A severely visually impaired woman has called on Edinburgh City Council to maintain pavements, crossings and roads for pedestrians as she says leaving her home has become ‘frightening.’
Sylvia Paton MBE, 61, who lives in Corstorphine, says that the roads, pavements and pedestrian crossings in her local community are making life extremely difficult for those living with a visual impairment.
Sylvia relies on her guide dog Kate to get around the city but she says that the state of pedestrian infrastructure is ‘frustrating’ as she has to continuously dodge street debris, potholes on roads and deal with controlled crossings that are not fit for purpose.
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She was speaking on behalf of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) who are calling for urgent action to be taken to improve street design and accessibility for blind and partially sighted pedestrians.
“I am registered as severely visually impaired but I am fortunate enough to have some useful vision in one eye but this is completely dependent on my surroundings and environment”, Sylvia said.
“I am a qualified guide dog user and I would not want to do without Kate’s support.
“We have a busy life and need to be able to travel around the city as independently as possible but sometimes that can be made difficult by street clutter such as pavement parking, the conditions of roads and pavements, A-frames in places like cafés who can also leave out chairs and tables outside in different places each day.
“This can make it quite difficult to navigate and of course some areas of the city are better than others.
“Corstorphine is particularly bad for maintenance works and the pavements being in a bad condition.
“They can also be quite narrow and it seems as though there is a lot of digging up for utilities who can leave the pavement uneven and in a state.
“The pavements can sink in certain spots which can make the walkway hazardous and the pot holes in the roads are an extreme hazard for someone like myself.
“You can feel the hammering a bus takes from a pot hole so imagine a visually impaired person going into one without knowing it is there, they can cause serious damage.
“One of the major issues people with visual impairments can face is when the controlled crossings at traffic lights are not properly maintained as this can make crossing the road very unsafe.
“There is one in particular crossing that has a number of problems at the top of Manse Road that crosses over St John’s Road towards St Ninians Church in Corstorphine.
“Seeing the green or red man can be very difficult here so I have to rely on an audible sound that is often not available - the little cones underneath the button are also regularly out of use.
“Without either of those things working, crossing can be a big problem, it is a disaster waiting to happen.
“There is a similar issue at the staggered pedestrian crossing to the east of the main junction at Barnton.
“The box and traffic signal is right against a perimeter wall which means that you rarely have enough time to cross both the pavement and the road safely.
“There is no audible signal and I’ve no idea if the cone there is working now but in the past it has normally been out of use.
“The button signs also often have stickers over the wait sign which adds to the stress of knowing when it is safe to cross.
“It is very, very frustrating but more than that it is frightening having to cross at extremely busy junctions where drivers are not always respectful or cautious of visually impaired pedestrians.
“If the council took time to regularly maintain the controlled crossings and to check them to make sure they are serviceable then that would help.
“All parts of them should be working with clear audible sound notifications that signal when it is safe to cross - a good example of this is by London Road in the city centre.
“They also have to spend time tackling hazards such as A-boards and debris from roadworks - on one occasion recently there were diversion signs face down on the pavement that I would have tripped over if it were not for Kate.”
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) Scotland in their latest report, ‘Street Credibility’, explored critical areas of concern to street accessibility and safety, a topic which the charity has long campaigned for improvements in.
They say inaccessible streets can impact mental health too as many blind or partially sighted pedestrians feel anxious or unable to navigate the outdoors safely.
Councillor Scott Arthur, transport and environment convener, said: “I really do appreciate Ms Paton’s concerns and share her desire to make Edinburgh a more equal city.
"There is no doubt that work needs to be done to improve Edinburgh’s streets for people with mobility difficulties and visual impairments, and under our Active Travel Action Plan we’ve committed £250M to supporting safe and easy travel on foot.
“By investing in better pedestrian infrastructure through forthcoming major projects we want to make our streets much more accessible.
"And through citywide schemes to ban A-boards, reduce street clutter and add dropped kerbs to crossings we’re already making changes to create a better environment for everyone.
“Of course, functioning facilities for those with visual impairments at pedestrian crossings are to be expected too, and I’d like to thank Ms Paton for highlighting faulty cones at Barnton junction too – an engineer has now been to the site and fixed the issues.
"Most of our crossings have these facilities and it’s our policy to install them any time a pedestrian crossing is upgraded, and we’ll be doing this at St John’s Road/Manse Road in the coming year."
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