Wednesday, 19 August 2015

Which Came First, The Run-Over Chicken Or The Blind Egg?

The council, which has already spent £241,000 installing four “courtesy crossings” at City Beach, has asked for any legal action to be put off until Wednesday, August 12.
It claims accidents involving pedestrians and cyclists have dropped since Victoria Circus was given a multi-million revamp in 2011.
It also pointed out that people can avoid the shared space by using an escalator outside the train station to enter the Victoria Shopping Centre and go through there to High Street.
Which isn’t going to be much use to the blind lady and her guide dog, now is it?

So…why has the accident rate dropped?
But Ms Allen-King puts the reduction down to the blind and disabled avoiding the area since shared space was introduced.
Ah!
Martin Terry, Southend councillor responsible for transport, said: “The safety of all of our residents is paramount to us and a key consideration when designing any highway project.
“Since the Victoria Gateway scheme was completed, pedestrian and cyclist accidents have reduced.
“The scheme was designed by experienced highways engineers and consultants, was safetyaudited and follows all relevant national guidance and regulations.
"We consulted a range of stakeholders, including disability groups and indeed, Jill Allen- King.”
You might have ‘consulted’ them, but did you act on any recommendations they made?

2 comments:

  1. Lynne at Counting Cats19 August 2015 at 14:39

    A case of the blind (stupidity) impeding the blind

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  2. Yup!

    At the same junctions, they got rid of the old 'beeping' pedestrian crossing due to 'noise pollution' (next to a busy road? really?) and replaced them with spinning discs that the blind are supposed to touch to see when it's safe to cross.

    What they are supposed to do if there's more than one blind person, I've no idea. All hold hands?

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