People who have fallen or stumbled at the cycle path in Keynsham High Street are being asked to share their experiences for a scientific study.
Looking at the cycle lane on Keynsham High Street from different perspectives
Prof Ute Leonards, from the School of Psychological Science at the University of Bristol, has linked up with Keynsham councillor Hal MacFie to get a properly based analysis.
They need more evidence from a scientific point before they suggest to Bath & North East Somerset Council what action should be taken.
Since the cycle lane was introduced nearly two years ago, more than 100 people have injured themselves, some seriously.
Last summer Prof Leonards and two colleagues, Nick Scott-Samuel, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol, and vision scientist Prof Simon Rushton, from Cardiff University, visited the cycle lane and wrote a report for The Medium entitled ‘False expectations cause falling pedestrians’.
They said the design is compliant with current government guidance, but their report argues that guidance does not take into account the way the human visual system works to guide movements.
They predict that pedestrians are more likely to fall when they cross the cycle path from west to the east than vice versa because the step is obvious in one direction but not the other.
Prof Leonards is now following up on that initial visit and has been back to Keynsham to meet up with Cllr MacFie who put letters into local shops asking them to hand them out to people who fall.
Cllr MacFie said: “Have you or your loved ones stumbled or fallen in Keynsham High Street? If so please join our study and take a 10-minute interview.
“I have collected some preliminary information from 22 individuals, but Ute and her students will conduct an in-depth interview that should enable us to pin-point the reasons that so many people have stumbled or fallen.”
Prof Leonards’ research is in vision and action, primarily how we use the visual system to walk. She explained: “The physical world can be quite different from the visual world.”
The layout of the cycle lane is inconsistent and Prof Leonards says one of the places where people stumble or fall is the section outside the Post Office, opposite Coffee #1.
She explained that from the pavement, there is no visual cue for a kerb, no depth perception: “If I am planning to walk I am relying on the visual input I am having and I am not getting this, so I might go over.
“I can do this if I am crossing the road, or I can do it when I am actually just passing someone else and I think I can pass by.”
If you are interested to relate your own or a relative’s experience, email [email protected] with the subject ‘Keynsham High Street’.
Prof Leonards added: “Once we have sufficient evidence, we can start to think about how to fix it.”
This story originally appeared in The Week In, our sister title.
