Photomap

[Image taken 2.11.22] Denning’s Yard Access, (Crichton Avenue/Wigginton Road) York. Looking towards Denning's Yard (privately owned) down the access route (public highway) from Wigginton Road. The railway passes along the bottom. This is how the site was looking today when I did a count: #187371. No vehicles of any kind came in or out in the hour (07.25-08.25) I was there. Vehicle movements (including cycles) into the access yard put people crossing on both trajectories (see position of people crossing: #183554) at risk. Even if a driver knows people cross here, and how many s/he may not be aware, or care (if they are not local ie this is not their community and/or they feel under time pressure/pressure of a contract) there are no sightlines and no flat waiting areas. It must be stressful to make this turn for drivers too. As the sightlines from Wigginton Road are compromised, I can imagine drivers turning into here but giving way to people crossing on the red tarmac route could feel at risk of being shunted. And if they stop for people crossing closer to the turning ie at the mouth of this turning (see: #187372)? I am concerned if the planning application here goes ahead [UPDATE: It was granted 17.2.23 see: #191338] and no changes are made to create a convenient, safe crossing for non motorised users between Foss Islands/Wigginton Road bridge and Crichton Avenue the risks will increase massively both during clearing the site, during construction and when the properties are inhabited, because workers, traders, delivery drivers, visitors to the site won't know this is a busy crossing with no sightlines for people either arriving in motor vehicles or the thousands who use it every day on cycles, on foot, on scooters... Plus, the red tarmac draws the attention to this as the desire line... There is nothing to alert anyone turning into here that there is a desire line for non motorised users between the pavement on the righthand side in this image to where I stood to take this photo. Plus some downhill-heading cyclists wait here (we will have gravity on our side when we move off) wait ahead of the entrance to the Foss Islands Path for people on the spiral to clear the route. We have our backs to the road/junction. We won’t see if lights change and we will have nowhere to go if we find ourselves in danger.

MY EXPERIENCE: On 10.3.23 this is exactly what happened. Two of us on cycles gave way to someone on a cycle pedalling up the steep spiral route (towards the bollards visible on the left). We were therefore just where this image was taken. And as we had panniers, took up some part of the width of the roadway. When the person riding uphill emerged from between the bollards, we released our brakes. Both of us suddenly realised there was a massive lorry immediately to our right. Neither of us had heard it arrive. (It is noisy here due to the constant passing of motor vehicles on the arms of this junction, and will get noisier when construction on the Denning's Yard site starts.) Which direction had the driver arrived from? At what point had s/he seen us -- had s/he seen us? If we had made a different movement ie not waited and not turned left into Foss Islands Path (the gap between the bollards) would we have been hit?