Silent lights no good for blind

THEY are supposed to help visually-impaired people cross the road.

But traffic lights in Cheltenham have been criticised for making it harder for the blind.

Randall Northam, who runs publishing company Sports Books Ltd in Montpellier, was perplexed by new lights in Lansdown Road that were mysteriously silent.

Instead the lights, near the Westal Green roundabout and petrol station, had a small poster explaining a vibrating “tactile spinner” would tell visually impaired people when it was safe to cross.

But Mr Northam, 64, asks: “How are blind people supposed to read the poster?

“Those people we elect to make our lives a little easier and the people they employ have excelled themselves yet again.

“A little green man flashes on your side of the road and then you can cross.

“If you have impaired visibility there is a little knob underneath which vibrates.

“All well and good but they do not explain how, if you have impaired visibility, you can read the notice explaining what you should do.

“It strikes me as ludicrous, the same system is used all throughout the world and when you hear that noise you know what it means.

“What happens if there's two people at the traffic lights with sight problems, how are they both supposed to know if they can cross or not?”

Frank Heggs, principal engineer for Gloucestershire Highways, defended the new lights, which he said were now the standard model.

“We were asked to put in a pedestrian crossing facility in Hatherley Road as there's never been a crossing facility there and a lot of elderly people use that road,” he said.

“So the traffic lights were also all refurbished and were fully commissioned at the end of June.

“The problem with the beeping traffic lights is if there are two sets of lights, how are you supposed to know whether the noise you have heard relates to you or not?

“This design is well known to blind and visually impaired people.”

He added: “The posters are not aimed at visually impaired people, but at children and other people who don't know how to cross the road.

“We wanted people to understand how to use the lights.”

Lawrence Elcocks, traffic manager at Gloucestershire County Council, said the new lights had helped alleviate traffic problems on the road.

He also said the new model lights had been installed in other places around the town, and more would be rolled out as part of ongoing replacement works.