Request ID: FOI-0937-2425 Date published: 15 July 2024
You asked
Please do let me know why there are no Green Man pedestrian signals at the busy junction between A404 with Station Road in the close proximity of North Harrow underground station?
Traffic signals are available to control motorised vehicles, but none provided for pedestrians to cross at this junction safely.
Your comments and observations will be much appreciated.
I raised this issue with LB Harrow on 06/01/2024 did they pass on the query to TfL?
Additional questions added 25/06/2024: Could I please add couple of supplementary questions to the FOI?
Since April 1st2018 to 31st March 2024:
• Yearly how many complaints or service requests for improvement received at this location?
• Yearly how many accidents or near misses recorded at this location?
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-0937-2425
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 21st June 2024 asking for information about Green Man pedestrian signals at the junction between the A404 and Station Road. Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“Please do let me know why there are no Green Man pedestrian signals at the busy junction between A404 with Station Road in the close proximity of North Harrow underground station?
Traffic signals are available to control motorised vehicles, but none provided for pedestrians to cross at this junction safely.”
On 25th June 2024 you asked for additional information as follows:
“Since April 1st2018 to 31st March 2024:
Yearly how many complaints or service requests for improvement received at this location?
Yearly how many accidents or near misses recorded at this location?”
In answer to your first question, the current configuration of this set of signals is down to the local borough, as they are the Highway Authority. According to our records we can see that:
The signalised crossing was introduced on 6 April 1987, and the layout and operation of the signals have remained the same since then.
The decision to introduce the signalised crossing would have been made by the borough.
The traffic signal equipment was modernised on 14 February 2008.
The Advance Cycle stoplines were introduced on 17 May 2011.
The site was taken over onto the Urban Traffic Control system on 18 November 2016.
Other than that no other works have taken place at this junction
Since the London Borough of Harrow is the Highway Authority, the decisions regarding the design, layout and facilities all rest with them (TfL is the Traffic Authority with the remit to design, install, operate and maintain the traffic signal equipment, but that is based upon the Borough’s layout and their request for how they want the junction to function).
In answer to your second set of questions, I am afraid it is not possible for us to say how many complaints / requests for improvements have been received about this location over the last 6 years without exceeding the costs limit for responding to FOI cases, as set out under section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. Under section 12, TfL is not required to provide information if it would cost more than £450 to determine if that information is held, and to then locate, retrieve or extract it from elsewhere. This is calculated at a rate of £25 per hour, equivalent to 18 hours work. In this instance the exemption applies because the information has not been collated before and there is no quick or efficient way of doing so. Our Customer Services team has reviewed records for March of this year using the keywords “Green man”, “A404”, “Station Road” and “Pedestrian signal” and this has returned 117 cases. If this represents a typical month, then for 3 years for which we hold data this would equate to over 4,000 cases across that period. To see which of these are specifically about the lights in question, and which are specifically “complaints” or “requests for improvements”, we would have to review them all individually. This is not possible within the costs limit.
In regard to accidents at this location, please see the information that we proactively publish on the Road Safety pages of our website here:
https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/road-safety - in particular, see the Road danger reduction dashboard and the “London Collision Map” on page 4 of that dashboard. You can select the relevant date range at the top left of that screen, and use the + arrow on the map to zoom in on an area of specific interest. In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely,
David Wells FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
