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

[Fragmentedbrain]

Cars (especially Ubers for some reason?!) no longer reliably stop

Consequences for drivers who hit a pedestrian are minor - you won't necessarily go to jail "the first time" you kill someone and you'll have your licence back within a decade (why not banned for life???)

Roadworks used to prioritise keeping a pedestrian walkway but now it's common for one side of the pavement just to be abruptly cut off, forcing a walk across the road through traffic

And don't even get me started on bicycles on the pavement, "shared spaces" (ie spaces for bullies to race at speed on their bikes while those on foot are expected to scatter). I was actually planning a holiday to Japan until a colleague told me how unsafe the pavements have become in the last few years because of this.

It's the world over as far as I can see (although if you live in an exception could you let me know so I can visit please??) and it just feels like a big part of the dehumanisation of public life and spaces :(

I don't know which study it is, but I am talking about the total of tyre & brake dust, not brake dust alone. But it's certainly more pollution than active travel would produce for the same people, anyway.

I don't find it pleasant at all. I walk lots (over two thousand miles in the last year), and roads are horrific. More EVs won't fix that (or stop people speeding, or keep people physically active); the cars just need to leave.

You are the one with the legal obligations, not the pedestrian. If you can't deal with that don't drive. Too many people think they're entitled to a driving licence

@Chiseltip is a wind-up merchant. They think that bicycles are exclusively a children’s toy.

This is one of the most illogical and bizarre arguments I have seen. London streets predate all transport that’s not foot or horse based! It’s absolutely built for humans, just not cars…

When i see men with babies strapped to their bike, or a dozen cyclists, school kids crossing willy nilly, busses everywhere thats distracting and stressful

The fact that I make sure to keep an eye on the cyclists makes me a good driver. Its a sad fact though that having the additional worry of cyclists means your focus is split more ways.

A baby being hit by fumes from a dozen cars from their windowless bike is less susceptible to fumes than a kid in a car? I won't be agreeing with that.

You don't have to agree with it, it's scientific fact. Again, people think a car is a sealed little bubble but it isn't - it lets the fumes in, and in fact traps you in them. That you're less exposed in a car than out is just a myth. https://www.rac.co.uk/business/news-advice/news/risks-of-in-cabin-pollution#:~:text=%22Levels%20can%20be%20several%20times,posing%20a%20significant%20health%20risk.

Nowhere on here does it say that a baby sat on the back of a bike is more susceptible to air pollution than a child sat inside a car

It says that professional drivers are potentially at risk of inhaling air fumes

I agree. The thing that really pisses me off is drivers who park across dropped kerbs. Where I live,there are a lot of grass verges, with pathways through to get to the main road. These pathways are accessed by dropped kerbs. I've lost count of the times I've had access to the path blocked by some twat parking across the dropped kerb. I have mobility problems and use a walking stick while I'm out and about and quite often,I have to negotiate stepping up a steep kerb then walking over raised ground in order to reach the road. I struggle with this and if I wasn't a law abiding person,I would feel sorely tempted to key these cars' paintwork. Does anyone actually know the law on parking across dropped kerbs? I've tried to find out but it seems a bit vague.

But none of that stops a pedestrian walking into the side of your car does it? They could just as easily walk into the side of a bus ( or be hit by it?

And ok if there's all this wonderful public transport what happens to taxis and delivery drivers? Or are the sofa company meant to deliver your 3 piece on the bus or on back of a bicycle?

I always feel sad when I'm travelling on country roads. Absolutely beautiful cosy roads but so many houses where the occupants are prisoners unless they drive. Too dangerous to walk on the road and NO pavements. Pedestrians are second class citizens in UK.

@MemorableTrenchcoat

all kinds of vehicles and other pedestrians can injure others, I had my food run over by a mobility scooter! (Police couldn’t do anything because chap had reduced capacity, my argument is you shouldn’t be allowed an electric device of any kind (mobility scooter, wheelchair, electric bike or scooter) without some sort of training and also all cyclists over 10 should be required to do the bikability course and bikes must have thirst party insurance to cover any damage or injuries you cause (ditto other electric transport) to keep pedestrians and the users safe plus teach them how to be safe on public roads, many if not most accidents involving cyclists could have been avoided if the cyclist wasn’t in a vehicle’s blind spot, undertaking or other activity that meant the driver couldn’t see them

@hooverthefloor

some of us don’t have pavements or public transport! I can’t go to work without a car

Nobody disputes that cyclists, and even pedestrians can injure others. The fact remains that motorists kill and injure roughly 50 times as many people as do cyclists. Sure, we could spend a massive amount on a scheme to ensure that every cyclist was trained and insured. That might save one life every couple of years or so. It would surely make much more sense to spend that money on improving driving standards, which might conceivably save a life per week.

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!

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.

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.

@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 !

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...

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.

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 :)

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.

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

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.

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.