Why pedestn crossings markd with metal studs?

[AHB]

Why, when road markings use paint, are pedestrian crossings marked out with slippery metal studs?
Sometimes the two parallel stud lines are offset, thus allowing the cyclist to miss the 1st row but line up with a stud in the second.

[Nuttfieldnutter]

Pedestrian crossings are marked with metal studs to help blind people walk across the crossing in a straight line.

Tey are bl**dy anoyining aren't they?

[Tony Smith]

That's not a very nice thing to say about blind people!

[Nuttfieldnutter]

Oh, god, silly me! I didn't mean that. No I meant that the metal studs in the ground were annoying not the blind people.

[gerry]

They've been marked by metal studs since the days when there were horse drawn vehicles, where the horses has iron shoes and the vehicles had iron tyres, and painting on the road was not a practical idea. Nobody in government has thought of changing the specification for pedestrian crossings- and anyway they probably have 100 years worth of studs in stock.

[Pedalling Pete]

Some years back the Highways Agency, or whatever it was then, implemented a scheme to mark each section of road by "Nodal Points". Each node was marked by a pair of "Raised Metal Studs". By the nature of the scheme, nodes were located at junctions. Of course there was not a peep from the CTC at such a brainless scheme. It was the motorcycling organisations that pointed out that a pair of RMS placed at a junction was likely to cause death and injury to motorcyclists. Orders were then given to remove these RMS where they were thought to pose a high risk. Most remain to this day. What is needed is an agressive joint approach from two-wheeled bodies; not just to deal with problems after the event, but to raise with politicians the question of why the decision-making process can operate in ignorance of the needs of cyclists and motorcyclists - viz pinch-points, humps etc etc!

[troywinters]

it's also a crazy fact that if a crossing isn't lined out etc correctly then a motorist has a defence if they kill you on it. case in point, zigzags were painted the wrong way i.e they started zagging before zigging on a crossing car kills ped, driver escapes when legalteam argue not a proper crossing cos it was painted wrong.