The Marston Ferry Road and Banbury Road junction is a vital connection between Summertown, Marston and Oxford city centre, and is used by large numbers of cars and cycles. Currently, the lack of pelican pedestrian crossings at the Banbury Road site and on Marston Ferry Road makes the junction pedestrian crossing points difficult for the public to use. Additionally, the conflicting movements of traffic flows can increase lane congestion at peak hours as one flow of traffic can block another.

The junction is near many residential homes, schools, shops and bus stops. There are many groups of pedestrians who use these roads to cross on a regular basis to access Summertown facilities and the city centre: local residents, commuters, facility users and school pupils, especially at peak traffic hours. Children of many ages need to use it on the way to school, unaccompanied by adults. The nearby Cherwell School has 1,800 students and the majority of them use this junction daily at peak times. The government Highway Code stresses the importance of the safety of vulnerable pedestrians, especially near schools and residential homes.

Research shows that the pattern of pedestrian casualties is at the highest levels between 8:00 -9:00am and 3:00-4:00 pm (school home time). There have been a number of near misses as pedestrians attempt to cross, when it is difficult to judge the flow of oncoming cars. In 2013, 327 people were killed or severely injured in Oxfordshire due to road accidents, 32% more than the national average and this being the 4th largest number of deaths as compared with the nearest counties. There were also 155 pedestrian deaths in Oxfordshire, including children in the 10-15 year age group (Oxfordshire County Council Road Traffic Accident Casualty Data Summary, 2013).

Installing a pelican crossing would greatly improve pedestrian safety, especially for the young and the elderly. This would not be very costly, as lights for regulating traffic already exist at these points and this would involve adding an additional light onto the existing traffic signal pole. As an alternative, a cheap zebra crossing could be provided, if lights are unavailable. Reprogramming the light cycles would provide less conflicting movements to ensure everyone’s safety.

Please sign this petition if you want to see a change toward greater pedestrian safety at the Marston Ferry Road and Banbury Road junction.

Started by: Phoenix Sremcevic

On reaching 9 signatures An officer will investigate the matter further

This ePetition ran from 10/11/2014 to 31/12/2014 and has now finished.

105 people signed this ePetition.