Pedestrians Don't Matter
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Last year, the number of pedestrian deaths in Scotland rose by 40%.
Although the increase is alarming, in many ways it's hardly surprising. Pedestrians are having to find their way through and around increasingly complex road and street layouts where the most important risk factor comes from not knowing or understanding which direction traffic is approaching from.
With this backdrop of fatalities, we explore a number of situations in Glasgow where the pedestrian has to overcome everything from drivers who are simply unable to drive their vehicle, to confusing road layouts that look like dual-carriageways but are not.
How, for example, can we have a lane in the city where every lamppost has been hit by a reversing van? And I don't mean the same van. We're talking lampposts being flattened by any number of reversing vehicles where the driver clearly has not got a clue how to reverse his vehicle.
And why are so many pedestrian crossings not properly functioning with 'WAIT' signs not being illuminated.
Then there's the all-singing, all-dancing new road layout at Byres Road in the West End. Road signs indicating whether a side road is a one way street with traffic moving one way or another cannot be seen by pedestrians, and so once again the pedestrian is at a disadvantage in knowing which direction traffic is coming from.
Pedestrians have become second-class citizens and an afterthought in town planning.
And up in Glasgow city centre road layouts have been altered so much - what with one-way streets now two-way or visa-versa that, again, pedestrians struggle to know which way vehicles are approaching them from. One lapse of concentration and a step onto the road can spell disaster; as it did for 47 persons in Scotland last year.
Glad you are okay Ed, good points raised. Pedestrian Lives Matter!
For me it's not that pedestrians don't matter, it's the inbuilt assumption that the motor vehicle is all that matters.
Check out Not Just Bikes, he's an expert on the topic
Good you are ok.
It isn't just pedestrians that are on the receiving end of bad car drivers. Cyclists and motorcyclists are also.
I ended up over the bonnet of a car that turned in front of me. Luckily I was slowing down for the lights otherwise I'd be dead. The driver "didn't see me". She didn't look. Was probably on her phone.
I ended up with a broken neck, broken back, dissected artery, 2 mini strokes, both hands broken and a broken wrist.
Needless to say, I haven't been back to work and I won't drive due to the fact I can't turn my neck and would be a danger to the public.
So, now I am a permanent pedestrian. Crossing the road is a risk. I can't do the look right, look left, look right again very easily. I need to turn my whole body and I still see drivers driving like morons.
As a biker I was conscious of pedestrians and other road users. It was for my own safety. The person that hit me didnt indicate and, according to cctv, swerved at the last minute. Car drivers are coccooned in metal. Pedestrians arent.
Cheers. I'm inclined to think many car drivers really shouldn't have been given a license.
Oh my, Ed. I’m glad you’re ok after that. I had a similar situation when I was 24 yrs old and carrying my first child. However, I was hit by a car turning without seeing me in the walkway with a right-of-way indicator on the sign. Thank goodness he was not going too fast, and only knocked me down and into the gutter! I was really shaken up, but the baby and I both were ok, just sore for a few days. I’m so glad you were watching what you were doing, because you never know what the other folks are gonna do.
You take care.
Lynn in Naples, FL. 😎
Cheers Lynn. Yes, safety's all about looking out for what others may do. Take care.
This is full on Victor Meldrew, but I must agree.
I was pretty much ready to blame any increase in deaths on phone zombies (walking and driving). That and confusion about updates to the highway code that don't quite grasp how physics works.
Have travelled a lot. UK generally better than many. Street lighting exists, pavements don't change at every building you go past. In the US it felt like you needed a car to cross the road.
Edinburgh has to be the worst for changing one way/two way streets, it's just constant.
I remember I couldn't even pass the street without a traffic light in Corstorphine sometimes during Rush Hour. The cars just kept on coming
Hi Ed, you said about white lines-think a white stick may be necesssary for pedestrians in Glasgow 😢🏴
I can completely relate to your point on cars expecting you to get out of their way. It happened to me when I had a bad back and was crossing a side road, a car sped around the corner and I couldn’t move quickly out of the way so they had to slam on the brakes. Had the nerve to have a go at me as well.
The road layout on the south side of the squinty bridge is absolutely atrocious and is an ongoing risk to all road users and pedestrians. Another example of how out of touch and incapable the people making decisions for the city are.
