§ 35. Mr. Mappasked the Minister of Transport if he will review policy in regard to traffic signals so that three-way vision can be introduced in the interests of pedestrian safety.
§ Mr. HayThere is nothing in our regulations to prevent the provision of a third aspect in traffic light signals, but in practice there are few road intersections where this type of installation would materially improve conditions for pedestrians.
§ Mr. MappIs the Minister aware that at the orthodox crossing, with traffic lights, the pedestrian leaving from the traffic lights leaves his own lights at his side? Pedestrians, including old people and children, are then facing across the road where no light is available to them, except one at an angle of 45 degrees. I would beg the Minister to reconsider this policy. If need be, I should like to see one of these sets of lights in operation, when I would endeavour to prove to him that for elderly people and young children it is a menace which we ought to put right.
§ Mr. HayIf I may answer the second part of the question first, the hon. Member may see an installation of this kind in operation in his own constituency at the junction of King Street, Union Street and George Street. Answering the first part of the question, in practice the number of installations where we can use this type of signal is very small, because there are very few signal-controlled junctions at which the turning traffic is so light that danger to pedestrians encouraged to cross by the green aspect can be said to be negligible. There is a provision in the Highway Code to which attention should be given—namely, paragraph 12, which is directed at pedestrians and which states quite clearly,
At junctions controlled by traffic lights watch the traffic as well as the lights, and cross only when it is safe to do so.
§ Mr. MappMay I ask the Minister whether in the working of the Highway Code to which he has referred there is not an assumption that the motorist turning to the left has some major powers compared with the pedestrian walking across the road? I ask him to reconsider this matter, particularly in the interests of elderly people and young children.
§ Mr. HayMy Answer is based on very long experience in the Department on the practical working of this idea. We never want to turn down any useful idea which would contribute to road safety, but I am advised that this idea would give rise to more dangers than one might imagine.