout was superficially similar to a traditional zebra crossing, with a painted area on the road announced by Belisha beacons. For distinction, the panda road pattern was different (triangles rather than stripes) and the beacons were striped, not plain. The main additions were the light signals on the beacon poles. The traffic signals consisted of a pair of lamps, red and amber, while the pedestrians had a single signal displaying the word “Cross” when appropriate.

In the idle state, all the crossing’s lights were off. A pedestrian wanting to cross would press a button on the beacon pole and be instructed to wait by an illuminated sign near the button. The system allowed for a pause between crossings in order to avoid traffic delays and so the pedestrian might wait a short while before anything happened. The amber traffic light would pulsate for a few seconds to inform motorists that someone was about to cross; a pulsating red light was then the signal to stop. At this point, the pedestrians’ “Cross” signal began to flash. After a few seconds, the “Cross” light started to flash faster and the pulsating red traffic light was changed to a flashing amber (this “flashing” phase was considered distinct from the initial “pulsating” amber light). The “Cross” light flashed increasingly fast as crossing time ran out, and the traffic was allowed to proceed during the flashing amber phase if the crossing was clear. Eventually, the “Cross” light and the amber switched off completely and the crossing was reset.

The panda crossing avoided legal problems by omitting any sort of “Don’t cross” message to pedestrians. The measured pause between crossings helped to keep traffic flowing. The light sequence also prevented long delays by allowing traffic to move after a few seconds if nobody was crossing. However, despite its apparent rationality, the design was not a success. In particular, the distinction between the flashing and pulsating amber phases was subtle yet highly significant and there was no clear “Go” signal at the end of the sequence.

Successors

By 1967, the panda crossing was a matter of concern for the Ministry of Transport, and so a new type of crossing, the X-way, was introduced. Surprisingly, the new system was not phased in gradually by replacement, rather the pandas were removed seemingly as a matter of urgency. The X-way itself soon disappeared when, in 1969, the modern Pelican crossing was introduced.

References

• BBC news report 2 April 1962, on the introduction of Panda crossings, and subsequent developments (with video of Marples’s first crossing).
• “Hairbrained and most dangerous” - the history of pedestrian crossings at Chris’s British Road Directory
• Panda Crossings: operation and signals - leaflet produced by the Ministry of Transport via the Central Office of Information