There are a number of deficiencies in the use of dropped kerbs, tactile paving and other methods to provide safe and easy crossings for pedestrians, including those who have mobility or visual impairments.
The junction of Thornybauk (also known as Lochrin Terrace) and Home Street is wide and difficult to cross. There is no dropped kerb or tactile paving at the south side of this junction which should be rectified (Figure 12). In the longer term, the road should be narrowed if possible to make it easier for pedestrians crossing – especially if travelling northwards along Home Street, where traffic turning left (ie from behind the pedestrian) can be fast. The junction would also benefit from a consolidation of signage and removal of guardrails, it is appreciated that this would require full consideration of the needs of the local Fire and Rescue service which is based further up the street.
On the east side of Home Street, three slabs of tactile paving are missing at the pedestrian crossing at William Hill. In several locations, e.g. at Home Street/Tarvit Street junction, and at the main Tollcross junction, dropped kerbs are not adequately installed currently and should be replaced; outside James Morrow (Home Street East), the vertical drop was measured as 40mm (Figure 13). Remedial works should ensure that kerbs are not merely ‘lowered’ but are flush with the carriageway surface.
On Lochrin Place (North), there are four dropped kerbs (outside 20, 22 and up to 19 West Tollcross) which appear to be designed for access to waste storage in the tenements. These all have tactile paving incorrectly installed, signalling to someone with a visual impairment that it is a safe crossing point. However, there are no dropped kerbs or tactile paving on the corresponding (south) side of Lochrin Place (as the dropped kerbs are not intended to facilitate pedestrian movement but access to waste bins).
We suggest that consideration is given to retaining the current dropped kerb/tactile paving at the far west (canal) end of Lochrin Place and at 20 Lochrin Place, and installing a similar dropped kerb with tactile paving on the opposite (south) side of the road. This would provide crossing points at these two locations and be intelligible and useful to people with a visual impairment. For the other two dropped kerbs, we recommend that the tactile paving is removed and replaced with a standard paving surface. This would eliminate the misleading signal to blind pedestrians that this has been designed as a safe location to cross Lochrin Place.
On the south side of Lochrin Place, there is a significant problem at Lochrin Autos (Figures 15, 16). Most obviously, the pedestrian route is blocked through a lack of parking controls and the apparently long-term parking of an advertising trailer on the corner of the pavement. There are also old rusty metal bollards, presumably intended to deter pavement parking, and there are no dropped kerbs or tactile paving on either side of the minor junction. Our recommendation here is to make the pavement continuous across the garage junction in order to provide a level surface giving priority to pedestrians (rather than install dropped kerbs). There will be a need for tactile paving to signal to visually impaired people that vehicles might cross the pavement at this point. This would also permit the bollards to be removed.