The traffic safety campaign group Road Angel has welcomed proposals to increase the amount of time pedestrians can cross at crossings in England.
The idea was proposed by Active Travel England (ATE), and will see the “green man crossing time” increased from six to seven seconds in order to help elderly or disabled pedestrians cross roads safely.
Gary Digva, founder of Road Angel, explained how extending the length of time pedestrians can cross in will help to improve road safety.
He said: “Over a period of six years an average of eight pedestrians are killed and a further 115 are seriously injured each week as a result of road collisions.
“And on a global scale, the World Health Organisation reports that pedestrians involved in crashes accounted for 23 percent of all deaths across the world.”
According to Government figures, in 2021 361 pedestrians were killed, with a further 5,032 being seriously injured due to road traffic collisions.
Whilst these figures have continued to fall since 2004, some safety experts are calling for more measures to further reduce figures.
ATE hope that their proposal to extend pedestrian crossing times will help to keep the UK’s ageing population safe and encourage more people to make more journeys on foot.
Gary added that, whilst extending the time in which pedestrians can cross will lead to drivers having to wait longer, it may also make them more aware of their surroundings.
He explained: “Some drivers can get annoyed at pedestrians who cross slower and are still walking across the road when the traffic light has turned green.
“Increasing the wait times for drivers at crossings may be seen as a pain for motorists, but we hope it will make those behind the wheel become more aware of their surroundings and, in turn, help to reduce pedestrian injuries and fatalities.”
The new proposal reduces estimates for the average walking speed from 1.2 metres per second, a figure first calculated during the 1950s, to one metre per second.
A study by the University College London revealed that 85 percent of women and 76 percent of men walked slower than the typical 1.2 metre per second speed.
According to the research, the average walking speed for women is 0.8 metres per second, whilst men typically walk at 0.9 metres per second.
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