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Should 'continuous pavements' have tactile paving?

7/22/2019

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I’m a big fan of the benefits of ‘continuous pavements’ which extend the footway over side roads. They give pedestrians clear priority over turning vehicles and provide a flat surface that makes crossing a side road much easier for anyone with a walking difficulty or mobility aid (including a wheelchair). They also slow down traffic, benefiting cyclists as well as people on foot. Commonly used in some parts of the continent, continuous pavements are becoming more common in the UK, often as part of neighbourhood improvement and cycling schemes. (Photo: Middlefield, Leith Walk, Edinburgh)
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However, blind people have expressed serious concerns about the concept of continuous pavements, which RNIB oppose. As the RNIB says, the problem is that they “pitch us, without warning, into a shared space without knowing it.”

The
London Cycling Design Standards acknowledge these concerns, saying that continuous pavements “should currently be regarded as experimental in the UK. Further development of the concept is needed, in consultation with access groups, to determine acceptable approaches, given concerns over the lack of delineation between the footway and the area accessible to vehicles that runs over the entry treatment. Any proposal should be subject to an Equality Impact Assessment.” (P43)

So would the obvious design solution be to add tactile paving to continuous paving, to warn a visually impaired pedestrian that they are entering a space where they may encounter a vehicle? My hunch is that many advocates of continuous pavements would resist the use of tactile paving in such situations on the grounds that it would signal, to both pedestrian and driver, that walking priority is limited. Rather than walking across the side road with full confidence, a pedestrian should pause and check that vehicles aren’t turning into or out of the side road, undermining the ‘people over vehicles’ philosophy. Tactile paving also can inhibit the mobility of other disabled pedestrians, so it should not be over-used.​

But on many ordinary pavements, there is already a risk of encountering a vehicle every few yards - where there are driveways or garages. The reality is that many pavements are already ‘shared space’ to some degree, as is every crossing of a side road. Would anyone expect tactile paving to be installed every time a driveway crossed a pavement? (Saughton Road North, Edinburgh).
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Sometimes, a pavement crosses a small development where several cars are parked; here the risk of encountering a vehicle is clearly increased, but still so low that tactile paving may not be suitable. (Stanhope Street, Edinburgh).
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There comes a point, however, when the volume of traffic, and therefore the risk of pedestrian-vehicle conflict, is sufficiently high that it would surely be reasonable to provide a tactile warning to visual impaired pedestrians. And where a busy side road has too much traffic, it may not be suitable for a continuous pavement at all. (Yeaman Place, Edinburgh)
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So, should continuous pavements have tactile paving? The answer is probably “it depends”. As with so many other aspects of street design, each site really needs to be designed specific to the context, especially taking account of traffic (volume and speed).

As the DfT is at last reviewing the woefully out of date guidance on ‘Inclusive Mobility’ and
tactile paving it is timely to give this some serious thought. It would be useful to have detailed national guidance, based on both research and consultation on if, where and when tactile paving is required on a continuous pavement.
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Cherry-picking statistics downplays the impact of bad cycling

7/5/2019

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I’m increasingly seeing a specific statistic cited by cycling advocates responding to criticisms of antisocial or dangerous cycling: i.e. that over 99% of pedestrian deaths are caused by motorists, while cyclists are responsible for fewer than 1% of pedestrian fatalities.  An example is Laura Laker's piece in the Guardian last year, while recent examples by journalists and broadcasters include Jeremy Vine and another Guardian journalist Peter Walkers’s Youtube video.  

This statistic shows, so the argument goes, that cyclists present a negligible hazard to pedestrians, and that criticism of cycling is misplaced. Road safety effort should be directed to motor vehicles which are overwhelmingly responsible for deaths and injuries on the road. And of course, this is true; for example, according to the
Department of Transport 2017 Great Britain traffic collision statistics (Table RAS10012), just under 1% of pedestrian fatalities were caused by collisions with bicycles. So why do I find this line of argument dispiriting?​

A sole focus on fatalities will always downplay the problem cyclists can cause pedestrians. The proportion of *injuries* caused by cyclist collisions with pedestrians will be considerably greater that this “1%” figure.  Simple physics (speed x mass) means that an impact between a bicycle and a pedestrian is less likely to kill than an impact between a motor vehicle and a pedestrian - but injuries, including serious injuries, are more frequent.
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As the table below shows, the percentage of all serious injuries sustained by pedestrians resulting from a collision with a cyclist were considerably higher than 1%. The proportion of ‘slight’ injuries recorded for pedestrian/cyclist collisions is also more than double that for fatalities at 2.3%. However, this is almost certainly a very significant under-estimate of the ‘slight’ injuries caused by pedestrian-cyclist crashes. Many collisions which don’t involve a motor vehicle (and insurance implications) are unlikely to be reported to the police (and therefore officially recorded) especially if they don’t result in a serious injury.
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So the *total* number of injuries to pedestrians caused by collisions with cyclists is considerably higher than the ‘1%’ figure often quoted (for fatalities). I would imagine by a factor of at least 3; possibly as high as 5 or more?  Of course, this is still very low compared to crashes involving motor vehicles, which are overwhelmingly responsible for pedestrian (and cyclist) casualties. So does it matter if cycling accounts for 1%, 3% or 5% of pedestrian collisions? Yes, I think it does. 
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Firstly, selective cherry-picking of statistics discredits the basically sound argument that the  principal focus of road safety efforts should be on motor vehicles (rather than cyclists).

Secondly, we need to recognise the anxiety that cycling can cause pedestrians. While there seems to be little statistical or academic evidence on this, there can be no question that inconsiderate cycling - especially on pavements, or through pedestrian crossings - seriously intimidates many pedestrians; especially those who are blind, deaf, old or generally less confident and steady on their feet. Indeed, Peter Walker acknowledges in his video that pavement cycling can intimidate; but in the next breath describes it as “harmless”. 
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While it is wrong for the media and politicians to disproportionately focus on cyclists’ involvement in pedestrian collisions, it is also wrong for cycling advocates to simply dismiss the impact of inconsiderate cycling as negligible or irrelevant. A little more empathy from some cycling campaigners - such as on the lines of Suzanne Forup’s excellent recent blog  - would not go amiss; it might also do more to win wider public support for more investment in cycling.
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     “I hate the way everyone responsible for urban life seems to have lost sight of what cities are for. They are for people” Bill Bryson, Neither here Nor there, 1991 p61

    Welcome to my occasional blog: mostly this is about making public places inclusive and attractive, but I may touch on other policy and governance topics…


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