Once again the gallery function in WordPress decided that I didn’t really want to choose this post for the uploaded pictures. You’ll just have to survive reading this text with the photos thrown in at the end. A difficult task, I appreciate…
Anyway, these pictures were took back in September, Irina noticed that the button you press to cross the road was broken, and had (eventually) been fixed with a 20 Tenge coin. (Roughly eight British pence). For a while, if you wished to cross the road in one direction, you either had to wait for someone from the other side to press the button from their side, or shout at someone passing to do so. If passing pedestrian traffic on that side of the road was too light, and you had a wife and baby waiting to cross with you, run across (imagine a game of frogger, with different lanes of traffic moving at different speeds, and no extra lives – hit one Kamaz and it is ‘Game Over’ immediately.
Anyway, someone came along and fixed the faulty button by wedging the aforementioned coin in. This didn’t last that long, however policemen have been noticed trying to fix it again with the coin trick. One even offered 50 Tenge to anyone who could give him a 20 Tenge coin! Good to know that some of the force are genuinely concerned about the safety of Astana’s residents – you often feel as though if you aren’t driving a car, the authorities concern about your well being is somewhat diminished.
Pedestrian Crossing In Astana With Coin
Sharper Zoom Of Pedestrian Crossing In Astana With Coin
November 2nd, 2009 1:06 am
wow i am most suprised that you guys have push button cross walks meh!
November 2nd, 2009 1:47 am
Yeah, there aren’t a lot of them around yet, and we think the coin fix may actually result in the button being held down permanently? But it is nice to have a few of them around, some even have little beepers so blind people can tell how long is left to cross the road!
Just noticed, you need to get a gravatar 🙂
Oh, just plugged your BlogTV webcast – make sure you set it to auto-archive or whatever – I’ve got an English class to give when you’re on…
November 4th, 2009 12:06 am
is that the one near your flat to cross the road to the park ?
November 4th, 2009 3:05 am
Yep, we have coins on both sides now!