A Johnstone councillor recently arranged a meeting to highlight growing concerns by local residents over the safety of three pedestrian crossings on a busy road in Johnstone.
Johnstone and Elderslie councillor Iain McMillan invited residents from nearby housing schemes to meet at the two crossings at the bottom of Rannoch Road, on Beith Road, in the town to voice their concerns regarding the layout.
There is a Zebra Crossing at the bottom of Tower Road and another two crossings at the bottom of Rannoch Road and on Beith Road in the town.
During the meeting there were several concerns flagged over the crossings which include the fact they are poorly lit and that the two crossings at the bottom of Tower Road are too close together and one too close to a junction.
Another concern is overgrown bushes impacting on the sight lines for drivers and the crossings being on a dip.
Residents have claimed to have been involved or witnessed near misses which have led to residents and drivers expressing concerns over the safety of these crossings.
Renfrewshire Council confirmed that they will be installing pedestrian islands in the centre of the crossings by the end of March.
A nearby resident, Dom Mcgee, said “I saw a young man being knocked down a few weeks ago and I am worried more accidents will happen.
“It seems a combination of the crossings being poorly planned and driver behaviour is causing the problem ”
Johnstone Castle resident Mirin Paxton added: “As well as these two crossings I am also concerned about the crossing at the bottom of nearby Tower Road where there have also been incidents including one where I was almost knocked down by a bus.”
Iain McMillan, who is leader of the Scottish Labour Group at Renfrewshire Council, told Renfrewshire News: “I would not be doing my job as a councillor if I simply ignored the dangers associated with these crossings including the one at Tower Road.
“I have contacted the council who said the crossings were fine, but I beg to differ and I, along with local people and the Johnstone Community Council are asking for urgent action to allay people’s concerns.”
A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said, “We carried out a safety assessment at this crossing in March 2022. The lighting levels on the crossings themselves are good. We are using crossing poles that providing lighting directly above the yellow, flashing belisha beacons. These light the crossing directly. The crossings are also situated beside a full height streetlight.
“To improve safety even more we are installing pedestrian islands in the centre of the crossings. These will be in place by the end of March. It is important to remember though that driver behaviour plays a significant role in road safety.
“Drivers breaking the speed limit and drivers going too fast for the road conditions are key factors which contribute to road traffic accidents.”
Headline photo: Residents put their opinions across at a recent meeting at the bottom on Rannoch Road in Johnstone
Photo: One of two pedestrian crossings at the bottom of Rannoch Road at Beith Road, Johnstone
Photo Credit: Renfrewshire News
Photo: The second of two pedestrian crossings at the bottom of Rannoch Road at Beith Road, Johnstone
Photo Credit: Renfrewshire News
Photo: The pedestrian crossing at the bottom of Tower Road at Beith Road, Johnstone
Photo Credit: Renfrewshire News
Even the main picture accompanying the article highlights one of the major issues with these crossings which is extremely poor visibility of the whole general area along the road (you can hardly see the faces of the folks in the pic yet bits of the background are practically floodlit).
The LED street lighting has a very narrow light-cast compared to the sodium (yellow) lights they replaced, so anything further than a few feet from where they are placed is in almost total darkness, plus the light itself is ‘cold white’ and dazzling meaning that anything behind or in front of the cast of the light is in fact obscured as your eyes focus only on the light. I know they were installed for environmental purposes, but there have been massive improvements in LED street-light design since these early-adopted things that the Beith Road and most of Johnstone has, specifically to address these known issues. And all this is before you go into the crazy placing of the crossings themselves. The centre islands the council are planning to put in are typical wrong-headed thinking (why does everything ‘road-safety’ in their mind have to involve building obstacles?).
I am willing to bet it will only be a short time before there is a major accident and a car is flipped on its roof after clipping one of these islands due to the poor lighting mentioned above (and the car concerned would not have to be speeding – a 10MPH collision with a stationary object is enough to turn a car over – search YouTube for “10MPH car flip” for details). The correct solution would be to get rid of the zebra crossing at the foot of Tower Road and direct pedestrians to use the long-existing pelican crossing just along from it, and get rid of the unnecessary and excessive zebra crossing at the bottom of Rannoch Road in the Quarrelton Road direction, and replace the zebra crossing in the High School direction with a pelican crossing.
Enrico Vanni I’m not sure if it was u who said many many months ago that the led lighting and beacons are in the wrong place – the led should cast down on the pavement to somewhat highlight
Pedestrians waiting to cross rather than the road??
Angie Kaplan – yes, that was me. Because the orange beacons marking the zebra crossings hang high over the pavement and the LEDs hang over the road this has the effect of making a pedestrian standing on the pavement waiting to cross almost invisible to a driver’s perception, because the driver’s eyes will be drawn to the flashing orange above where the pedestrian is waiting and then to a bright white light in front of where they are waiting (illuminating an empty crossing) so the pedestrian is the least noticeable thing, standing in the darkest spot in a driver’s line of sight. Even if someone is being super vigilant and driving extremely carefully, it is still asking too much of them to slow down and stop for something they don’t perceive to be there. They are not ignoring the crossing, they just think it’s empty. So, pedestrians then get frustrated and take a chance and step out and then it is too late for the driver to react. The term ‘accident waiting to happen’ gets overused sometimes, but I can’t think of a more accurate description for this setup.
Enrico Vanni I remembered the comment and when I looked it made sense. Iain Macmillan surely this change would be an easy fix in the interim?? Iain Mcmillan