A white line will be painted across Keynsham High Street where it goes into the one-way section to indicate that the right of way is into Charlton Road.
It is the latest change being made to the redesigned High Street where signs have had to be introduced advising pedestrians to take care as so many people have been falling and injuring themselves including at the stepped cycle lane.
At the annual town meeting on Thursday, a resident said: “What I can’t really make sense of is why we have now a dropped surface, almost in the middle of the road, when for the past 60 years or so that I’ve lived in Keynsham, that road was on a consistent level so there was nothing for people to trip over.
“Also it seems people just don’t obey road rules. I actually saw an elderly chap on a motor scooter this morning drive it off the kerb and along the cycle lane in the opposite direction.
“In my opinion the only way you are going to stop people from crossing the road in the unauthorised places is to put a fence in along the pavement and just have gaps where the crossings are.”
He also highlighted concern about the crossing being too close to the junction with Charlton Road, saying very few cars indicate whether they are continuing down the High Street or going into Charlton Road.”
Cllr Andy Wait, who is chair of Keynsham Town Council and also represents Keynsham East on Bath & North East Somerset Council, told the meeting that he had raised that concern personally with B&NES. “There will be a white lane painted across the High Street part so the right of way is into Charlton Road and that should happen within the next week or so,” he said.
During the meeting the town council’s vice chair Cllr Clive Fricker observed wryly that he had seen Prime Minister Boris Johnson marching around Kyiv. “He was probably safer there than he was walking around the High Street.”
Cllr Fricker spoke about the importance of making the High Street safe as the town has an increasingly elderly population. He said that the ward councillors were “pressing hard” to get a proper risk analysis by B&NES to do what could be done to ensure that the street is safe.
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