by Jonathan Flower, Senior Research Fellow
Many of us will soon be taking a hopefully well-earned rest over the festive period. At some point, you may put on a paper crown and break into a smile (or not) as someone reads a cracker joke. Well, here are a few, left over from a Christmas party for nerdy Transport Planners, Highway Engineers and others with a niche interest in pedestrian and cycle crossings:
Two hedgehogs are standing on the kerbside, one asks the other: “So, shall we cross? “The other bristles: “No way, look at what happened to the zebra.”
Transport planner: “Have you heard that they’ve updated the Highway Code?”
Friend (stifling a yawn): “Will it work?”
Transport planner: “Well, today I saw a driver stop before turning into a side road to let someone cross… but then I realised they had just run out of fuel!”
It’s like a zoo crossing the road these days. As if toucans, puffins, pelicans and zebras weren’t enough, in the Forest of Waltham I hear that there are elephants too!
We all cross them but spare a thought for the humble side road as you encounter one this Christmas. This blog explores whether changing side road junction designs can enhance priority for pedestrians and cyclists when they cross. It is based on recently published research findings.
In many villages, towns and cities there seems to be an increasing desire to get more people walking, cycling and wheeling. So, when they do, enhancing their priority at junctions where they come into conflict with others, makes sense, but can changes to junction design help?
I have previously considered how we could move away from the ‘traffic in towns’ that has increasingly become the norm since the 1960s to a new normal where our focus becomes ‘people in streets’. The answer may lie in the relationships between regulations, design and behaviour, and how they interact.
Back in January 2022, changes to the Highway Code enhanced priority for people crossing side roads by simplifying the rules on turning. In two recent studies funded by the Road Safety Trust and Transport Scotland (administered by Sustrans) we compared different junction designs and used video to observe how people behaved when using them. We can innovate and change regulations to promote active travel and change designs to do the same, but how will people react? The behaviour of people in these environments is the interesting part and where our innovations succeed or fail.
The studies found that enhanced junctions greatly improve priority for people crossing compared to conventional side roads, without compromising on safety. From the 13,500 observations of drivers turning in and out of side roads at the same time as someone was crossing on foot or cycle, motorists failed to give way to people crossing most of the time at conventional junctions. However, where junctions were enhanced through design or road markings the story was very different and here crossing pedestrians and cyclists were only forced to stop occasionally. Design Priority junctions and Marked Priority junctions with zebras work best. Using road markings other than a zebra is less effective at creating priority for people crossing and appears to be more hazardous for them, despite being the approach most commonly used.
Junction in London with design priority / Photo credit: still from study video, UWE Bristol
The position of the crossing is important. Those nearer the main road like the one shown above offer greater priority for people crossing and are no riskier than ones set further back from the main road. Taking all of this into consideration you might ask yourself whether it would be a good idea to paint zebra markings across side road junctions to make walking easier and safer in local streets. We asked ourselves the same question. Unfortunately, although such zebras (without zig zags, flashing orange lights and 24-hour overhead lighting) are allowed and well understood on private land like hospitals, universities and supermarkets, they are not currently permitted on public roads in the UK. Temporary trials were permitted in Manchester and Cardiff and the results were encouraging. However, in Melbourne simple zebra crossings like these have been permanently installed at prioritised locations to encourage and enable walking and improve safety (permitted under Victoria State law).
A ‘simple’ zebra in Victoria, Australia / Photo credit: Geoff Browne
There is a catch to this solution, even where it is permitted, as there is a risk that enhancing crossing points at some side roads but not others, can lead people to believe that at sites where they are not installed, drivers do not have to give way to a pedestrian who is crossing the street into which the driver is turning. To investigate this, I collaborated with the University of Melbourne and our research found that the risk of this unintended consequence is very real and is something that demands more research.
If at some point during your break you want to discover more, pour yourself a port (other festive drinks and non-alcoholic versions are available) and follow one of the links below, which will take you to the papers that explain the studies and their findings in more detail. Alternatively, when you need to walk off one of those celebratory Christmas meals, watch careful at the side roads and see how people are behaving in the streets around you. Happy Christmas and may we have improved priority for people crossing side roads in the New Year!
Links to the full journal articles:
- “Effect of side road junction design enhancements and flows on priority for crossing pedestrians and cyclists”, and
- “Zebra crossings at T-intersections: Likelihood of unintended negative consequences for safety and walkability”.
The blog was written by Dr Jonathan Flower, Senior research Fellow at the Centre for Transport and Society (UWE Bristol).
Dr Jonathan Flower MTPS is a Transport Planner and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Transport and Society. He has a nerdy interest in street design, especially side road crossing points, but he has good intentions, driven by a desire to make streets safer and more attractive places to move around on foot, cycle, or other forms of human-scale, less then cycle-speed mobility. His interest in road safety and his former work in international development has led to two current research projects in Nepal. You can contact him at: jonathan.flower@uwe.ac.uk.