RICHARD ORD: Pedestrians are the meat in the fast moving transport sandwich


Even back then (Ha! I was talking about the 1970s) I was never confident riding on the roads. With only Chopper handlebars between my soft head and those fast- moving, bone-unfriendly metal boxes on wheels, I erred on the side of caution.
I decided fairly early on in life that, given the choice, I’d rather be in the safe cocoon of a car than out in the open on those rickety leg-powered contraptions.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAdmittedly, when the cycling renaissance hit (was it in the 2000s?), I was tempted to join in the fun but the apparel had clearly moved on from tucking your jeans into your socks and multi-coloured streamers in bike handles.
Aerodynamic helmets, garish Tour De France shirts and Lycra shorts were de rigueur. Or, as it should be correctly pronounced, de repulsive.
I don’t have legs for Lycra. If displaying my legs is not a public order offence punishable by a hefty fine, it ought to be. But then again, isn’t riding on the pavement a public order offence? And yet, I’ve never heard of anyone being issued with one of these fines.
Riding on the pavement appears to be the accepted norm these days. In South Shields, the council has gone one step further and pushed pedestrians even further down the pecking order. They’ve introduced cycle lanes, which is all good and proper, but they have placed them on the inside of walkways. The result is pedestrians are sandwiched between the road and the cycleway! Fast moving cars to their left and fast moving bikes to their right!
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdRather than admit they may have got it wrong, the council doubled down saying: ‘There were problems with parked cars opening on to passing cyclists - with pedestrians travelling at a slower speed, moving cyclists away from parked vehicles reduces the risk of collisions.’
But surely you can’t be creating a counter-intuitive transport route simply to minimise the effects of driver stupidity. ‘Yeah, we’ve done it this way because slow moving people won’t be hurt as much when they walk into car doors flung open by stupid motorists!’
How soon before they open up the drains and encourage the pedestrians to use them instead of bike friendly pavements?
South Tyneside’s Super Safe Subterranean Pedestrian Crawlways. You read it here first folks!