Why should I have to cross my fingers when I cross the road?

It was a group of schoolboys I'd got chatting to who drew my attention to it.

I'd just never thought to feel underneath the crossing control box before.

Why should I? I just pressed the button . . . then waited to hear a vehicle draw up for it to be (theoretically) safe for me to cross.

Some crossings are more troublesome than others.

And this one I'd always found quite difficult.

Firstly, as a staggered crossing, traffic noise from the other section could be distracting; which, together with its closeness to the sea and attendant louder-than-wind noisiness, could also make actually hearing some vehicles draw up harder than you might expect.

And, with traffic also controlled by lights at the nearby junction, it wasn't uncommon to miss my turn completely on one half of the crossing and have to press again.

Even when I couldn't actually hear anything approaching, I somehow didn't quite trust that hearing to guarantee my safety under these circumstances and, frustrating as it might be, would generally play it safe by waiting until I'd definitely heard something stop.

So, 'No', I said when these boys asked if I knew about the little knob on the underside of the crossing control and they showed me.

Press the button. Place your hand under the box to the right of the button to find the tapered knob. Rest a finger against its rigged surface and then wait a few seconds.

After the light has turned red for traffic the knob will rotate.

Thanks, lads!

From now on, I thought, my worries at pelican crossings should be considerably reduced, mainly to drivers whose self-assured skills behind the wheel render it perfectly permissible, or so they believe, to ignore lights against them if, in their opinion, there's still room to get by.

Reduced, did I say? Maybe they should also include in their calculations the possibility of pedestrian heart attack!

And, in my own case, what the heck do you think a white stick is . . . and means?

But I've taken a bit of a diversion here. So where was I?

Ah, yes, feeling for little knobs at pelican crossings.

But with only limited success.

At crossing after crossing I still have to rely solely on listening.

And when it's crossroads that can mean not coming round the corner approaching at right-angles to the direction of the road I'm trying to cross.

Then there's another crossing which is perfectly straightforward in itself but which has a T-junction and another crossing to one side and crossroads not far off to the other which means, once again, I keep missing my turn or, sometimes, take a chance when it sounds clear.

But what about bleepers? They make things a lot easier.

Unfortunately, they aren't suitable for all crossings.

Bleepers, you'll find, are only located where crossings aren't anywhere near each other and there's no chance that two or more signals might confuse people.

But why restrict rotating knobs to staggered crossings?

Couldn't we have either these or bleepers for every crossing?

Please?