To feel sad at how much worse life is for pedestrians than it was ten years ago

Another point - where I live has a 20mph limit which has been shown to significantly reduce pedestrian casualties. Many drivers hate it. When I am driving at around 20 (and there’s a lot of speed cameras around) I will often get drivers right up behind me and overtaking me. Yes 20mph does seem slow, but there are so many traffic lights and pedestrian crossings around here it really doesn’t make a huge amount of difference - the twats who overtake dangerously will usually be next to me at the next set of lights.

My experience is that car drivers are much more ignorant, arrogant and careless than cyclists and I am totally amazed at all the recent posts claiming that cyclists are the issue.

Yesterday for example I drove to the supermarket and was out for a couple of hours. In that time I experienced:

A car parked so close to my car I couldn’t get into my car and had to climb over the passenger seat (yes I was parked properly in my bay, there were plenty of parking spaces available, it was just laziness/incompetence on their part)

A car going through red lights across a very busy 4 way junction - extremely dangerous and could have caused a crash - no reason for this at all as the lights were clearly on red

Amazon driver parked in the middle of the road diagonally so no other cars could pass - there was space available on the side of the road.

Also yesterday morning, as a pedestrian, I saw a van drive so close past a cyclist that it caused the cyclist to yelp with surprise, and the van driver just shouted at him and then drove purposefully slowly in front of him obviously to annoy him, and oblivious to the problems he was causing to the rest of the drivers.

This is not unusual, every day I see truly awful driving. And you just know that the worst drivers are likely not even insured….

Interestingly, in addition to this, there was a study that highlighted cyclist who do not wear a helmet encounter less close passes due to drivers concerned if they hit them.

If you are finding it stressful to drive because you are worried you are going to hit a cyclist and it distracts you from driving properly, then it sounds like you are not very confident at driving? Which is really your issue, not the cyclists.

I’m sorry to say that if you can’t go out at all without that happening then your the consistency in the scenario, I’d say you’re the problem.

Most cyclists actually care. Don’t get me wrong there are some idiots that ride bikes, but far worse car drivers.

It’s ignorant car drivers the majority of the same.

See with my hearing i can't locate sound well. So if I get bells rung at me it makes me jump and I have to be looking round seeing where the noise has come from. I do get what you are saying though about actually hearing the bells rather than shouting out

And in addition, considering how many other road users car drivers injure and kill each year, every new driver should take a compulsory Bikeability course in order that they understand what busy roads are like for a vulnerable person trying to get about by cycling.
Perhaps this could include consideration of vulnerable road users of all kinds including pedestrians, scooter riders, mobility/disabled vehicles and even horses. Shame that new drivers don't spend a compulsory day with horses and their riders.
I think part of the driving test should include questions aimed at getting car drivers to understand how life is for other road users trying to get about when assaulted by huge, tank-like vehicles that are too powerful for most users and that they can reverse or manoeuvre in small spaces.
It would also be good to hand out sheets describing the damage done to the environment as a result of motor car manufacture and use with statistics and cost including the cost to families when their members are maimed and killed on the road, also encouragement to sometimes use other modes of transport.

I agree. It's why I always at least acknowledge someone dinging their bell and either just carry on until they can pass if it's narrow, or make it clear I know they're there so they can pass alongside me. Very rude and ignorant to completely ignore someone as they won't know if you've heard them or not.

I wear hearing aids due to lifelong earing impediment. I can hear the dinging of a bell from some way behind me, but someone would have to be really close to me for me to hearing them say hello or similar. Completely different frequencies/wavelengths. Bells are so much better.

It's why emergency vehicles used to have bells and there is still, today, some scientific opinion that bells on emergency vehicles would be more effective than the wailing sirens, the latter being louder, but not travel as far due to frequency/wavelength!

I walk on canal towpaths a lot - a few miles every day, and I never "miss" hearing a cyclist behind me dinging their bell, meaning I can either walk to one side, or at least wave to them that I know they're there. However, if they speak/shout, they have to be a lot closer for me to hear them and/or realise that someone's behind me as other sounds are also amplified and either sound the same or conflict, i.e. kids shouting whilst playing, or people talking in a garden, etc.

So, he rung his bell to alert you of his presence. You ignored him, so he assumed you hadn't heard, and rung his bell again. I'm struggling to see what he did wrong.

Yeah I know but the bell dinging is so imperious and it screams get out of my way.

Seriously, a cheery good morning or hello is much friendlier.

I thought of this thread today when I encountered an entitled random man (cyclist) on the canal towpath. I was walking along and was about to turn off onto a road which leads off the towpath when I heard a ding ding ding behind me. I ignored it as I was seconds away from my turn-off. The ding ding ding came again so I turned and said I am about to turn off, just wait a second. Entitled man says you might had had headphones. No, you were just dinging me because you thought I should get out of the way. He told me I was an antisocial idiot.

All he had to do was say hello or good morning or bike behind and I would have turned and said I'm about to turn off. Admittedly the towpath was a bit narrow at that section but he literally had to wait seconds!

So yeah sometimes cyclists are a pain too!

But I still hate pavement parkers more. A lot more.

PP1 Cyclists are not that much better and I really don’t understand the ones that think people have eyes in the back of their head and assume you know they are there and choose not to ring a bell or say something to let people know they are there.

