A new zebra crossing will be installed near the Aldi and Tesco express supermarkets in Birkdale in Southport in a bid to keep shoppers safe.
The site will be one of five in Sefton where new safety measures will be installed over the next few months, using funds from the 2024/25 Transportation Capital Programme.
A total of 22 requested locations were surveyed by Sefton Council officers.
The council will progress schemes for new pedestrian crossings at Hall Lane / Taylor’s Lane in Maghull and at Hall Lane (North of Damfield Lane) in Maghull.
New zebra crossings will be placed at: Brownmoor Lane / Forefield Lane, Crosby; and Chapel Lane / Elbow Lane, Formby.
A request for a zebra crossing from a member of a ramblers association who regularly crosses at Formby Bypass at its junction with Moss Side in Formby was ruled out due to the 60mph speed limit.
In a report, Sefton Council’s Assistant Director Highways & Public Protection said: “As in previous years, officers have used the approved methodology in determining the proposed pedestrian crossing priority list of new sites.
“This is a nationally accepted method of assessing requests for new pedestrian crossing facilities based upon the pedestrian / vehicle conflict occurring at each location utilising the formula – PV², where P is the number of pedestrians crossing, and V is the volume of traffic present over an hourly period. The hourly figures used are based on the average of the four busiest hours for the site.”
Weighting factors include: the percentage of elderly pedestrians; the percentage of unaccompanied children; the percentage of prams / pushchairs / wheelchairs; road width; time taken to cross the road etc.
The council added that “following the opening of Aldi in 2018, pedestrian movements across Liverpool Road, between Aldi and Tesco Express have increased, resulting in the request for a controlled crossing point. The factored PV² value of 0.64 x 108 shows that a Zebra Crossing between the two retail premises could be justified.”
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