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MP "horrified" by footage of multiple drivers hitting cyclists and pedestrians at "Britain's most dangerous" zebra crossing

Jeremy Vine posted two videos of motorists driving into cyclists using the crossing, while there have been reports of similar incidents that have injured pedestrians

A Labour MP has described being "absolutely horrified" by multiple videos from a zebra crossing in his Bradford East constituency which show cyclists and pedestrians being hit by drivers.

 Imran Hussain said he was concerned about "accident blackspots" and is "absolutely horrified" having seen videos shared by Jeremy Vine on Twitter this week.

Two clips show cyclists using the crossing on Horton Grange Road being struck by motorists, another from 2018 shows a woman crossing on foot knocked to the ground by a driver.

The footage, which we shared earlier in the week on our live blog, prompted broadcaster Vine to ask: "what the hell is going on with this zebra [crossing]?"

 In response to the publicity stemming from the videos' thousands of views on social media and national newspaper coverage — including the Daily Mail asking if it is "Britain's most DANGEROUS zebra crossing?" — Bradford Council acknowledged the safety concerns and promised an immediate inspection on the site around a mile from the city centre.

A spokesperson said the council will change the zebra crossing to a traffic light signalled crossing "as soon as we can" once funding is received. The authority also stressed that high-visibility LED units and more visible white road markings had been implemented four years ago.

The situation has, however, left MP Hussain "absolutely horrified" at the actions of "a minority of dangerous drivers".

"I'm absolutely horrified to see this catalogue of incidents where cars have hit pedestrians on what is a well-marked and visible zebra crossing on Horton Grange Road, and it is evidently clear that we need to see much tougher action against those who seemingly have no problem with violating the rules of the road," he said.

"For too long, a minority of dangerous drivers in Bradford have been blighting Bradford's roads and making the lives of the majority of responsible road users an absolute misery, and I've been pressing both Bradford council and West Yorkshire police to implement a number of road safety measures at accident blackspots in my constituency, while also pressing ministers to impose tougher sentences for dangerous drivers."

Zebra crossings

As per the Highway Code, "drivers and riders should give way to pedestrians waiting to cross and MUST give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing".

Rule 19 states:

Give traffic plenty of time to see you and to stop before you start to cross. Vehicles will need more time when the road is slippery. Wait until traffic has stopped from both directions or the road is clear before crossing.

Remember that traffic does not have to stop until someone has moved onto the crossing. Drivers and riders should give way to pedestrians waiting to cross and MUST give way to pedestrians on a zebra crossing (see ​Rule H2). Keep looking both ways, and listening, in case a driver or rider has not seen you and attempts to overtake a vehicle that has stopped.

 Perhaps unsurprisingly much of the media coverage around the week's incidents has focused on the the footage 'dividing opinion' and tabloids asking 'who is in the right?'

YorkshireLive, part of Reach PLC which also publishes the Daily Express, Daily Star and Mirror, claimed Jeremy Vine "sparks row with footage of Bradford cyclist being hit by car on zebra crossing".

The Express also published a story headlined: "Jeremy Vine causes internet debate as cyclist on zebra crossing is hit by car", while the Mirror said the footage had "sparked furious debate".

Dan joined road.cc in 2020, and spent most of his first year (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. At the start of 2022 he took on the role of news editor. Before joining road.cc, Dan wrote about various sports, including football and boxing for the Daily Express, and covered the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for The Non-League Paper. Part of the generation inspired by the 2012 Olympics, Dan has been 'enjoying' life on two wheels ever since and spends his weekends making bonk-induced trips to the petrol stations of the south of England.

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20 comments

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PRSboy | 1 year ago
4 likes

Its time that the priority between road vehicles and pedestrians was reversed in built-up areas.  I don't understand why just because you are in a road vehicle you have priority over someone who is not.

My favourites are the drivers in a slow moving queue who won't stop to let you cross the road, and then end up stopping in front of you.  These people get my most disgruntled "Oh thank you very much!" as I pointedly walk behind them.  That shows them.

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jh2727 replied to PRSboy | 1 year ago
2 likes

Why only in built up areas? Are rural pedestrians less important?