PP2 While cyclists who ding their bells at me to get out of the way annoy me when I am eg running along a canal towpath (and am not in their way anyway because I always keep well to the left), that's all.

Bingo!

But they do. All The Time.

I can go out for an hour's walk and I won't even see a cyclist. I can guarantee that I will be forced into the road or to swap sides of the road at some point on my walk because a car or van has parked on the pavement. Even when the road is perfectly wide enough for them to park normally on the road.

While cyclists who ding their bells at me to get out of the way annoy me when I am eg running along a canal towpath (and am not in their way anyway because I always keep well to the left), that's all. They are annoying, they are not dangerous. Drivers are.

I agree - I think in some cases they should say "ok you can keep your licence but it will be endorsed to say that the only journeys you can make are to take your child to and from school". Nothing else. I know it would be very difficult to enforce but there's are ANPR cameras around to capture if the car is in the wrong place at the wrong time and probably even to see who the driver was.

trying I just checked and I'm on 1700 miles so far this year.

Well that's only what I recorded on Strava. It's not all on there. But I don't know anyone else who does an average of 5.5+ miles per day. People used to walk a lot more, but few do now.

If you use public transport to get to work (which will involve some walking too), or go shopping round town, then you might do e.g. 3 miles in a day (though that still won't be every single day of the year). But since most people drive even short distances, they are unlikely to be doing even that much.

The internet thinks British people walk this much per day (from two different sources):
Daily distance (based on steps) ~1.5–2 miles
Daily distance (annual survey) ~0.6 miles

I don't know where your figures are from re carbon footprint compared to the train. Most sources say the opposite (certainly for one person in the car). And obviously the particulate emissions for tyres and brakes will be less per person on a bike or bus, than if they were all travelling in electric cars.

Is 2,000 miles a year of walking a lot? It doesn't seem like it to me. Surely many peolel do more than that - it's less than a couple of hours a day. Nevertheless, one person in an EV has half the carbon footprint of travelling by train over the same distance, 80% less brake dust than traveling by ICE vehicle and similar tyre wear to other road transport.

Walking through towns and cities in the UK and EU is certainly far more pleasant than it was. But walking in the country side or along the beach is even more pleasant :)

I'm assuming you are rural. There probably used to be at least some public transport local to you. But then everyone switched to driving, so they gave up running it (or closed railway stations etc). That can change again though, if a community makes it happen.

Anyway, the vast majority of people are capable of riding a bike (of some kind, could be standard, or cargo, or an e-bike etc), just like they used to, including rurally. Workers too; district nurses, delivery people, farmers, etc. Elderly people kept fitter for longer because they were active.

I can't cycle due to disability, so I would walk, regardless of pavements (as I often do, on country lanes). And drivers would just have to learn to take more care to avoid splatting me. Or not live there in the first place; people might make different life decisions if they didn't see driving as an option.

Buses are quite noticeable...and the fewer/smaller vehicles there are, the less chance you get hit by one (yes buses are bigger than cars, but there are fewer of them, and they tend to travel more slowly, as they keep stopping). Cars being replaced by bikes and buses is clearly much safer for pedestrians (behaviour of some cyclists notwithstanding).

The vast majority of taxi journeys (which do technically count as public transport anyway, though I don't think of it as such) could be replaced by those methods. Especially if nobody was driving private vehicles, so the buses were more frequent, and less likely to be delayed by other traffic. But also other forms of mobility could exist, that don't now.

a) People could buy less stuff they don't need in the first place.
b) Some things can be transported yourself anyway. I have carried bookcases, a single bed frame, 226 cm tall storage units, and many smaller pieces of furniture flat packed (and other items, including bags of compost etc) on buses and trams.
c) Things could be redesigned to make them easier to carry yourself (e.g. being modular etc).
d) Some could be delivered by cargo bike (plus trailer if necessary).
e) Anything that really can't be dealt with the above ways (or others I haven't thought of in five minutes of writing this post) can come in an electric van.

At the moment society is built around driving, even though cars have only been widely used for the last few decades of human history really. It's a very short time for people to develop this massive sense of entitlement to, and dependence on, cars. I don't know why people can't imagine a different world; it existed not that long ago! Maybe the air pollution is shrinking their brains...

@squashyhat @MadameCholetsDirtySecret Yes Japan is incredibly safe for pedestrians, not just Tokyo ! Plus when there are roadworks the repairs will go on through the night to ensure rapid completion. But don't jaywalk or take other liberties like that....please don't let this weird idea put you off a fabulous experience OP !

I find some places I visit regularly to be better, others worse. Though I agree with the sentiment about too many car drivers and to a lesser extent a minority of cyclists. The law allows people to get away with too much behind a wheel and the courts believe too many bleeding heart stories. In no other circumstance would a non-custodial sentence be reduced because of alleged hardship, though that can be used to avoid a driving ban.

Whilst I don't think the announced government road safety strategy goes anywhere near far enough, hopefully it begins to turn the tide.

You're being exposed to the fumes from a dozen cars too though. And it gets trapped in your box, rather than diluted by all the free-flowing air around the cyclist. Who also is less likely to get stuck in traffic and have to sit there while everyone idles.

drivers going through a red light now is so common, there’s a crossing on our road and the green man is totally meaningless - you have to edit while 2 or 3 cars drive through the red first, so dangerous for children. I wish traffic lights now had cameras on to catch people running red lights, my council would make a fortune!