An MHK is ’filled with horror’ at the uncontrolled crossing in Ballabeg after the infrastructure minister admitted he wasn’t happy with it.

MHK Jason Moorhouse asked the Minister for Infrastructure Tim Crookall what plans he had to review the ’red line’ across the road outside Arbory Parish Hall at the House of Keys sitting last week.

Mr Crookall said: ’I still have reservations not only about this red line/uncontrolled crossing but others in the area and elsewhere.

’A review has started and is taking place of this and other uncontrolled crossings and any changes will be implemented as soon as reasonably practical.’

An uncontrolled or informal crossing is where the pedestrian doesn’t have priority to cross the road.

After the sitting, the member for Arbory, Castletown and Malew said he was still ’really concerned’.

He said: ’There are no dates for the review to be completed.

’The minister spoke about a visually impaired person leaving the parish hall and crossing the road to get a bus - the thought filled me with horror.’

Mr Crookall gave advice on how to use an uncontrolled crossing which Mr Moorhouse found to be worrying.

He said that at an uncontrolled crossing the pedestrian didn’t have priority over vehicle traffic and they ’must make their own decision’ about whether it’s safe to cross.

They are also used to help pedestrians in finding a good location to cross the road where the intervisibility between drivers and pedestrians waiting to cross the road is the best.

Mr Moorhouse raised concerns during the sitting about the tactile paving either side of the crossing. Its texture is usually used to assist those who are visually impaired when crossing the road.

He asked if they could be looked at ’as a priority’ because he felt they suggested to visually impaired people that the crossing is a ’designated and recognised road crossing’ and someone new to the area could ’be put in peril’ because of this.

Mr Moorhouse said: ’This advice made reference to there being visual contact between the driver and a pedestrian.

’In these cases that simply cannot be done, the [tactile] paving must be removed as a priority.

’With the darker mornings and evenings, I am genuinely concerned about children on their way to school and the visually impaired.’

Mr Crookall admitted there should be signage put up but he wanted to look at the crossings and see what needed to be done.

Stressing it is a ’legal uncontrolled crossing’, he said: ’Any road colouring can be used on the highway, subject to meeting performance specifications and skid resistance, as an example.’

The minister continued: ’If we do anything and we do have markings on the road there will be a loss of parking.

’The tactile paving has been put in because you have got the hall there, you have got the bus shelter on the other side of the road and it has been assessed as being the safest place to do it at the moment.

’I am not happy with it and hence the review of that one and others in the island.’

He said that the work in Ballabeg has been through a safety review after a scheme to put in informal crossings, widen paths, realign junctions and introduce 1,600 square metres of coloured surfacing on the road had been completed.

This review confirmed that the scheme had been ’successful’ in reducing speeds on the main road but noted that more mitigation measures could be considered.

This comes after other uncontrolled crossings and road markings have been introduced around the island.

A cyclist died after being involved in a collision with a car at a crossing on Curragh Road, St John’s, in January.

A pink and white Celtic motif was marked across the road at the point where it meets the heritage trail to form a crossing.

The coroner of inquests gave a number of recommendations to the Department of Infrastructure, saying Manx residents weren’t familiar with that type of crossing which caused safety concerns.

Earlier this year, two ’roundels’ were painted on Douglas promenade.

Originally said to be roundabouts, the guidance was changed and drivers were told to treat them as unmarked junctions where no one has priority.

In September, the government made a U-turn on the red and black crossing outside Kirk Michael Primary School after it was admitted the contrast between the red and black ’wasn’t as good’ as they had wanted.

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