Dream house issue...walking on country lanes

[Mothergirl]

Hi everyone, sorry for the long post am new to Mumsnet and looking for some advice. Hubby and I live in London and are house hunting at the moment. We need a pretty large place as our elderly parents will be moving in with us. We recently viewed a house we've both fallen in love with. It has everything we are looking for....really good size so parents and us will have the privacy we need, 10 minute walk from the town centre and station, good schools nearby, secluded road and affordable! It really is perfect, apart from one issue......to get from the house to the road which leads to the town centre and station you need to walk on a country lane for about 1 minute. The road has no pavement! It isn't a really busy road but the speed limit is 40. Given that it's a small stretch of road and you'd literally only be walking on there for a minute, hubby and I can walk on there no problem. We also both drive. Our issue is our parents. They don't drive. They like to walk to the shops and we're keen for them to keep that independence and not have to rely on us to drive them around...we don't want them to feel trapped in the house. Given that they are fairly elderly I'm worried the country road might be an issue for them safety-wise. What if one of them trips and falls in front of a car? Or can't move out of a car's way quickly enough? Or comes across a crazy driver? I guess I'm just wondering (as we have always lived in a town) is walking on country lanes without pavements normal? Is it generally safe and are drivers aware of pedestrians walking on the road? Has anyone else come across this sort of situation? It just seems odd that the house is so close to town but we would have to drive there all the time :-S

What's the visibility like? Will drivers see them in time to slow down? Bear in mind drivers might be speeding at 50 etc. Is it a rat run or a quiet road?

Bus Route? Have you been to the country. What’s a fucking bus. If you’re lucky you can get one from the village to the city but beyond that is school buses only up here.

We walk all the time on narrow country lanes . I have never even thought about it being a problem. Drivers here also have to accomodate horse riders on the same lanes, as well as farm animals, farm machinery etc, so locals are quite careful, knowing there could easily be something in the road round the next bend.
When you say elderly, how old do you mean? The only problem a friend had, who walked with a stick, was the camber on the lane near her. Some lanes are very steep at the edges, or the edges are broken and rutted. I find that more of a problem tbh.
Ha ha. Bus? What's that?

It’s not a problem.
My mother walks to the shop in the next village most days mainly down a road with no pavement.
You walk on the right, it’s fine.

Bus Route? Have you been to the country.

Well there are 3 or 4 a day here in the country where I live, so one or two one way and two the other. Gets the elderly folk and others who don't have a car, to town and some to work (but most work isn't sensible hours nowadays so most need a car).
And you can flag them down from your garden gate which is handy.
If they are near the local town there will be some buses going to it I would have thought.

It’d be a deal breaker for me.

It’s not a problem. A minute is nothing. My parents are in their 80s and have no pavements in sections where they are.

I think the only people whose opinion matters is your parents. What are their thoughts?

is walking on country lanes without pavements normal?

Yes for people who live/drive in areas without pavements it is perfectly normal. Even as kids we would walk several minutes unaccompanied (different times) on a 60mph road to get to the only shop for sweets.
They don’t need to get out of the way of cars they just walk single file and be visible.

I live in a tiny village without pavements. I walk through the woods rather than the road as although through the village speed limit is 30mph - a recent speed survey showed that 70% of cars were speeding.

The roads are windy and tree lined so drivers won’t see you.

I think it depends on which countryside you are in. I grew up in Devon and my house is on a single lane country road. It is miles until any sort of pavement. Cars drive super fast down the country lanes because everyone does in Devon (it’s how you can spot the tourists they are the ones driving slowly - I don’t agree with this but it is the way it is).

But in the day time you can hear cars coming from miles away and just step back into the hedgerow and at night you can see the lights coming. For elderly people it might be more difficult though. Although my Dad is 70 and still walks them everyday. He is used to it though.

The buses are great in mid Devon.

If it is somewhere like Surrey I wouldn’t want elderly people walking on the road because drivers aren’t as used to it and the roads are busier and noisier. Often there are no grass banks or hedgerows either.

Obviously this is only based on personal experience. I have done no research for accident data on Devon roads vs Surrey Roads

Thanks everyone! This has been really really helpful. My parents don't see what the fuss is all about.... it's just me who worries. The house is actually in Gerrard Cross...not far from the town at all but just happens to be that you have to walk for a min on this one country lane to get to the house. Our issue is just that we're not used to walking on these roads. I love the idea of asking the neighbours if they use another route. Will go speak to them and observe the road a bit more to get a sense of how busy it is. Was very quiet when we went to see the house but it was a Saturday afternoon so who knows what it's like the rest of the time.

DP grew up on Dartmoor. The drivers expect pedestrians (and tractors, horses, massive equipment, etc). When we're down there, we still get thanked by drivers each time we're walking - on the right hand side - and make a point of not dawdling across the middle of the road. As do the elderly locals, as it's automatic to do it, just as in town, it's automatic to stroll down to the shops and wait until the green man comes up before stepping onto a zebra crossing.

We are, however, in the working countryside, not the touristy bit, as that's plagued by drivers who have no idea what's around the corner and walkers/cyclists who think their right to be on it trumps the fundamental laws of science; doesn't matter how much moral authority you have, if you are marching down the middle of the road three abreast and you meet somebody coming the other way at 30 encased in two tonnes of steel, you are going to come off worse.

But with a station, a town, so shops, schools AND affordable? Go for it. I'm sure your parents can cope with a minute's walk for that.

If the parents are not bothered, they are the ones who would be walking it, I would get the house.

People who walk, cycle or drive on roads without a pavement know to be careful. It's not like London or any other big town.

It's very normal to have pedestrians on country lanes, but definitely worth considering a few points to find out if it would be suitable for your elderly parents. How wide is the road? If it is single track with passing places it might be less suitable,but wider than that could be ok. What are the verges like, are they wide and accessible (I. E. Grass), so you could step off the road relatively readily. Or are there for example several driveways where you could step out of the road? How straight is it - is there a good line of sight? I'd be more worried if it had lots of corners and dense foliage at either side as that would make it more tricky to see what is coming.