Cross about crossings
Somewhere over the rainbow
You may have seen this recently.
He obviously thinks it’s a fine idea.
Not everyone agrees.
There are now tens (hundreds?) of examples of these all over the UK.
Many people have made very good, highly appropriate responses with regard to road safety, people with disabilities and working animals.
The highway code makes it clear that both pedestrians and drivers are responsible for safety at crossings.
So what happens if the pedestrian or driver does not readily discern the crossing? What happens if a working animal cannot make sense of it and inadvertently causes an accident?
Believe me, the injury lawyers are hot on this stuff. It’s only a matter of time.
In total, in the year ending September 2019, a total of 31,896 were killed or seriously injured on the roads in Britain (not just at zebra crossings) and casualties totaled 153,158.
Compensation?
It’s a fair whack.
So, how fair is it on all road users to change a simple design that we all understand to varied colourful designs?
Disability
When it comes to disability, this Open Letter to the Mayor of London covers the lot brilliantly.
What’s really interesting is how we’ve had British Standards advice since 2018 but it’s just got worse!
Although visual contrast is very useful in enabling partially sighted people to perceive boundaries, bold surface patterns can be disorientating or misleading, and should therefore be avoided. The use of colour, patterning, lettering and imagery on pedestrian surfaces can be particularly problematic for people who are blind or partially sighted and people who have sensory/neurological processing difficulties.
Disability and assistance dogs
One of the most common working animals is the dog. There are many types of assistance dogs supporting people with a range of medical and disability needs, and this includes guide dogs, with around 4,950 guide dog owners in the UK.
A Worcestershire reporter was told by a Guide Dogs UK spokesperson:
Guide Dogs is working towards a world where no one is left out of life because of their sight loss.
Bold white and black stripes or a solid black surface used at controlled crossings have been around for many years and is a consistent design that is familiar.
Art can be used to enhance public areas and make spaces inviting to communities, but we feel its introduction needs to be done in a way that will not be at the detriment to disabled people including people living with sight loss.
For people with sight loss, crossings are essential to their orientation and mobility.
To this end, we welcome the recent decision by the London Mayor to instruct Transport for London (TfL) to put a halt to any new colourful crossings for the next 12 months.
In this time, TfL will work with stakeholders to look at the potential impact of such crossing designs and identify any detrimental impact of colourful crossing designs on pedestrians including blind and partially sighted people.
Guide Dogs will be involved in this work.
We would encourage local authorities to engage with TfL regarding this review before introducing this type of design.
We understand that several local authorities across the country have decided to follow the approach taken in London and are engaging with TfL in regard to the research being carried out.
Well, doesn’t look like that happened, does it?
And the RNIB put out this statement.
As you can see from the open letter above, this is just some of the people and animals affected.
Law enforcement and horses
And then there are the police horses. True enough that these animals are well trained and have put up with lots at football games and protests.
But that doesn’t change the fact that they can’t always process something new.
You’ll have seen this video. (Good old Titania).
And the Met’s response?!
Doesn’t seem like a waste of money at all.
It’s true that horses see colours differently than humans and they have different depth perception. In addition, they have different categorical perception. As Janet L. Jones, PhD states:
A horse who is exposed to the same jumbled scene daily will become accustomed to it. But our eyes often assume that the jumble never changes, when in fact it does. Occasionally, I use a round pen located next to an area where frequently handled ranch equipment is stored. Horses who have used that round pen for years still skirt the jumble because the position of the equipment is changed slightly on almost a daily basis. Noncategorical equine brains are designed to notice these tiny changes; categorical human brains are not.
How about we just don’t confuse the horses? And dogs? And road users?
Why does ideology trump safety?
Action
Do take a look at the Open Letter and use it, this Substack post and any other data you can glean (do share in the comments!) to complain to your local authority, who approved the colourful crossing. Ask to see the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) done before the crossing was implemented. In my experience, these are being treated like a tick box exercise for PSED. Yes, they’re not mandatory but some form of evidencing meeting the PSED is. For full details, this Briefing Paper is really useful.
And the Baroness is on it!
