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Title:	Install 2 Pedestrian Crossings on Pixmore Avenue, Letchworth Garden City. 1 near Wissen Drive/ Broughton Hill and another 1 near Wissen Drive/Ridge Avenue.
Petition Overview:	The Phoenix Park Residential Development was built more than 6 years ago on land that was previously used for other purposes, which were not a large residential housing development.The Phoenix Park Residential Development is just off of Pixmore Avenue, the two roads which are for access to and from the development are both known as Wissen Drive. Despite the fact that it was built it appears that nothing was or has been done to ensure there are safe crossing points for pedestrians crossing the extremely busy Pixmore Avenue road.This is a dangerous road not only with the volume and flow of traffic, the bend on Pixmore Avenue but with speeding vehicles and the flow of lorries. The road is not catered for lorries and they should really take alternative routes instead of Pixmore Avenue which is now more of a residential area. It appears a number of lorries and other commercial vehicles use Pixmore Avenue as a cut through to get to works road or to the businesses situated at the works road end of Pixmore Avenue.There are a number of pedestrians including the elderly, disabled people and children that are crossing Pixmore Avenue on a regular basis at different times of the day or night. They are needing to cross for reasons such as to go to work, shopping, doctors, and the train station to list some. Another reason is that it is a route for children to pass through to reach various schools in the area.There are a number of children that live on the Phoenix Park Development as well as the surrounding areas that attend the local preschools, nurseries and primary schools, who would not fully understand crossing the road or judging the speed of vehicles or the flow of traffic. It is difficult to cross with buggies, children on small bikes or scooters or even children walking as it is a fast busy road and pedestrians need eyes and ears everywhere.This road is extremely hard to cross and pedestrians are taking risks. When it turns dark and with the changing seasons, the bend, blinding sun or wet or icy roads only increase the risks.It is extremely worrying that there have been incidents between pedestrians and vehicles, fortunately none requiring the aid of emergency services. There have been instances where even when a car does notice a pedestrian and slows down to let a pedestrian cross another vehicle tries to overtake it and pedestrians are left open in the road. Pedestrians are having to rush to safety to get out of the road from speeding vehicles. Even having to constantly look to see if the road is safe to cross because of inconveniently parked vehicles that are parked blocking pedestrians views on bends or junctions is a high risk.Residents have come together for action before there are serious accidents or fatalities. We cannot stress enough how important the crossings are. The quicker something is put in place the less risks there are to pedestrians lives.At least 2 new pedestrian crossings need to be built on Pixmore Avenue. 1 crossing near Wissen Drive/Broughton Hill and another near Wissen Drive/Ridge Avenue as they are main routes for pedestrians walking for the various reasons stated above.They are essential to ensure that there are safe crossing points for ALL pedestrians at ALL times of the day and night. It is just luck that there has not been a serious accident and no lives should have to be sacrificed before something is done.The crossings that we the undersigned are petitioning for will not only help road safety but will also help the Hertfordshire’s walking strategy that is trying to encourage pedestrians to walk and to encourage a healthy lifestyle. Under the Hertfordshire’s County Councils Walking section of the transport policy it states that you are implementing measures to increase the priority of pedestrians relative to motor vehicles, therefore our request for the two crossings will help promote your strategy.
Relevant Area(s):	Not Specified
Opening Date:	08/01/2017
closing Date:	09/04/2017
Signatures:	63
Petitioner Name:	Nicola Balch

E-Petition – Pixmore Avenue, Letchworth Garden City Thank you for your e-petition on the Hertfordshire County Council website concerning the above, which closed on 9th April 2017. In order to consider the request for formal pedestrian crossing points in Pixmore Avenue, Letchworth, a feasibility study would need to be funded and this study would check the desired crossing locations, outline design criteria such as visibility issues, the most suitable form of crossing related to traffic flows and pedestrian movements. There are a number of potential sources of funding for new formal crossing facilities and these are outlined below: Road Safety Funding The current accident data has been checked and there have been 3 slight injury accidents along the whole length of Pixmore Avenue in the latest 3 year period and none of these involved pedestrians. This location would therefore not attract core funding from Hertfordshire County Council’s annual Road Safety budget. The Council's road safety engineering specialists consider all reported personal injury collisions in the County on an annual basis and identify locations at which there are concentrations of reported injury collisions. Taking into account the collision history for the entire County, the Council initiates road safety engineering enhancements, on a prioritised basis, where we identify there are aspects of the road environment that could be modified and/or improved to reduce the potential for future collisions. Urban Transport Plan There are currently no proposals within the Letchworth & Baldock Urban Transport Plan for formal crossing facilities in Pixmore Avenue and Hertfordshire County Council has no suitable S106 funding for the provision of such a facility (Section 106 funding is provided by developers under their planning consent to resolve potential highway issues resulting from their new development). We are currently liaising with North Herts District Council to see if they hold any S106 funding that could be used to undertake potential crossing facilities at this location. However, it is anticipated that NHDC are unlikely to be holding suitable Section 106 funds for this purpose. Highway Locality Budgets An alternative source of funding could be through the Local County Councillor’s Highway Locality Budget (HLB). County Councillors have £90,000 each financial year to spend on highway related matters in their constituency. This can be allocated to highway maintenance work (e.g. to supplement Hertfordshire County Council’s annual works programme and our Term Contractor’s maintenance budgets) and miscellaneous traffic/highway related works, such as formal pedestrian crossings. In term s of the initial feasibility study we are currently in a Pre-election Restriction on Publicity period (PERP), as there are County Council elections on 4th May 2017. However, once the election is concluded, the Assistant Highway Manager for the North Herts area will discuss this issue with the incoming Member for potential funding into an initial feasibility study.

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