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Blind people 'in danger' from £30m kerb removal scheme
Katharine Barney, Evening Standard19 Feb 2009
BLIND people and the elderly are being put at risk by a council removing pavement kerbs, it was claimed today.
Kensington and Chelsea has merged the pavements and road outside Sloane Square station and has similar plans for Exhibition Road in South Kensington.
The "shared space" schemes are supposed to give cyclists and pedestrians more room and encourage drivers to go slower.
However, residents and disabled groups including Guide Dogs for the Blind Association have launched a campaign to reverse the changes.
Leading the group Gordon Taylor said: "With no tactile paving blind, partially-sighted people and other disabled people are placed in jeopardy.
"If people can't tell where the road begins and the pavement ends, how can they feel safe?"
About £300,000 was spent repaving the Holbein Place junction in Sloane Square and the Exhibition Road scheme will cost £30million. A spokesman for the council said the scheme was "suitable for visually impaired pedestrians".
Reader views (6)
Melvyn, you say so blandly that blind people overcame the problems of "shared space" elsewhere. How? Whether a long cane user or a guide dog owner blind people totally depend on there being a kerb, not just to cross roads safely but also to know where they are.
Where this has happened in other places they "overcame" it by not going there any more on their own and therefore lost a little more of their independence and autonomy. Do you really support that kind of segregation?
- Flora, East London, 23/06/2009 02:56
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I visited this site on Friday to check it out and discovered this scheme covers what is basically a small side street that leads from Sloane Square.
Given the smallness of this street it would have made more sense to make this area PEDESTRIAN ONLY. A similar scheme operates outside the undrground station in Liverpool Street and in many other areas where it is designed to slow down traffic and even give an impression of being a pedestrian zone thus discouraging drivers without banning them.
As to my earlier comments they were based on the fact this scheme is not something new and therefore organisations like the RNIB must have already dealt with this type of scheme in the past. The fact is this scheme is no different from many pedestrian schemes throughout the country.
What may be needed is a strip of Tactile paving similar to that used at crossings which are also built raised to pavement level for wheelchair users. If as John, London says tactile paving is not used in these schemes then surely it needs to be a legal requirement.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 22/02/2009 17:32
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I'm visually impaired and a guide dog and long cane user. I thinks it ridiculous for the Council (and Melvyn above)to suggest these schemes are suitable and blind people can overcome problems. The schemes rely on visual contact between pedestrian and driver to decide on who has priority. If you can't see you can't do this. I live and work in London and am use to traffic and noise and yet I've had several near-misses in shared space schemes all over the country. Tactile paving is not used in shared space schemes as the point is to create an integrated space without anu delineators (like kerbs). Kensington & Chelsea are failing disabled people massively - I'm just glad my council tax isn't wasted in that way. £30m in Newham, Camden or Tower Hamlets would be spent in a much better way than making a more attractive driving space for Chelsea Owners - who'd like £30m to spend on something that actually improves the lives of people in their community? Maybe young people, children, the elderly, community projects, schools, playgrounds, street cleaning, recycling need I say more?
- John, London, 20/02/2009 18:41
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This scheme is no different to those used in many places to provide a better environment and as a way of controlling vehicles.
As for the problems of Blind People this must have already happened in places that already use these schemes so how did them overcome them. This is also a double edged sword as this scheme makes it easier for wheelchair users to cross roads!
No doubt most of the complaints come from the motoring lobby who think they own the roads, the fact is in central London private vehicles make up a small percentage of total users of these streets and will therefore have to learn how to SHARE ROADSPACE and not dominate it.
Anyway the City of London has introduced a number of similar raised tables recently and these seem to work well.
These schemes are used widely on the Continent but they also use Trams which are better suitted to this type of road as their track is laid within the pavement and of course they along with cyclists get priority. Its a pity Boris cant be pursuaded that the best replacement for Artic Buses are Trams.
What this is really aboout is that cars are loosing out and they dont like this, especially as it is not RED KEN but BLUE Kensington and Chelsea that is doing this.
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 20/02/2009 00:38
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Presumably Paul is e-mailing from his hospital bed - or from "the other side".
As for the safety of this scheme, the judicious use of tactile paving and contrasting colours (for pedestrians) and speed tables and cameras (for drivers) would remove any lingering concerns.
- Austen, London, 19/02/2009 14:21
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It's death trap. The first indication you get that you're crossing a road - whether you're blind or not - is when you get run over by a van or taxi.
- Paul, London, 19/02/2009 09:25
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