Why we should stop building ‘chaotic and confusing’ bus stops or more children will get hurt

This is the moment an E-bike rider knocks into a schoolboy crossing the road to get to a ‘chaotic and confusing’ floating bus stop in London.

Footage shows the man cycling into the young boy dressed in school uniform as he stepped out near the crossing to access a bus stop in Elephant and Castle.

The pair collide and both of them fall onto the ground in the middle of the cycleway as people rush over to help.

Charities have repeatedly criticised floating bus stops, which have cycleways running behind the stops forming an island between them and the main road.

Charity the National Federation for the Blind who filmed the video wrote: ‘We filmed at the Elephant & Castle Floating bus stop late last month.

‘The clip includes a rental e-bike rider crashing into a child. The floating bus stop designs are not safe & they need to be urgently halted please.’

The group has started a petition to ban the stops and has been signed by more than 270 organisations, including Age UK and Disability Rights UK.

Sarah Gayton, Street Access Campaign Coordinator at NFB said: ‘I had only been there about an hour or so when this happened.

‘That poor little lad could have really hurt himself. And what was so shocking was that the cyclist got off and said, “Is he deaf? I rang the bell.”

‘As if that excuses it! Surely that just shows that people need to be aware of those who may be blind and deaf – and may not notice bikes coming?’

Bus users are expected to cross what is usually a small zebra crossing over the cycleway to get to the stop.

Charities have said this design makes it unsafe particularly for those with vision problems.

The NFB slammed them as ‘chaotic, confusing and dangerous places which are not safe or accessible for blind and visually impaired people to use independently’.

Transport for London rejected a call to pause the installations of floating bus stops this week, with the Mayor of London saying ‘very few collisions’ have occured between cyclists and pedestrians.

This is despite admitting in June more than a third of the capital’s floating bus stops varied ‘significantly’ from its best practice design.

But Sadiq Khan has said City Hall is ‘actively working with disabled and accessibility groups to look at improvements to the design, as well as the behaviour of road users’.

The floating bus stops are intended to allow cyclists to keep moving rather than being stuck behind buses.

He told the BBC they were installed as ‘a disproportionate number of cyclists had been injured and killed as a consequence of buses’.

But Ms Gayton said blind people are forced into an unsafe situaition, whereas cyclists can ‘see and stop’.

She said: ‘We’re calling for a redesign of cycle lanes around bus stops so the bus can pull up directly to the pavement so blind and visually impaired people can board the bus directly without having to cross – or step into – a cycle lane.

‘Blind people have fewer choices. Cyclists can see and stop. We want the floating bus stops and the shared use bus borders to be removed.’

Transport for London has been contacted for comment.

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