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Rapha Nadal | 1 year ago
4 likes

The most disturbing thing about that is the driver on the other side of the road slowing down & then just driving off after seeing the lady lying in the road (unsure if they saw her get hit or not).  Is it now beyond people to stop & check when they see something like that?! 

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AlsoSomniloquism replied to Rapha Nadal | 1 year ago
0 likes

Nope, it is the total lack of concern from anyone in the video, not just that driver. The two pedestrians who were also waiting to cross, just stand there and watch, then wave the cars who stopped for them to cross onwards. 

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Muddy Ford | 1 year ago
5 likes

The comments on Twatter highlight how stupid the the population is becoming. Is it the diet? Is it education (or lack of?) or is being stupid a genetic trait and stupid people have more children? 

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open_roads | 1 year ago
6 likes

Bradford doesn't have a "minority of dangerous drivers" - there's a constant flow of accidents and fatalities caused by unlicensed / uninsured drivers and a long standing problem with car theft and motor insurance fraud (staged crashes etc)  to the point where one has to wonder if the issue just reflects a wider cultural attitude to car use.

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VIPcyclist | 1 year ago
10 likes

So full disclosure, I live in the Bradford Met. Driving in Bradford is dangerous, full stop. It's a good idea for BMDC to change this zebra crossing to a pelican, or whatever fully signalled crossing it will be. However as anyone who spends a serious amount of time, 30 hours a week, driving in the city will know, those people who blast across zebra crossing will just blast across, and do blast across, red traffic lights. Is there a solution? A shortage of police, a failing court system, a lack of investment in safe infrastructure and on and on. I think not. My advice is to stay away from Bradford unless you absolutely have to go and work there.

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a1white replied to VIPcyclist | 1 year ago
1 like

I think it's bad, full stop, in lots of cities. Cycling home, the other evening, fro the City in London, along the new Cycleway 4, I had a taxi driver driving along it towards me (fully segragated path- clearly marked as such) I didn't give way to him, so he had to drive over the kerb back onto the road . Pretty sure he did it just to avoid the traffic lights on Rotherhithe roundabout. A little further along, when the cyce lane merges into the road, a car blasted through a red on the signal controlled crossing for cyclists. Good job I guessed he was going to do it and waited for him.

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jh2727 replied to VIPcyclist | 1 year ago
1 like

The solution is heavy duty retractable bollards, which only retract once an approaching vehicle is stationary and there is no-one waiting to cross.

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eburtthebike | 1 year ago
2 likes

If he's horrified by that, just wait till he is strapped to a chair and forced to watch all the episodes of NMOTD.

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yupiteru | 1 year ago
1 like

Rule 19 of the Highway Code has changed, you are quoting the old version in this article.

 

 

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Sriracha | 1 year ago
17 likes
Quote:

A spokesperson said the council will change the zebra crossing to a traffic light signalled crossing "as soon as we can"

Let me guess, it will be equipped with "beg buttons", so pedestrians need to wait for no reason other than to remind them of their place.

The light should change to amber the moment the button is pressed, with any refractory period only at the end of the phase, and then only if sensors indicate a queue of vehicles.

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ktache replied to Sriracha | 1 year ago
8 likes

It's the length of the wait I often find hard to understand. Even on a straight length of road, even if it hadn't been used for many minutes, there could be a 30 second delay. Why?

And on multi road junctions, when the vehicles might be stopped at lights anyway, no automatic green for pedestrians (or cyclists, if toucan). Again, Why? Why no green man from when the vehicles have stopped until 10-15 seconds before the vehicles get to move. I have used some that once the vehicles have stopped, if the beg button has been pressed, the green man will not appear until the vehicles get to move and then stop again. And then this has to be performed multiple times to cross the junction. Why?

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chrisonabike replied to ktache | 1 year ago
5 likes

Your lights are too stupid.  Notjustbikes (being an engineer) has the "compare and contrast" of this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knbVWXzL4-4

(He's also got a good one on crossing the road in the US vs. NL which has some consonance with the UK).

In the final analysis I think it's down to "motor vehicle capacity is the primary objective" plus "keep it simple" (for the drivers mostly - but also for the design and build).  And a measure of UK "risk aversion" - but it's the people making decisions who are avoiding the risk, not the public at large.

