AN elderly Huntingdon pedestrian on her way home from church was snatched from a potentially fatal road accident at the town s new George Street junction, councillors heard this week. It was just one incident to have befallen residents of the 87 homes for
AN elderly Huntingdon pedestrian on her way home from church was snatched from a potentially fatal road accident at the town's new George Street junction, councillors heard this week.
It was just one incident to have befallen residents of the 87 homes for the "active elderly" at Millfield, in Brampton Road, site of the former county hospital, near the railway station.
The complex's manager pleaded with councillors to simplify traffic management arrangements there and at the new crossing near Huntingdon bus station since the installation of the contra-flow bus lane.
Pamela Fearon complained that Cambridgeshire County Council's offer to show residents a DVD of how to use the new crossings was "patronising". Not so, countered members of the district's traffic management committee on Monday, who said they would find it helpful, too.
Mrs Fearon said her residents had monitored the bus lane, which allows a right turn for public service vehicles from Brampton Road towards the bus station. In 30 minutes there had been 13 changes of lights in the bus lane's favour, but only one bus.
"It's an accident waiting to happen," she told the committee. "Many of these people have been using this crossing for 20 years without mishap," she added.
Philip Crack, the county council's head of major transport infrastructure, said it took time to find the best sequence for the traffic signals that offered the least delay for pedestrians and traffic.
The new signals include a "revolving cone" that enables blind of partially-sighted people to know when it is safe to cross the road.
But that was the very thing that had let down the elderly church-goer, Mrs Fearon said.
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