Liverpool launches ‘UK first’ pedestrian crossing trial
Liverpool City Council has launched what is being described as the ‘UK’s first nudge-behaviour trial’ for a new style pedestrian crossing. The ‘eye-catching’ design has been installed at two collision hot-spots, at Hanover Street in the city centre and the Old Swan area of Liverpool.
The initiative will run for two weeks, at a time when cities like Liverpool are seeing a huge rise in footfall following the ending of Covid lockdown restrictions and the return of thousands of university students. Liverpool has been chosen to host the experiment, along with Hull, as it has one of the UK’s highest rates of adult deaths or serious injuries (KSIs) for pedestrian collisions – at 99 per 100,000 people.
The trial forms part of a wider strategy devised by the council and road safety partners to help bring down that number, which has been steadily falling since 2012. The Hanover Street location, one of the UK’s most dangerous pedestrian crossings, has seen the introduction of what is known locally as the ‘Compli Crossing’, which is inspired by pop-art and features a series of multi-coloured ‘nudges’.
