Posted By Michelle Driscoll From a purely pedestrian point of view - I find the tactile paving more dangerous than the normal paving especially in the wet. And from a womans point of view is quite tough on your feet if you're wearing thin soled shoes.

Posted By Dave Wilson Interesting! Our LA have a dept (couple of geezers) who go around the city centre standing on all the paving stones to see if they are loose looking for trip hazards, they then mark them with paint and another team come round and repair. They obviously have another team installing trip hazards at areas of high risk ie pedestrian crossings. Never thought of it like this before! so is it reasonably foreseable now that this has occured and when will the first case of negligence be brought before the courts?

Posted By Sean Fraser I have noticed this problem and wondered what the reasoning was behind making the pavement less safe to walk on. Here in Aberdeen the LA have installed tactile paving at road junctions that inclines toward the road, presumably set at the correct angle to maximise the launching of the victim directly into the path of whatever raod vehicle is approaching at the time. Seriously, I wonder where this "great" idea originated from? The paving is especially unsafe during the conditions when it should be providing the most protection - rain and ice/snow. I am always far more careful walking on this stuff than on normal paving - or perhaps that is the point! Changing to dimples would create a greater opportunity for rain to collect and during cold conditions this would encourage the formation of ice - increasing the skite factor significantly. Since I am not a civil engineer, my opinion is unqualified, but I would have thought that only grating or close roughness (like sandpaper) would be the safer alternative to the traditional pavement. This would give sufficient grip in all conditions. In the end, the only real solution on wet and cold days is to be conscious of the dangers and to take care when travelling, regardless of the mode of travel (vehicle or Shanks' pony). Whoever came up with this "solution" should be hunted down and made to explain themselves!

Posted By Jonathan Breeze I can see the lawyers circling like vultures already...

Posted By Sean Fraser Ian/John, In response to your comments, it wasn't a case of me misunderstanding the situation, it was more that I hadn't understood it in the first place! Thanks for letting me know the original reasoning behind the tactile paving, which I hadn't considered. We are still left with the situation that in an effort to address one issue, the LA's the length and breadth of the UK have now created a worse one - and I am concerned that my hard earned tax money is going to be spent in meeting compensation claims instead of what it should be spent on, providing local services. Mind you, it will only be following the trend that my hard earned NI has been going in paying out for NHS compensation claims . . .! I would also be interested in seeing if there is positive feedback from RNIB etc. regarding this paving. The following has been taken from their website (http://www.rnib.org.uk/jmu/streets.htm) regarding this subject: "Tactile Paving Training The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions has issued new guidance on the use of tactile paving surfaces. The aim of this guidance is to avoid the misuse of the surface and enable local authorities to implement a paving surface considerately without detriment to other street users or the aesthetic appeal of the environment. The JMU Access Partnership has developed and delivered a training course, ‘Tactile paving - or crazy paving? , to enable authorities and professionals using the surface understand the new guidance. JMU’s in-house workshops enable local authorities to install tactile paving in a way which: -Maximises usefulness to visually impaired people -Minimises expenditure -Reduces complaints -Creates aesthetically pleasing environments -Complies with Department of Environment, Transport and Regions guidelines Participants are trained to: -Understand how and why people use tactile paving -Interpret and adapt national guidelines where necessary -Identify good and bad practice -Develop solutions to specific problems -Develop phased improvement programmes -Obtain further information and advice -Undertake effective consultation " It will be interesting to note if the "reduces complaints" bit is actually taking place!!

Posted By Dave Wilson This was in a pedestrian zone in the city centre and these two blokes job was to stand on every paving slab to see if it moved and if it did they marked it, that was the remit of the job as I asked them. No disrespect to these LA employees but in the context of the thread it was to highlight that the LA was doing something about the Trip hazards and apparently introducing more with tactile paving.

Posted By Stuart Nagle I fully understand your points and do not, in essence disagree with them, however as can be seen from many a thread on this site people value their 'professionalism' and so it would be nice for a professional organisation, like IOSH and it's members to 'appreciate' the professionalism of others. That said (ho, ho, ho....), having working in Local Government as an Engineer for some years, I know that trips and slips on tactile paving are a very very small persentage of the overall claims for tripping and slipping on the public highway, with the number one being trips over uneven (Broken) paving slabs usually attributed to vehicles overiding the footways. There are standards produced by both national and county bodies on the maintenance (and acceptable defect) standards for highways, concerning carriageways, footways and verges etc. What is interesting is that there are, or cetainly were, persons who were know serial claimants for tripping cases and made claims throughout the UK. I attanded a meeting with county insurers some years ago now concerning this subject following their announcement to do something about it and pass details to other local authorities to try and stamp it out. I don't know if it was successful, but a thread on this site just a few days ago about someone entering a site and 'assisting' employees with information on trying to make claims goes some way i think to understanding the mentality here. One thing I can say is that in general I think we have a good highway infrastructure in comparrison to other countries (the USA springs to mind) and that for what we pay for this infrastructure we get a good deal !! Now;s there's a controversial comment!!