8:16am Thursday 2nd October 2008
By Simon Carr
IT is a bizarre scheme to encourage motorists to drive more carefully along a city centre street – by confusing them!
Safety bosses have turned their back on clear signs, reduced speed limits and speed cameras in favour of a system dubbed “naked roads”.
They believe the best way to make motorists drive safely along London Road in Southampton is to baffle them.
There is no formal zebra or pelican crossing where pedestrians have the right of way.
Instead, white lines and other road markings have been removed and three vague crossing points installed.
The theory, part of a £1.5m development for the road, is that walkers will hover on the edge of the pavement, forcing drivers to slow down in case they step out.
One motoring organisation called the idea a recipe for disaster as there are several pubs and one of the city’s busiest nightlife zones nearby.
A council spokesman confirmed that it was a deliberate policy to try to confuse drivers.
He said: “By creating uncertainty all road users are forced to pay attention and interact with each other.
“Because drivers will be aware that a pedestrian could step out from any one of the informal crossing points they will have to drive more carefully and reduce their speed. This method has been successful across Europe.”
But Brian Gregory, chairman of the Association of British Drivers, said: “I have grave reservations about this scheme and how it would work at night in an area with bars.
“I foresee situations where drunk people will wander off these crossings and be hit by a car.
This is a recipe for disaster. With a lit crossing everyone knows who has right of way, with this system there is too much room for misinterpretation.
“This is more dangerous than having no crossings at all and I wouldn’t like to be the local authority when all the lawsuits start coming in.”
Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the Hampshire-based AA, said this new system could work in some places but would need monitoring.
He said: “The idea of confusing motorists isn’t new but you have to be careful where you put them.
If you put them on a busy main road I would think you were mad, if you put them in an area with a load of shops where nobody would pick up speed anyway I would think you were less mad.
“This system could work but these things must be constantly monitored and reviewed and changed if they don’t work.
“I would hope the authority would have considered factors like pubs and night usage.”
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