PEDESTRIANS AT BRADFIELD

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PEDESTRIANS AT BRADFIELD
By Bertie Gregory, James Davey and Alex
Crump-Haill
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Pedestrian traffic at Bradfield College

• Pedestrian safety is an on-going problem at
  Bradfield College. These are our perceptions of
  the problem
• The large amount of traffic.
• The black uniforms cannot be seen on the dark
  evenings.
• The lack of street lamps makes it difficult and
  dangerous to cross the roads.
• Pupils at the College are as young as thirteen
  and may have limited road safety sense.
• The number of students on the small pavements
  during rush hour may force pupils onto the busy
  and dangerous roads.
• Over the course of this project we are trying to
  find out how to make Bradfield a safer place and
  to see if our perceptions are actually true.

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The large amount of traffic
To find out if this was actually true we took
traffic counts during ten minute periods in what
we perceived to be off peak and peak times.
This demonstrates an increase in traffic volume
of 161 during peak time. As Bradfield is a
relatively small village we wanted to know why so
much traffic came through
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The black uniforms cannot be seen on the dark
evenings.

• At Bradfield College, the uniform is all black.
  We think that this is dangerous because the
  pupils cannot be seen by drivers, so we asked a
  number of drivers that come through Bradfield
  regularly and this is what they said
• Last week I nearly ran a child down because he
  didnt appear until I was very close.
• I almost ran over about ten children because
  there are no street lamps to show their uniforms
  up.
• Seeing them is hard enough but now they have
  black uniforms its impossible.
• 18/20 people questioned said either there weren't
  enough street lamps or that the uniforms were
  potentially dangerous.

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The lack of street lamps
There arent any street lamps around the College
because the College is an historical site and
needs to be preserved. However what is more
important history or safety? Obviously, the
safety of the pedestrians, so we have made the
following plan for subtle street lighting, taking
into account positioning and design.
The red dots are where we would like the street
lamps to be positioned.
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Street lamps plan
However we do not just want any street lamps, we
want subtle ones that would fit in at Bradfield,
so we did some research and these are the ones we
thought would fit in well
These would be attached to the school side.
These would be placed opposite the school.
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Pedestrian awareness
Seeing as most of the pedestrians at Bradfield
are children, we knew that this would be a
hazard. So to help pupil awareness we would like
to propose a compulsory road safety workshop to
be held annually. We think that this will have a
huge impact on the pupils view on how dangerous
roads can be. This workshop will not only help
them now, but in future life as well.
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The number of students on the pavements
Unfortunately, the lesson timetable coincides
with the cars rush hours. So there are hundreds
of pupils walking on relatively small pavements,
some pupils even being forced onto the road. In
order to make the roads safer to walk by, a
staggering system should be enforced for example
550 Year 9 lessons finish 555 Year 10
lessons finish 600 Year 11 lessons finish 605
Year 12 lessons finish 610 Year 13 lessons
finish This system spreads out pupils going to
their houses making Bradfield a safer place.
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Is West Berkshire Council doing enough?
In recent years, traffic calming measures have
been put in place around the Bradfield
crossroads, for example, the traffic pinches.
However, recent traffic surveys with temporary
speed cameras have shown cars still speed though
at greater than the current limit. WBC
will not put up speed cameras unless there are
three serious injuries at the site - we dont
want to wait for that to happen. We would like to
propose that WBC introduce these speed signs
instead, permanently
Note these are vehicle-activated and should be
placed at all four approaches to the crossroads.
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• In conclusion
• The reason for the high amount of traffic is
  because people use the village as a by-pass off
  the main roads. Our proposal for
  vehicle-activated speed signs may deter or
  control this traffic.
• The black uniforms are dangerous. The only way
  to make this issue safer is by changing the
  uniforms. So an enquiry must be made to the
  Headmaster.
• The lack of street lamps is a big problem at
  Bradfield, as we said earlier, safety is more
  important than history, so our street lamp plan
  should be seriously looked at.
• The children at the College must be taught to
  treat the roads with the right amount of care,
  therefore our workshop idea must be taken into
  account.
• The issue with the timetable and rush hour is
  probably the biggest - the lesson times must be
  staggered. Again, an enquiry must be made to the
  Headmaster.
• Our target is to make Bradfield College a safer
  place. We hope you will follow up our plans so we
  can fulfil our aim. Thank you.