Silent pedestrian crossing signals in central Wellington are causing concerns for the visually impaired community.

Callum McMenamin has low vision and said by his reckoning, about one-in-10 pedestrian crossing signals in the central city made little, or no noise.

"When you encounter that and you've got a visual impairment, you just don't know if it's safe to cross the street," he said.

"You have to pray and hope you get across."

READ MORE:

* Pedestrian crossing silenced over safety concerns, prompts worries for visually impaired

* Pedestrian crossing rules are easy, but not in Orewa

* Pedestrian crossing buttons might not help you cross the road faster

McMenamin only recently moved to Wellington from Christchurch but noticed the lack of noise almost immediately, particularly on Courtenay Place and Taranaki St.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF McMenamin identified Willis St, Taranaki St and Courtenay Place as areas where the lack of sound was particularly noticeable.

"The first day I was here I noticed there were so many pedestrian crossings I kept encountering where they wouldn't make any sound, or they'd be extremely quiet."

He had spent time living in both Nelson and Christchurch and while he might come across one or two pedestrian crossings without sound in both places, Wellington's crossings were noticeably worse.

"They should be 100 per cent reliable pieces of infrastructure, the same way traffic lights are for cars."

Roadworks in the central city were also having an impact on the signals, he said. Every day, he crosses the intersection at Willis St and Dixon St, where the road is closed due to ongoing work on the collapsed wastewater pipes.

With the traffic lights out of commission, so were the pedestrian signals, sound included.

McMenamin had been in contact with Wellington City Council about the problem and would be meeting council staff on Tuesday to discuss the issue.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF McMenamin said the crossings needed to be "100 per cent reliable".

"I've offered to personally go out on the streets and check every single crossing in our capital myself. I'm showing them what the stakes are and what's going to happen if there's no action."

Councillor Rebecca Matthews, who holds the disability portfolio, said she wanted to make sure the council could address these issues as part of a wider accessibility plan for transport in the city.

Wellington City Council spokesman Richard MacLean said the council's contractors and parking staff would be keeping an ear out for problems and work to fix them straight away.

"We have lots of these pedestrian crossing signals around and we regularly do an audit of them," he said.

Maintenance inspections are carried out at each intersection once every 12 months and council contractors also respond to reports of faults by staff or members of the public, he said.

For some pedestrian crossings, the volume may also change according to the conditions around the signal. In some areas at night, the volume is lowered to avoid disturbing inner city residents.