Mayor Boris risks crossing pedestrians

By Sunil Peck

Disabled pedestrians have warned that proposals to cut crossing times at road junctions will be dangerous for disabled people.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson made a commitment to speed up the flow of traffic in his election manifesto.

A Transport for London (TFL) spokesman said that TFL was working hard to meet that pledge.

He said that pedestrians are always provided with a crossing time which is based on government guidance for walking at a speed of 1.2 metres per second.

But he said that some crossings allowed for considerably more time to cross.

He said that 150 crossings had been looked at so far and that six seconds had been removed from one junction but the amount of time available to cross still fell within government guidelines.

Mike Shamash, who lives in London and is a person of restricted growth, described the proposals as an attack on pedestrians which would hit disabled pedestrians particularly hard.

Mr Shamash said: "My walking time to cross a road is more than it would take a lot of people. I already find that when crossing certain roads, I have to rush."

Another London resident, Karl Farrell, who uses a white stick and is a member of the National Federation of the Blind, said that he was in favour of making the flow of traffic more efficient.

But he said that he was concerned at the Mayor's proposals.

Mr Farrell said: "I am not a slow walker but I do not think that there is any scope for reducing time. If I were to walk faster there is the potential to veer off track and come up against a barrier."

Digital countdown displays could also be introduced at crossings which would show pedestrians the amount of time left for them to cross.

Tom Pey, who is a guide dog user and is director of external affairs at the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, said that digital displays would be useless for visually impaired people who would be unable to see them.

Mr Pey added that he thought that Mr Johnson's plans were designed to speed up traffic and that there was evidence to suggest that accidents increase in situations where motorists feel that they have priority over pedestrians.