Danger at Hercules Road / Lambeth Road

 On the way to lunch in the Corner Cafe at the junction of Hercules Road and Lambeth Road today, I pointed out to a colleague the lack of any lights for pedestrians wanting to cross Hercules Road. I took a quick photo, little expecting just two hours later to see a pedestrian who was trying to cross here come as close to being run over by a skip lorry as I ever want to see.

We were waiting on our bikes for the lights, below, to turn green so we could exit Hercules Road. A man wanted to cross Hercules Road from the pavement on our right

 With no pedestrian lights to guide him,  after a puzzled look around he started hesitantly to walk out. The skip lorry meanwhile was straddling the lanes on Lambeth Road (below) and the driver swung left into the road past the pedestrian who jolted to a stop just in the nick of time at a shouted warning from another pedestrian.

While the skip lorry driver, in my opinion, took the corner too quickly to allow for pedestrians, I can see how he may have presumed, given a left hand turn lane and a green traffic light, that pedestrians would be faced with their red light to deter them from attempting to cross when the driver was permitted to turn. Given that people do make mistakes and a lot of commercial traffic turns here, having lights guiding pedestrians as to when they can safely cross is a no-brainer.

The pedestrian retreated to the pavement. His second attempt to cross, when the traffic light went red didn't work either because, as he was thinking about stepping out, traffic started flowing out of Hercules Road having got the green light.

For all I know he may still be there. Looking at the photo above, you can see there is no crossing provided across Lambeth Road at this side of the junction. A child or adult walking along the left pavement of Lambeth Road is provided with no other option here than to hazard a guess at the traffic lights phasing and try to get across - and only then do they have a safely controlled point to cross Lambeth Road.

I very much hope that this hazard will be addressed as part of the Quietway that will run from Hercules Road to Sail Street. It certainly needs to be addressed to support the Mayor of London's and Lambeth Council's Healthy Streets agenda.