I've always thought the new layout was bad for pedestrians, and have been struck since it opened that pedestrians never follow the 'intended' route from MMW to argyle place, which involves going right after crossing at the toucan, and walking at an angle up to AP. Even though that route has dropped kerbs, tactile a etc, pedestrians always follow their desire line and walk straight from toucan over multiple kerbs to AP. Or, if pushing buggies, they just take the cycle lane, irrespective in on-coming. Today I saw a white cane user negotiating this. He either ignored the tactile so or didn't realise he was supposed to turn right to go straight, and ended up trying to find the kerb to step down into the bike lane and then try to get across. A nightmare.
The junction there is bound to be tricky, but I don't see why they couldn't do something that would be safe and easy for bikes and peds. I suppose the answer is banning left hand turns, which would doubters be unpopular. Sigh.
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