(03 Oct 2013, 4:30 pm)tyresmoke wrote So the pedestrian was apparently using a mobile phone at the time and walked out from between parked vehicles.... I fail to see how that has anything to do with the road layout or its safety. I must admit as a driver myself, Blackett St is a nightmare as it is, and narrowing the road has made it worse as you can barely get 3 buses (1 stopped either side) down there as it is.

Also, Stagecoach spokeswoman says they have speed recording equipment? Greenroad when it was installed did not include the speed part of the software as it was too expensive, have they now gone ahead with this? If not, I fail to see what "speed recording equipment" they may have other than in-cab CCTV with which they could check the speedo??

GPS perhaps? You'd get a fairly accurate speed recording with that. I'd assume they have something though, as it's a fairly bold statement for something that would potentially come out in an enquiry anyway.

Blackett Street has two problems in my opinion;

1) People oblivious to what is around them. It's scary how many people just float across the road without even looking. I realise it's a pedestrian zone on a stretch of it, but even towards the far end, people still walk out without looking.

2) Buses quite often come through like a bull in a china shop. Maybe within the speed limit, but it's primarily a pedestrian zone. I've been half way over the pedestrian crossing further up the street, only to feel a bus come flying past me at speed.

Something that alarms me is a paper produced by Newcastle City Council circa 2000, which says, and I quote: "The resulting conflict between buses (and other traffic) and pedestrians has produced an environment, which is not only perceived to be dangerous, but is actually creating an unacceptable level of accidents. Other vehicles in the area, whose drivers choose to ignore the traffic restrictions, exacerbate the problem. The accident trends are shown overleaf in Table A"

Full document attached.