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Letter: Dropped kerbs can be dangerous
For several years I have been at a loss to understand why the Highways Department see fit to install dropped kerbs at the entrance to roundabouts, encouraging the impression that this is just another pedestrian crossing.
Where there is more than one lane of traffic joining a roundabout, such as at the ‘Sussex’ at the bottom of Hazelgrove Road/South Road, this is especially hazardous.
Drivers approaching any roundabout are, quite correctly, looking to their right for traffic to which to give way, not looking left for pedestrians.
To make matters worse, some well-meaning drivers stop and wave pedestrians across, even when there is no traffic coming from the right.
The obvious danger here is that the visibility of the driver in the other lane is obscured by the vehicle that has stopped, and suddenly a pedestrian comes into his/her view at the last minute.
This is quite a heart-stopping experience; one that I have had more than once.
I had thought that these dropped kerbs might be a hangover from the days when we had less traffic in towns, but no! – even the new roundabouts are designed in this way, viz. the large one at the top of Fox Hill.
If drivers are required to allow crossing on or at roundabouts, let us have pelican lights, as in the Broadway, and then everyone will know what they are supposed to do.
Sylvia Knowles
Queens Court
Haywards Heath
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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