'A pain in the neck' - why I hate puffin crossings

Yes, you heard me right. I hate puffin crossings.

Before I explain why I hate puffin crossings, you might ask, "What's a puffin crossing?" In fact, there are several types of signalised pedestrian crossings, all named after birds.

The classic design is the pelican crossing, which has a button on the side near you. (All types of signalised pedestrian crossings have a button, so I shall not repeat this henceforth.) The pelican crossing also has pedestrian signals mounted high up on the opposite side of the road.
There are a couple of variants of this basic design: the toucan crossing (the name is a pun on the words 'two can') has an additional signal for cyclists, while the Pegasus crossing (also known simply as an equestrian crossing) has buttons higher up for use by mounted equestrians as well as a fenced area for horses and their riders to wait.

Then we come to the new-fangled abomination that is called the puffin crossing. The puffin crossing has sensors to detect when people are waiting, giving slower people more time to cross and preventing drivers from stopping in vain if the person waiting has already left. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. What's the reason why I hate puffin crossings? They moved the pedestrian signals to the same side of the road as you! Which is a major inconvenience as I am more inclined to looking straight ahead for signals rather than turning my head to one side like that!

In Loughborough, in the past, most signals were far-side signals and that is the way I have grown up. When I was younger, I thought near-side signals were a novelty. Nottingham city centre, on the other hand, is full of near-side signals, and it is when I began to visit Nottingham more frequently that I began to acquire a strong dislike for them based on convenience of use.

Why isn't it possible to just put the sensors on a regular pelican crossing with far-side signals? The way I see it, this, of course, is absolutely possible, and I hope that in the near future someone will change the design and move the pedestrian signals to their proper place on the other side of the road, because near-side signals are much more inconvenient than good old-fashioned far-side signals! In short, puffin crossings are literally, more or less, a pain in the neck.

Below are a few pictures of the lately-replaced signalised crossing on Epinal Way at the Alan Moss Road roundabout, probably the latest crossing in town to be given this sort of treatment.