Academy St and Friars Ln Crossings


Recently, the Academy Street / Friars Lane junction in Inverness was resurfaced.
City centre road junction resurfaced
News Release on Highland website.

The new road surface and the freshly painted yellow box allow a number of long standing issues with the pedestrian crossings to be clearly seen.

Pedestrian Crossing - Academy Street, Inverness


The tactile paving appears to be non-compliant with national guidance.
A visually impaired person would be properly guided to the control box on the right.
But they would be standing on a 1.6 m length of tactile paving which is outside the width marked by the crossing studs.
On receiving a Go signal they would walk forward into the yellow box.
The direction of the tactile paving deviates significantly (to the right) away from the direction of the crossing.
A visually impaired person could easily find themselves heading down the Friars Lane pavement rather than arriving at the Academy Street pavement.
Even worse, heading slightly further to the right, they could miss the pavement entirely and end up walking along the roadway on Friars Lane.

07 Jun 2021 - Complaint sent to Highland Council

Pedestrian Crossing - Friars Lane, Inverness


This crossing is from a pedestrian refuge across a 2-way roadway.
The route of the crossing is entirely within the yellow box, with no studs at all.

The crossing over the 1-way filter lane has no studs (but is correctly outside the yellow box).
The 2-stage crossing requires a change of direction at the triangular refuge.
There are two unconnected areas of tactile paving with a non-standard change in direction.
There are no guardrails to guide or prevent stepping onto the roadway.

Yellow Boxfish Crossing?