HOLBEIN PLACE PEDESTRIAN CROSSING=COUNCIL CREATED ACCIDENT 'HOTSPOT'

Still on the subject of  Cllr Nick Paget-Brown's refusal to recognise road safety realities..... the Dame
reproduces this letter from Dr Gordon Taylor. Taylor is chairman of the West London Residents Association-more than that, he is a highly qualified road traffic engineer. You may not wish to listen to him Nick, but you should have the common courtesy to respond to the highly relevant points he raises here. 

To prove the dangers of the ludicrously dangerous( and highly expensive) crossing outside Sloane Square Tube the Dame went down to do a 'meet the people'. Everybody she spoke to said the paved area was so lethal that it should be kerbed immediately. A news vendor said he had seen four 'near misses' in just a couple of weeks and was expecting a serious accident soon.

Sometimes you have to admit you got something hopelessly wrong-this is one such occasion. What a complete waste of our hard earned money!

Here is Dr Taylor's reasonable analysis that sulky Nick won't reply to.....

Dear Nick,

At approximately 5pm on June 1^st 2011 Mrs Margaret xxxxxxxx was run into by a taxi as she attempted to cross Holbein Place on exiting Sloane Square Station. Her right foot was run over. Fortunately the taxi stopped before causing her more damage. She was badly shaken. As with many others before she complained that she was not aware that she was walking into a road. She asked why is there not a painted line to show pedestrians where the road lies?

You are well aware of the design faults of this crossing eg same colour setts for the road and pavement against DfT recommendation to have different colours to help people differentiate between the two. The inconsistency in council policy by declaring that Exhibition Rd cannot be a shared space as with 700 cars per hr it would be well in excess of the DfT and TRL guidelines for a maximum figure of 100 vehs/hr that pedestrians will share space with whilst at the same time countenancing 350 vehicles/hr using the Holbein Place ‘shared space’

The Council is providing a ribbed delineator for the whole length of each side of Exhibition Rd to help the blind navigate whilst at the same time only about a third of the length of the road crossing at Holbein Place has steel studs for this purpose leaving the rest of the road length with no signal for the blind and partially sighted to pick up.

May I draw your attention to the way the majority of London Underground platforms are set up to aid both the blind and all other people to use their stations safely.

At the platform edge there is a continuous white line. Behind this there is a continuous strip of ridge delineator ( not unlike Exhibition Rd ), behind this is a continuous thick yellow line behind which is a continuous line of tactile studded tiles.

If LU think that this degree of warning is appropriate for their passengers for their safety may I suggest that something similar is appropriate for Holbein Place which continues to be a dangerous crossing for many.

Kind regards

Gordon Taylor