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I've been watching the Council's traffic measures quite a bit over the last year. From what I have seen, money becomes available and they just have to come up with ways to spend it - usually its not particularly well thought out.

Whenever I have asked them for the statistics (eg traffic and accidents) for why they made decisions they can't come up with them - everything just seems to be done on a hunch.

In the past they have also done things because they were "fashionable", good examples of this were the bus lanes, some of them are the most ridiculously planned out locations you could think of. Two of those are the top of Singleton Ave in Birkenhead where the majority of traffic is given a few feet to change lane and the other being on the way up to Arrowe Park roundabout where they introduced a left bus stop lane for a bus that is about to turn right now having to cross over an extra lane of traffic on a busy road.

Then there are the most stupid of cycle lanes that are still popping up.

Wirral councils traffic ideas are like a 3 year olds with play doh.

Were the roundabout was near Arrowe Park is now a disaster, takes twice as long to get through the lights as it ever did when roundabout was there no matter which way I am traveling.

Roundabout at the end of New Ferry by pass (port sunlight end) is another complete lottery, if you are trying to get on the housing estate or go to the walk that opened 12 months ago you can fit two and a half cars in the section, a red light stops you and cars traveling from Brom who are accelerating to join by pass often have to swing to avoid collisions.

Lastly the 2 sets of lights by Magazine Road in Bromborough. They are about 25ft apart, if you are in the 1st 3 cars you cant see what color your lights are, your eyeline is drawn towards the other's (normally the natural position). I have seen about 10-20 cars go when 1st set changes.

I think the idea of more crossings has been tried.

I'm pretty certain that Liscard and its immediate feeder roads have got more crossings (including traffic lights with a pedestrian phase) than bus stops. A bus stop, e.g. St.Albans Rd, can have more than one stand.

Likewise, parts of King St have a large amount of crossings that seem equal or outnumber the bus stops.

Looking to a bigger picture as to the cause of deaths and serious injuries on our roads (KSI), the Institute of Advanced Motorists issued a press release just a couple of weeks ago, based on police finding. It makes for interesting reading, as follows -

09 September 2015

The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has revealed that nearly 18,000 pedestrians were injured in an accident involving a vehicle in the last full year with analysis available.

The charity is calling for an even greater focus on pedestrian protection to make cars safer and raise awareness of the risks.

The figures come from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the IAM, Britain’s biggest independent road safety charity, asking for details of the most common pairs of contributory factors reported together by the police attending the scene of an accident in 2013.

Police can record up to six contributory factors from a list of 77 for each incident to explain why they think a crash took place but the top two give the most obvious reasons for the incident. The statistics come from an analysis of the most recent full year data covering the whole of 2013.

Last month the IAM reported that ‘failure to look properly’ and ‘failure to judge other person's path or speed’ was the biggest pairing of factors when it came to vehicles in accidents. And now the pairings of factors listed by police for all pedestrian casualties in accidents can be revealed.

‘Pedestrian failed to look properly’ with ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ were named as factors in 4,100 casualty accidents, or 23% of the overall total putting them clearly at Number 1.

The remainder of the factor combinations listed are as follows:

2. ‘Pedestrian crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle’ with ‘pedestrian failed to look properly’ - 1,961 casualties (11%)
3. ‘Pedestrian failed to judge vehicle’s path or speed’ with ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry - 1,204 casualties (7%)
4. ‘Pedestrian crossing road masked by stationary or parked vehicle’ with ‘pedestrian careless, reckless or in a hurry’ - 1,013 casualties (6%)

The IAM Manifesto makes a number of suggestions on how to protect pedestrians, including making road safety education part of the national curriculum, making pedestrian safety a bigger factor in vehicle design and a long-term engineering programme to deliver safer roads in the UK.

Sarah Sillars, IAM chief executive officer, said: “Pedestrian fatalities are rising faster than any other group right now so it is vital that drivers are more sympathetic and aware of pedestrians when they make their journeys. There is no need to blame any party when it comes to how to reduce the numbers of people killed and injured on our roads – all road users need to look out for each other and ensure we minimise the impact of our own and others unpredictable behaviour."


ENDS

So, factors 1, 2, 3 & 4 add up to 47%, and are all pedestrian errors. We don't know about 5 onwards, therefore up to 53% is from other causes, which can still include pedestrians, speed, drink mechanical failures etc.

No amount of crossings, limits and cotton wool will stop that happening.

Pedestrian fatalities are rising faster than any other group because they're all walking round with their eyes on their phones and their ears blocked with headphones.