We can only hope with a large crowd of pedestrians precariously balanced at the very edge of the pavement, that drivers take more care at this junction.

In other boroughs where these barriers have been removed, pedestrian accidents have gone down so it is not impossible that drivers will actually be more careful.

It is counter intuitive but in the same way, if pedestrians on the island were blindfolded and made to hop up and down on roller skates, alarmed drivers might take even more care and the chance of a serious accident might reduce further.

But that does not mean it is the right thing to do - that was identified in 2003 with a islandless 1 phase crossing.