Pedestrians in the UK need to wait until all traffic are red, then they can cross the junction (even diagonally).

This is indeed different from continental Europe, as a pedestrian I kinda preferred the system in the UK, but you could wait quite a long time.

> Do you mean that cars and pedestrians are never crossing these intersections at the same time?

Well yeah... because that'd be dangerous if they went at the same time wouldn't it?

No. Have you visited cities in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, etc.? Most larger intersections have several crossings (1-2 on each side) that are signaled appropriately to allow pedestrians, cars, and often trams and/or bicycles simultaneous but separate right-of-way.

In my experience, it’s nearly always clear to everyone where they can go while moving traffic around quite efficiently. The UK system seems to either keep pedestrians entirely separate or throw them into the deep end with car-prioritized signaling.

(However, the latter may only be in the city I’m in at the moment, as I at least haven’t seen this in London.)

Seems bonkers to me to have people and cars in the same space at the same time.

You mention right of way but it's no comfort to me that I have right of way over a car when the car is trying to push through or running me over!

> Seems bonkers to me to have people and cars in the same space at the same time.

That seems pretty unavoidable to me, considering we put sidewalks right next to roads. As a pedestrian, I don't want to wait for both directions of traffic to have their turns to cross before I get mine. Though it can be handy if I need to cross diagonally.