I’m in partial (qualified) agreement with Sue Sharp on Boris Johnson’s plans for pedestrians in London. The plans are twofold, countdown crossings and shared space. On the crossings, it seems to be a new type of crossing that Johnson plans to trial:
A digital countdown, which would need permission from the Department for Transport, would inform pedestrians how long they have left to cross the roads.
At some crossings it will mean people will also be given less time to cross.
London Labour Assembly member Val Shawcross warned it would make the city less pedestrian-friendly.
Mayor Boris Johnson said the proposal was being put forward to make junctions more efficient.
If the pedestrian countdown goes ahead, it will be the first one of its kind in the UK.
Now my first thoughts are that we already have an efficient system with the Puffin type crossing. This uses an infra red sensor to keep the crossing open to pedestrians while it is in use and changes immediately the crossing is clear. So, should someone press the button and not cross, the lights won’t change – that is definitely more efficient than the Pelican crossing that preceded the Puffin.
Sue Sharp has picked up on this one:
There is a useful piece of technology out there in the form of the Puffin crossing, which provides a better balance between the needs of different user groups. It includes detectors to ensure that pedestrians get the crossing time they need and that vehicles are not held up unnecessarily where crossings clear quickly. The mayor of London would do better to consider that technology.
So, on that basis, we agree. However, I have no problem with alternatives being tried providing the trial is robust and all road users are considered. I can’t say how fair Sharp’s assessment of Johnson’s lack of consideration for blind people is at this stage. However, Sharp makes an assertion that lacks any form of back-up:
Boris Johnson’s plans to introduce “speedy street crossings” in London to free up traffic will seriously undermine the mobility of blind and partially sighted pedestrians in London.
She goes on:
Under these proposals, the amount of crossing time for pedestrians will be cut by up to six seconds, and there will be a reduced number of green man phases. As pedestrians walk at an average speed of 1.2m per second, such a reduction in crossing time could potentially leave them 7.2m short of the kerb when the light goes green to traffic, and more if they have a slower walking pace than the average.
Really? The Mayor is such a petrolhead that he is planning to have pedestrians left short of the kerb? Has he not heard of the DfT minimum requirements? Oh, wait, yes, he has:
The mayor said any changes made to any traffic signal timing would not affect the minimum amount of time needed by law to enable a pedestrian to cross the road safely – 1.2m a second, which was based on Department for Transport (DfT) guidance.
So, in fact, pedestrians will be given sufficient time to cross. And if they are not, the crossings will be illegal.
All that said, I still prefer the Puffin crossing as it adapts to the conditions. I will, however, reserve final judgement until the trial has been conducted.
Sharp don’t much like shared space, either:
But why should we be surprised when only recently the mayor announced that more than £30m is to be spent to implement a shared surface street in Exhibition Road, London? In this street design there is no kerb, and the road and pavement are built at the same level offering no clue to blind and partially sighted people about when they are about to step into a trafficked area. The intention there is to give pedestrians greater priority of movement.
Shared space has been extensively trialled and has been proved effective. It reduces traffic speed, it increases driver alertness and is more pedestrian friendly.
The only one thing that is certain is that in both cases he is putting blind and partially sighted people at risk, and creating “no-go” areas for them in our capital city.
Another baseless assertion. Blind people generally have a stick or a dog and are easily identifiable by drivers – although, a driver seeing a pedestrian will seek to avoid them, irrespective of any disability. In the case of shared space, they will reduce their overall speed to adapt to the little matter of pedestrians wandering about – that’s the general idea. Also, forcing people to think for themselves causes them to behave accordingly. That is why shared space has been so successful when it has been implemented.
Just back from Calgary where they have these count down timers but bth for telling you how long you have to cross the street and also how long you have to wait before the lights change. Have to say i perfer them as for some reason it took away the desire t make a dah for it because i knew the lights were going to change soon to walk anyways, that and th cops in calgary are always on the the look out for jaywalking
Also, if pedestrians are on a crossing when the lights start to change, they still have the right of way under the law. The red light isn’t an excuse to mow them down if they are too slow crossing!
That’s one of the first things you learn when taking driving lessons.
But then, judging from some of the appalling driving I see daily, no-one takes lessons anymore….
Agree with JuilaM above w/r/t right of way, although some motorists hereabouts most definitely think a flashing orange light means “now OK to kill peds and no necessity for braking”.
Sue Sharp’s contention that shared space is somehow bad the blind and partially sighted is so much arsewash, however.
I particularly like her idea that a kerb is somehow better, because it indicates a boundary. If you can’t see a kerb, the only way it can possibly indicate a boundary is when you trip over it and fall into traffic.
The totally blind mostly don’t get around without dogs, whose very purpose is to keep them out of traffic. The vast majority even of the registered blind (going on for 90% last time I checked) are not actually totally blind, but rather partially sighted. They will find ways to manage, as they always have done.
The white stick crew (and the white stick is mostly a big label for other people that says “I am blind, give me a bit of space”) will be able to use the high tech “probing” function of their stick to easily detect the transition which will be marked by very thick paint.
If they can’t, well, they can always just follow someone who appears to be going in the same direction. Or any one of a thousand other tricks that each individual develops. Or, shock horror! They might actually be able to see it, just not as well as other folk.
The whole point of such schemes, as you rightly say, is to make people think for themselves, a skill which is acutely developed in those of us for whom merely crossing the road is something of an extreme sport.
Oddly, Sharp has it pretty much nailed here : “Crossing a road already requires considerable concentration for visually impaired people.”
Yes, indeed it does, as does just getting around in areas with high levels of traffic, and if it were to require the same considerable concentration from everyone else, I for one would be very pleased indeed.
To finish up, I can’t help notice that in picking an ‘oppressed’ group with which to beat BJ (a keen cyclist himself, and no doubt intimately and viscerally familiar with ped/traffic interactions), she has made some poor assumptions, clearly not bothered to ask any of said group for their opinions (no quotes from blind folk in her piece, I notice), and thus revealed herself to be a biased patronising harpy of the first order.
Score another mighty own goal for the righteous.
Disclaimer : I am not registered blind, because as far as I can see (ho ho) the only ‘benefit’ this would confer would to be patronised rigid like this every day. Find some other poor sod to use in your shitty political games.
And I fucking hate dogs. Cat person, me.
That’s why I like the Puffins. There is no flashing amber light. While pedestrians remain on the crossing, traffic is held at a red light.
Not just for the blind…
Can’t say fairer than that 😀