Liverpool City Council is set to trial a new style of potentially
life-saving pedestrian crossings.
A report to Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet, recommending the trials, has been approved and will see innovative pedestrian crossings installed at two collision hot-spots – Hanover Street/ Bold Street in the city centre and another, on a busy high street located on the outskirts of the city, (final location is yet to be confirmed).
Liverpool has the highest rate of adult deaths or serious injuries (KSIs) for pedestrian collisions in the UK Metropolitan Boroughs – at 99 per 100,000 people – and these trials form part of a wider strategy devised by the council and road safety partners to help bring down that number, which has been steadily falling since 2012.
Bold Street, one of the UK’s most dangerous pedestrian crossings, will
see the introduction of a “Gold Standard” crossing, which looks
to encourage more pedestrians to use it through embedded nudges. The
second site will see the use of a “faster boarding” system – which will reduce wait times for pedestrians giving them
priority over cars.
The innovative designs, created by So-Mo, a
behavioural science company based in the city’s Baltic Triangle, will be
assessed and analysed over a two year period. The company created them
following an in-depth insight study into pedestrian behaviours in the urban
environment.
The trials have been funded by the Road Safety Trust, with the support of the Department of Transport and the Merseyside Road Safety Partnership.
The specific aims of the pilot are to determine if
the interventions change pedestrians unsafe crossing behaviour by encouraging
them to adopt safe crossing behaviours, measured by :
•
An increase in the number of crossings made inside the crossing area
•
An increase in the number of pedestrians using the crossing correctly
The two test sites are:
1. Bold Street / Hanover Street
This location is within the central city area where collisions are high in the evening and throughout the night with casualties made up of pedestrians enjoying a night out. The location chosen for testing, the junctions of Bold Street / Hanover Street and Church Street, has the highest number of pedestrian casualties within the city centre, most of which occur during weekend evenings.
2. Second site tbc
A number of sites are under consideration, all of
the sites have high pedestrian casualty figures and are sited along main
arterial routes into the city. Collisions mainly occur during the day with
casualties made up of pedestrians accessing the local amenities.
It is hoped the crossings will be ready in early 2021.
CITY
TO CONDUCT ROAD SPEED REVIEW:
Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet has also approved a report to look at
reviewing the city’s 20mph speed limit scheme, which was completed in 2015.
Results based
over a three year survey show the speed limit, which on some roads is mandatory
and others advisory, has helped cut collisions by an average of 191 per year.
The review, which will cost £300,000, will be undertaken over the next 18 months. This will involve a city-wide consultation to look at which roads could be adopted for a wider roll-out of the scheme.
