Puffin to the rescue

[David Neylan]

Martin, you blogged on the 89 year old Nancy Underwood, who could not cross the road in Chideock, West Dorset.
The Highways Agency have announced that they are going to install a Puffin Crossing to remedy her situation!

Chidoeck is a small village bisected by the A35, to make matters worse it is at the bottom of a valley so the approaches are steep hence a 30 mph GATSO speed camera on the entrance and exit of the village.

The full story is on the Bridport News Website http://www.bridportnews.co.uk/news/bridportnews/5065544.Chideock__P...

There are already a few voices against and I haven't sent in my letter yet.

I would guess that this is not the solution you envisaged as there are better ways to get people across the road.

I cross that road every day many times but I have an island in the middle to make it much easier.

[David Neylan]

Thanks Ian for that report, I will try and make some use of it.

I attended a local Transport Action Group meeting (a bit of Orwellian double speak). They approve of the Puffin crossing installation both in Bridport and now in Chideock; though they did not feel the need to discuss it, just cheer from the sidelines.

The main event was a presentation from the council on their Local Area Plan and the extensive consultation that goes along with it. They're on the third revision; it all sounds great lots of what you could call Shared Space ideas, all very aspirational but that is not what gets built.

Puffin crossings are the default setting and the Highways Agency have not bothered with consultation or other options and a lot of Chideock residents are happy to get anything, being used to neglect.

Which is worse, remote indifference of local idiocy?

[Ian Perry]

The London Road Safety Unit Research looked at changes in collisions before and after the implementation of 23 new stand-alone Puffin crossings, despite collisions falling throughout London due to congestion, they found:
“When grouped by previous crossing facility, there were reductions in total and pedestrian collisions for nearly all site types. However, where there had previously been no formal crossing, total collisions rose.”
http://londonroadsafety.tfl.gov.uk/www/downloads/publications/Puffi...