National charity Living Streets is calling for the planned trials to introduce countdown crossings in eight London locations to be axed, amidst safety fears for pedestrians.
As part of its plans to smooth traffic flow across the capital, Transport for London has been investigating changing signalised pedestrian crossings, to reduce the green man phase for pedestrians and to introduce countdown timers for pedestrians. TfL say this is to help pedestrians know how long they have to cross, and to help smooth the flow of traffic. A trial has been set across 8 locations in London and is due to commence on 21 June.
Living Streets believes that such a move is an expensive red herring, which could hinder pedestrian safety, make pedestrians feel rushed and unwelcome whilst crossing the road, and goes against the Mayor
An expensive way of reducing the time we all have to cross the road. Why don't we spend the money on improving the time we have to cross on hundreds of crossings across London?
The Countdown trials will reduce pedestrian safety and comfort, especially for less mobile pedestrians. The £750k budgeted for these trials could have been spent so much more effectively, i.e. to encourage – rather than discourage – Londoners to walk.
People (government, road engineers) still have the mindset that roads are for traffic not for people, and that traffic should take priority – hence these silly trials. Why not instead make pavements continuous and roads end at each pavement, so that traffic would have to give way to people on foot!