City streets put blind in danger

Oct 22 2008 by Donald Morton, Stirling Observer Wednesday

BLIND people say they are in danger in the city centre.

And they warned they could take Stirling Council to court over the so-called “shared space” in King Street and Murray Place.

The area has no traffic lights, pavements or heavy signage.

The system is based on no one having right of way, forcing motorists and pedestrians to make eye contact and decide among themselves when it is safe to proceed.

As a result buses, taxis and pedestrians all share the same space.

But Jane Horsburgh from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association said the system poses dangers to people who are partially-sighted or blind.

She said: “We take this very, very seriously. In fact, this is an issue that we have to win for blind and partially-sighted people.

“We've taken legal advice and we may find ourselves in the courts with local authorities because we don't actually think that they're complying with the new disability equality duty.

“We may find ourselves taking them to the courts to chase this.

“We know that local authorities want to create a nice social space and reduce the dominance of cars. One of the ways they do this is creating a shared space with no kerbs or actual carriageway.

“But blind and partially-sighted people use kerbs to navigate their way around. They use them to keep out of the way of traffic for their safety.

“With no kerb they don't know where they are going and that can compromise safety.”

Janet Scott from Stirling, who uses a cane and a guide dog, said that since the system has been adopted in Stirling she has felt unsafe in the city centre.

She said: “I find it quite dangerous. I'm finding that I actually now avoid this area of the city centre and go out of my way to find a safe place to cross.

“Before the shared surfaces it was easy enough for me to identify the kerbs. Now it's difficult to locate the safe areas and identify what is the pedestrian area and what is the traffic area.”

Les Goodfellow, head of roads, transport and land services for Stirling Council, said the impact of the scheme would be re-evaluated.

He added: “We were very conscious of the fact that there were a whole range of users in this space that needed to be considered.

“As part of the design process we involved the local visually-impaired group and took on board a number of the issues that they raised with us and have incorporated them into the final design.

“"We have incorporated a number of features in the design like the tactile paving to identify these spaces as different for the visually impaired.”