The local branch of a group advocating for safer walking in cities is calling for a safety measure to be recalled as it believes the feature actually does more harm than good.
Living Streets Norwich says that pedestrian guardrails, which guide people to safe crossing points along busy highways, do not increase safety for any kind of road or pavement user.
Norfolk County Council, which is responsible for pedestrian guardrails in the city, said guardrails were historically installed to encourage the use of controlled crossing points in a safe manner and to prevent people crossing between queuing cars where drivers might not expect pedestrians to be in the road.
Liam Calvert from Living Streets Norwich said although pedestrian railings are seen - especially from a driver's perspective - as something to keep people safe, evidence from a three-year study showed removing them reduced collisions involving pedestrians by 56pc.
The data, collected by Transport for London, also showed the number of collisions involving injury and death for all road users fell by 48pc.
"Pedestrian guardrails aren’t the safety tool that many seem to think they are," he explained.
"Their presence actually makes junctions much more dangerous for all road users.
"Some drivers stop thinking about pedestrians because they feel they won’t step out so drive faster and less carefully as a result.
"Guardrails don’t stand up to a collision with a vehicle and offer no protection to those on the pavement.
"If we are worried about vehicles mounting the pavement we need to install strong bollards that pedestrians can walk around but stop motor vehicles.
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"Removing guardrails frees up space on our often cluttered pavements."
Across Norfolk, different pedestrian guardrail designs are used on different types of roads.
A spokesman for the county council added: "In shopping and residential areas we have removed a large amount of guard railing as this helps to improve the interaction between drivers and pedestrians and can improve driver behaviour by enhancing a sense of 'place'.
"A minimal approach to guard railing is taken when installing new pedestrian crossings and only a single panel is normally provided on either side of the crossing, primarily to aid partially sighted pedestrians in locating the crossing.
"On higher speed and strategic roads, longer lengths of pedestrian guard railing may be required for safety reasons."
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The design for guardrails dates back to the 1930s and became more popular and widely used in the 1980s.
Government building regulations require a guardrail to consist of a minimum of two horizontal rails with a minimum height of 1.1 metres.
Barriers close to roads have been found to increase the chances of injury to pedestrians for a number of reasons including increasing inattention of drivers and pedestrians.
Some councils across the UK - including Norfolk - have removed their pedestrian railings for these reasons.
Guardrails used in suburban and city areas are generally made of weak and inexpensive materials such as metal. Although easily destroyed by the impact of a light vehicle like cars, it is inexpensive and quick to repair so is often used.
Although the means' safety intentions have been questioned, guardrails effectively reduce the ability of pedestrians to cross the street at junctions and improve traffic flow.
Mr Calvert, from Living Streets Norwich, who is standing to be a Norwich city councillor at the upcoming May elections, added that a single panel at a crossing can help partially-sighted people, and they ask for those to remain.
He added: "We have had a productive discussion of the issue with Norfolk County Council engineers who generally remove these railings when junctions are redesigned.
"What we would like to see is that they speed the process at all junctions."
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