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Local residents have been in touch with Newry.ie citing their concerns regarding the pedestrian crossing system on the busy junction of Trevor Hill, Water Street, Kildare Street and Sugar Island in Newry.
Work has just been completed by the Department For Infrastructure on the pedestrian crossing, but the new system installed has caused confusion and concern for some.
Newry Man Garry McElherron uses the crossing to go to work every day and confesses that he doesn't understand how they work and doesn't trust them.
"It just seems in the hands of the Gods. I don't trust them, I don't feel they are safe. I don't feel safe using them, and every time I cross the road I feel I'm juking out in front of traffic." he said.
"I walk there every day and I sincerely have no idea, supposodly I have a degree, and I'm standing here in front of these traffic lights going I don't know how to work them. If they are saying stand and wait until you see the little man going green, what if there's someone standing to your right hand side and obscurring that? At least if the green man is up in front of you, nobody can stand in front of it." he added.
McElherron continued "If you have a crowd of 4 or 5 people standing there and you are on the far left and a person goes to step out, there's a natural instinct to follow them. They could be breaking the lights and you don't know because you cant see the green man."
Another resident who didn't want to be named also said they did not feel safe crossing at the junction. "It's so confusing, I don't know where I am supposed to look to find out it's safe to get across." they said.
We questioned the DFI on the new system. A spokesperson said "All pedestrian crossing equipment has been upgraded to puffin crossings with the previous system where pedestrians could see the green man across the road changed to a system where the indicator that it is safe to cross, placed at waist level on the side the pedestrian is standing before crossing. Therefore, even if the control changes to green and is obstructed temporarily by a pedestrian waiting to cross, the signal system will detect and allow time for all pedestrians to observe the green figure and cross safely.
They continued "Furthermore, the push button control with the red/green figure signals are on the same side of the road as you are waiting to cross, allowing you to watch these signals and traffic at the same time making it easier to observe that vehicles have stopped at the red signal before crossing. Partially-sighted pedestrians can also see the red/green figure signals more easily than a signal on the other side of the road."
Unlike the traffic lights close to Newry Town Hall, the new lights don't emit a beep when it is safe to cross, which the DFI say is due to the potential for mistaking a beep from another nearby crossing to theirs. The spokesperson said "As there are several pedestrian crossing points at this large junction, the beeping noise has not been set up for sound. Each beeping independently could lead to confusion for vulnerable pedestrians who may mistake the beeping for a nearby crossing as the signal for them to cross. However, each push button demand unit is fitted with a tactile cone below it, which spins when the invitation to cross is shown alerting the visually-impaired pedestrians to cross."
McElherron believes that because we all grew up with a different system that perhaps the public need trained in their use. "I've never seen them. I obviously don't understand them. I don't know if the public need trained on them. The present ones we and our children grew up with, you pushed the button, you look up in the air, the man goes green, you look to the left, you can see the lights red for the traffic, you know to cross."
We checked out the crossing ourselves and noted that it takes 3 seperate crossings and quite a period of time to cross from outside Finegan and Son to the bus shelter on Trevor Hill. It seems that priority once again is given to the motorist in our city rather than to the pedestrian.
The DFI spokesperson commented "This junction has many different competing traffic and pedestrian movements that are often in conflict with each other. To ensure pedestrian safety and road user efficiency at this busy junction, the current design, staging and timings of the signals were chosen to optimise pedestrian safety and traffic progression at this important city centre location."
Despite the confusion for users Wikipedia say that a 2005 study commissioned by the DfT found that Puffins were safer than Pelican crossings with fewer pedestrian accidents and fewer involving cars. The resource adds "In 2014, Transport for London announced that they would stop installing Puffins, saying that "Pedestrians have previously indicated to us that they dislike the uncertainty of not knowing whether the 'green man' is still lit once they have started crossing, which happens with nearside signals." Birmingham City Council also said that year that they would not be installing low level indicators at busy city centre crossings, expressing concern that the pedestrian indicator could be obscured by crowds"
A full explanation on puffin crossings can be found on NI Direct atwww.nidirect.gov.uk
