A psychologist who was fined for driving through a bus gate recently won her appeal when she expressed that the gate had ‘too many signs for the brain to process.’
Dr Bernadine King, who is the author of several published academic papers on how people process visual information, said that the gate was endangering people’s lives.
Speaking to the BBC, Bernadine said: “Once you’re committed to turn left on Duke Street, you have no way of safely turning around. Drivers are being trapped in the area and they’re panicking.
“There are so many signs by the bus gate but a little contradiction in the brain means we cannot absorb all the information. To consciously process all the information, it may take a few seconds and by that point, you’ve already travelled 20ft or 30ft down the road.”
The traffic penalty adjudicator visited the site and agreed with Bernadine that the signs, whilst large, were indeed cluttered.
Dr King is now pushing for Chelmsford council to carry a safety review on the site.
