Pedestrian Crossings (Hansard, 14 May 1958)

§ 34. Mr. Page
asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation whether, from his records of road accidents, he will state the comparative risk of accident to a pedestrian using a pedestrian crossing and a pedestrian who crosses the road within fifty yards, or other recorded distance, from the crossing.

§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation (Mr. G. R. H. Nugent)
Figures are not available for the country as a whole, but a survey undertaken on a limited scale three years ago in London by the Road Research Laboratory indicated that pedestrians were twice as safe on zebra crossings as on the road within fifty yards of them.

§ Mr. Page
Does my hon. Friend think that the value of the crossings might be increased by a greater use of the guard rails canalising pedestrians to the crossings?

§ Mr. Nugent
Those are used where they are appropriate, but in many places it would not be appropriate to fix guard rails.

§ 35. Mr. Page
asked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation if he will provide figures to show whether a light-controlled pedestrian crossing has a greater or lesser effect than an uncontrolled pedestrian crossing in canalising pedestrians on to the crossing and preventing indiscriminate crossing elsewhere in the road.

§ Mr. Nugent
A small-scale inquiry by the Road Research Laboratory during the Slough experiment showed that in the special circumstances of Slough High Street when a zebra crossing was replaced by a light-controlled crossing the use of the crossing by pedestrians increased. I do not think it is possible to draw from these results conclusions which would be generally applicable.

§ Mr. Page
Why does my hon. Friend think that there are special circumstances here? Is not it clear that where there are light-controlled crossings pedestrians use them to a greater extent than they use the ordinary crossings?

§ Mr. Nugent
No, not always. Light-controlled crossings have the disadvantage that there is an interval of time before a pedestrian can cross and before the traffic is held up. Often pedestrians Lind a gap in the traffic before the lights have gone red against it and they nip across at that point. Then the traffic light goes red and holds up the traffic for nothing.