Ranty Highwayman also has several deep dives into lights and pedestrian crossings (e.g. here) including how what are (or should be) political decisions about how we allocate space get fobbed off on engineers.

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Awavey replied to ktache | 1 year ago
6 likes

I dont mind at a junction waiting for the next turn, so to speak, what I object to is pressing the button, and the lights doing a full turn sequence for each side of the junction before it decides the pedestrians can cross.

which then annoys me even more when motorists still jump the lights, usually just to join another queue of traffic beyond the lights. Id fit far more cameras to lights, and have pedestrian crossings react instantly to a push button.

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IanMSpencer replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
5 likes

Traffic lights can be programmed to account for weight of traffic. For example, near me there is aright turn filter that appears only to be triggered if the lights sense more than 3 or 4 cars queuing to turn. Some problems will have times so they may change instantly but there is one irritating one near me where I am sure that it will only start a 2 minute timer once the button is pressed.

Having been at a few planning meetings and consultations, the main highways people definitely are primarily concerned with vehicle throughput. In the end, they will get slated for very visible traffic jams. Who noticed pedestrians waiting patiently as being a problem.

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Moist von Lipwig replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
1 like

Signals can operate in a variety of ways, fixed timings with pedestrian phases, fixed with on demand ped phases, loops for queue detetors but most signls are now being upgraded to MOVA whenever theres a highway scheme, which is more intelligent and can adjust its own programming depending on whats going on around it.

https://trlsoftware.com/products/traffic-control/mova/

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jh2727 replied to IanMSpencer | 1 year ago
1 like
IanMSpencer wrote:

Traffic lights can be programmed to account for weight of traffic. For example, near me there is aright turn filter that appears only to be triggered if the lights sense more than 3 or 4 cars queuing to turn. Some problems will have times so they may change instantly but there is one irritating one near me where I am sure that it will only start a 2 minute timer once the button is pressed. Having been at a few planning meetings and consultations, the main highways people definitely are primarily concerned with vehicle throughput. In the end, they will get slated for very visible traffic jams. Who noticed pedestrians waiting patiently as being a problem.

Two things (and I'm probably preaching to the choir):
 1. Beg buttons generally benefit no-one. They delay pedestrians for no reason, often there will be a natural break in the traffic the and the waiting pedestrian(s) will cross and then the light will change and traffic will be held up unnecessarily.
 2. If we want less traffic, we need to encourage people to drive less. A very cheap way of giving a little encouragement to those who choose not to drive, is avoid penalising pedestrians who want to cross the road.

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brooksby replied to Awavey | 1 year ago
2 likes

Most of the junctions I use on the cycle path alongside the A369 travelling near Bristol are of this kind.  If you don't press the button, there will be no 'pedestrian' phase at all.  If you do press it, you will get a short 'pedestrian' phase at the set time in the cycle (which bears no relation to where in the cycle you actually pressed the button, if you see what I mean).

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jh2727 replied to brooksby | 1 year ago
0 likes
brooksby wrote:

Most of the junctions I use on the cycle path alongside the A369 travelling near Bristol are of this kind.  If you don't press the button, there will be no 'pedestrian' phase at all.  If you do press it, you will get a short 'pedestrian' phase at the set time in the cycle (which bears no relation to where in the cycle you actually pressed the button, if you see what I mean).

I don't know if I'd class this as a beg button - in my mind beg buttons are the ones which are on lights that aren't part of a cycle, the ones which penalise pedestrians (and cyclists in the case of Toucan crossings) for absolutely no reason and for no benefit to anyone.

The buttons which form part of a cycle are different, I don't necessarily expect a whole sequence to change because there people waiting to cross... that said, they aren't without issues - my two biggest issues with them are:

 1. They often show a red man when it is perfectly safe to cross - there might be a left filter which shows traffic a red light for 3/4 of the time, but even so, it will generally only show a green man for 1/4 of the time.

 2. Large junctions are often designed such that pedestrians, if they choose to wait for a green man, must cross a crossing in several stages, going from one refuge to the next.  There might be 3 refuges, meaning that pedestrians have to wait for 4 full cycles of the traffic lights to cross a single road.

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