Do Not Alight Here

An accident waiting to happen in Regent Street?

Oxford Circus made the headlines in 2009 when Boris Johnson and Westminster City Council unveiled the new 'pedestrian scramble' crossing, enabling pedestrians to walk diagonally over the busy junction between Oxford Street and Regent Street. I use it most days, and in my experience it seems to work fairly well. 

But head just a few metres further down Regent Street and you’ll find a pedestrian crossing that isn’t functioning quite as successfully. It's located at the junction with Hanover Street (which leads to Hanover Square), close to the Apple store. It's a standard crossing at first glance, but on closer inspection it becomes clear that the lights run in a sequence that causes major confusion for pedestrians wanting to cross from the south side of Regent Street (i.e. the side of the road that heads towards Piccadilly Circus).

                                                                     The crossing shown on Google Maps

Here's how it works from the south side pavement. There are two lanes of traffic: one for vehicles continuing straight along Regent Street, the other for those who want to turn right onto Hanover Street. The traffic lights turn red for the Regent Street lane, prompting pedestrians to think it is now safe to cross. These pedestrians are of course ignoring the fact that their own signal is still on red, but let’s face it; it’s something we all do.

The problems start at this point, as the traffic lights then change to green for vehicles in the Hanover Street lane (cars on the north side of Regent Street are at their own red light at this point, which is why it's safe for vehicles on the south side to cross over towards Hanover Street). Pedestrians have by now crossed the first south side lane, only to then find themselves caught in oncoming traffic from those turning right on to Hanover Street. Eventually both lanes change to red, and the wise old green man lights up to show pedestrians it’s finally safe to cross. 

                                                                         How it looks from Google Earth

It’s a crossing I use twice a day, every weekday, and I see it catch people out each and every time, with many near-misses. Some are actually quite amusing, but most are frightening. And these are only the ones I see in the few minutes I spend there. It’s surely only a matter of time before someone is run over and killed here; if in fact this hasn’t happened already (specific road crossing accident stats seem to be hard to come by). It's at the heart of tourist town, which means hundreds of people unfamiliar to London use it, including scores of children (it’s just minutes from Hamleys).

Pedestrians are clearly at fault here a lot of the time, but the sequence of red and green traffic lights could surely have been far better planned.

Do you know of any other pedestrian danger spots around London? Post your comments below to share them.

Are Bus Stops Contributing to Obesity in London?

I like travelling around on London buses. It’s a great way to explore the city, and for the most part, the network that Transport for London provides is timely, clean, and relatively safe. What is frustrating though is how close some bus stops are to each other. If you are running late, the pain of having to sit there as the bus stops every few seconds can be excruciating.

But commuter frustration aside, could it be argued that having so many bus stops also encourages people to be lazy, by taking away the need for them to walk that extra bit further? I’m not going to claim I don’t use the closest bus stop to me, especially if its pouring with rain. But if the stop I need is 20 rather than two minutes away, than I’d still have to walk the distance, regardless of how late I was running or how bad the weather may be. If the easier option isn’t there, people are forced not to use it.

Take for instance the photo below. It shows two bus stops on Cambridge Avenue, just off Kilburn High Road in North London.

They are so close you can easily get them in the same shot (the one furthest away is to the right of the bus). They serve the exact same set of buses, and therefore could easily be reduced to just one. Below you can see the same two stops on Google Maps, showing just how close they are. I timed the distance, and even walking at a slow pace takes no more than around a minute to get from one to the other. Surely even the laziest of Londoner can manage that.

I have my suspicions that the kebab shops, takeaways, McDonalds, KFC and Greggs just around the corner on Kilburn High Road are probably the bigger contributor to obesity levels in the area, but there’s a definite case to be made for more thought to go into bus stop placement. There are plenty of other examples I’ve noticed across the city, although ironically, whenever I’m in an unfamiliar area and need to get on a bus, I can’t ever seem to find one for miles.