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Pedestrian island ruled out for Mount Murray dip
A PEDESTRIAN island has been ruled out for one of the Island's busiest roads.
Central line markings on the New Castletown Road – close to the spot in Santon where pedestrian Dru Hamm was killed last November – were removed several weeks ago.
Director of highways Richard Pearson said work to reinstate them had been delayed pending a decision on whether a new pedestrian island should be located to help people crossing to and from the Mount Murray estate.
But now the preliminary results of a safety audit have concluded that a installing pedestrian islands is not the solution.
Subject to review, the scheme is not now to go ahead for the time being.
Instead, new hatched markings will be put on the road to protect the entrance to the Hop Garden and hopefully slow traffic down.
A new road surface dressing is to be applied next week after which the central white lines are to be reinstated as well as the new hatched markings.
Mr Pearson explained that white lines had been removed at seven or eight other locations around the Island where an anti-skid surface dressing had previously been applied to the road.
He said these surface dressings had been applied over the existing white lines but after several years the old lines had started to shine through.
'We've decided to remove them, then apply a new surface dressing and then put the white lines back.'
He said he did not believe there to be a serious safety risk from having the white lines missing but would prefer to see them reinstated.
Proposals to create a pedestrian refuge on the stretch of New Castletown Road by the Mount Murray estate follow calls for action from parents who fear for the safety of their children crossing to and from the bus stop.
And in November, the site was the scene of a tragic accident involving Dru Hamm.
She was killed crossing the road from her home on the Mount Murray estate to a lay-by by the Hop Garden where she had arranged to be collected by a work colleague to be taken to the airport.
Dru was hailed last week at the inquest into her death for her tremendous courage in confronting the cerebral palsy she was born with to lead and full and active life including twice taking part in the Parish Walk. The inquest heard how a taxi had swerved to avoid a motionless body in the road.
Mr Pearson said: 'We may do the pedestrian islands in the future but not at the moment.
'The issue was whether motorists could see them if they were on a dip. They could be more trouble than they're worth.
'All we are doing now is putting hatchings in to protect the turning into the Hop Garden and hopefully slow vehicles down and deter them from overtaking.'
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
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YOUR COMMENTS
I hope there'll be nothing slapdash about this new pedestrian island as I believe you can't get one for under half a million quid these days. Perhaps we could employ the same firm of consultants, design team, and project manager that are doing such a great job on Richmond Hill. We don't want to hear the tired old excuse of budgetary restraint trotted out to defend substandard investment in one of our main arterial trunk routes linking Ronaldsway to the capital.
WHITE LINE MAN
The director of highways clearly does not understand anything about safety or risk and has no interest in improving standards. No surprise really when you look at all the evidence on the islands roads that we see each day.
RON
If there is no risk to safety, why were they put there in the first place? The answer was because of a double fatality in the dip a number of years ago. Typical spin from the department of Incompetence. Someone has screwed up and they won't admit it.
GEOFF, Douglas
The answer should be clear. Where the dip is, build the road over it and make a footpath tunnel under the road, at the same time also create a faster road, a massive roundabout and the Hop Garden could use a much bigger car park.....
SM
Place the Chief Minister at the bottom of the dip in a yellow fluorescent jacket and treat him as a roundabout.
ANGRY MANXMAN
Excellent suggestion by SM, they could use some of the spoil created by the roadworks further down the road. This would also create the island's first and only pedestrian underpass, this could be marketed by the tourist board, and if done successfully would help to boost the airport passenger figures as well as paying for itself in a short period... and for that reason I am in!
NICKTHEGREEK
So the powers that be have listened to the views of worried parents and managed to take all summer to come to the conclusion to do nothing - just in time for the schools going back and children on the school buses having to cross the road as the nights & mornings get darker. Will it take the death of a child before someone wakes up to the danger? If Mr Pearson truly believes that hatchings will slow the traffic down, then I think he is living in a dream world. 'We may do the pedestrian islands in the future but not at the moment.' Presumably future traffic islands will be more visible to motorists than the ones available today. If the desire is to deter overtaking, would double white lines not achieve that?
A WORRIED MOUNT MURRAY PARENT
I travel that road to work every day and hatched markings may deter cars from overtaking but in my experience some motor bike riders use them as their own personal overtaking lane…. My worry would be that a pedestrian may use these area's as a mid crossing stopping point thinking that they are safe. Something really does need to be done and sooner rather than later before another name is added to the tragic list of fatalities.
LW
LW I wouldn't be too harsh on motorcyclsts, Cars are just as bad!! Not all motorcyclists are bad. Nick I'm glad you like the idea!! But if we attact more visitors we need a bigger runway.....
SM
What we have here is an accident blackspot, no less. Whilst our wonderful Director of Highways deliberated the case, the only saving grace, the white lines, were removed. We need some sort of traffic calming at this point; it is a fast road and poorly lit, like the rest of our main roads. Hatching is useless; we need better lighting, a proper refuge and decent signage. Not rocket science, is it?
TN
Its very interesting to see how the original wording in this article has been changed to remove the quote about "no risk to safety" without saying its a "revision" or redating it.
RON
Editor's note: To clarify, the online article was originally the same one published in this week's Manx Independent. However, further information came to light on Friday morning, after the paper was in the shops, and the article was edited accordingly to contain the most accurate detail. The published date appears at the top of an article, while the time and date of the last amendment appears at the foot of an article. On reflection, perhaps we should have deleted the original and created a new article in order to prevent any confusion.
If our DOI likes to make things more complicated and expensive than
they need to be then maybe they will get hold of some more
automatically rising bollards like is intended for Castletown.. Or alternatively come up with a proper IOM Government solution and
build a flyover or a bascule type bridge. None of which would actually be my choice of solution.
LAXEY DWARF
Now we know where the white lines went to,its taken all summer for this Pearson chap to decide that no crossing will be put there,only waste money on surface dressing,hatchings,and white lines,I wonder in terms of earnings/salary has it cost for this person to figure out such a bad decision,is it @ 75 a hour?. The road surface condition is perfect,it dosn't need those infernal chippings,double white lines yes,a pelican crossing yes,for god's sake we are talking about peoples safety here not money,if the MHK for the area can't see what he is doing,he should resign.
EORH
I am so amazed at all of the sites we have around the island where crossing the road is a perceived hazard .. Surely the obvious measure would be to build a foot bridge across the roads .. We have them at the grandstand, and one at Bray hill that are only used twice a year .. So why can we not have them at key spots around the Island, that can be used all the time .. Look forward to hearing why that's not a feasible idea ..
BRUNEL
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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