Being worried is almost a skill in government. In 1962, the Ministry of Transport was most worried that it wasn't doing enough to combat road casualty figures, which were hovering around the same level each year. The new Panda Crossings were a step in the right direction, but it was felt that more could be done.
| 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Killed | 2708 | 2717 | 2681 |
| Injured | 69506 | 69582 | 69560 |
| Total | 72214 | 72299 | 72241 |
The trend in traffic planning at the time was for segregation and control — motorways were the safest kind of road because they separated fast, long distance traffic from other road users, so surely the same principle should work everywhere. The idea behind the Controlled Traffic Area was to take the chaotic British street scene, where pedestrians roamed freely about among the traffic, and introduce segregation to rationalise it.
The trial lasted only a year, though some reports suggest that the crossings and red lines stayed in place and in use for several years afterwards at the three sites. How many people were fined for daring to step from the pavement was not recorded. But as time went on, heavier traffic created a natural end to the era when pedestrians could step care-free from the pavement. Fast-moving cars, buses and lorries were a much more potent incentive to use pedestrian crossings than a hundred London bobbies, and without needing to harass innocent shoppers with megaphones. The Controlled Traffic Area was a bold experiment, but its lesson was that a better crossing was needed, not a better way to force people to use one.