I was walking along the pavement minding my own business in West end. A kid on her bike ran right into the back of me. Mother on her bike also on pavement only concerned about welfare of her daughter. My knee never been the same! 😡
Was expecting the pedestrain crossing (or rather lack thereof) at the Thornwood roundabout to come up since you are so close! Absolute nightmare.
Yes, I would agree with that. Another big roundabout with cars moving way too fast for anyone trying to cross the road.
I'm glad you are ok Ed. Too close for comfort though. You have raised some interesting points.
Glasgow is notoriously pedestrian unfriendly, and have absolutely been considered 2nd class citizens. The prevalence of wide open roads that facilitate fast vehicles, and shoddy infrastructure such as the Clyde pedestrian tunnel, and numerous overpasses over the myriad motorways and spaghetti junctions - all a large part to be blamed on the British post-war planning zeitgeist. That being said, things are moving slowly in the right direction - best practice design guidance to planners and builders on street design now reflects many of the principles seen in the Netherlands and other European countries. Although not perfect, an example of this is the Byres road avenues project which includes raised kerbs at junctions which forces vehicles to slow down, making them more likely to comply with recent Highway Code updates and give way to pedestrians. The changes will be slow, non-linear and occasionally fail, but they are nonetheless happening.
I'd really emphasise that bicycle users are on the same side as pedestrians here, if anything the have been at a disadvantage due to not being welcome on roads (which are busy and dangerous) or pavements. The villain is vehicular dominance, which results in bicyclists and pedestrians being pushed to the narrow margins, fighting to share the limited scraps of space left over. A white line will not solve any issues along the Clyde - the space is just too small to be shared with competent, fast (or delivery) bicyclists - but this does not mean that cyclists can't share space with pedestrians. There are numerous examples of this working out fine in countries like the Netherlands.
I would implore you to check out Not Just Bikes on TH-cam who analyses street design in depth, and to get involved with the many community based initiatives on improving the city for everyone - there needs to be more people raising the issues that you have to the council and MSPs.
Cheers
Thanks Owen.
Meantime, wear a dayglo jacket and carry your own full size 'lollipop'!
Yes, a large 6-foot tall lollipop sign thing may in the future be something all us pedestrians have to carry to announce our position to the internal combustion engine- or battery-driven machine.
The walkway at the Clyde there is so narrow, but vast amounts of land doing nothing right behind it.
That's a good point.
You are performing a much needed public service...especially for folks who are visiting.
i sometimes i feel i need flashing neon lights when i walk across the road
I sometimes feel I need someone to take my arm and gently help me to the other side.
Hello there. Your videos are always interesting, but some are just depressing. Sometimes it seems as if pedestrians are ricocheting all over the place. Walking is also a death-defying experience here in Ontario. AND NOBODY DOES ANYTHING ABOUT IT! The only solution I have found is to fantasize about flame-throwers. BIG ONES!
Maybe you should move to the sticks where I am. There's plenty of car free walks where I am, and buses that go in different directions. If I was walking on the Clydeside walkway in the video, I would hope that speeding cyclists would ring their bell when approaching. I would then move to the left and let them overtake or pass on the right, as I would when driving a car. If they hit you, there's always the consolation that they will probably come off worse as they go flying off their bike. 😁Good luck when walking. 👍
I have a real problem with the infrastructure in Glasgow in terms of public transport and pedestrian walkways. There's no consideration at all for pedestrians, only bikes and cars.
It's a cultural deficiency in the UK - in Denmark the pedestrian has the right in built up areas, and one has to wonder why this isn't the case everywhere, the sanctities of life are supplanted by the needs of the motor car. Perhaps the decision makers ought to spend a month out of their cars and find out in a first hand 'fact-finding' study to see what they are 'delivering' for the good people of the land.
Not saying it will be easy to deliver infrastructure which is safe for pedestrians, but as they say, the longest journey begins with a single step. Everyone needs to respect other fellow travellers, be they on foot, bicycle or vehicle.
You caught one of the things in your video that stumps me Ed, concerning crossing the road to the green man. I don't know if it's the case but someone told me that the small raised bubble shapes on the pavement are to let people who are blind or visually impaired know that they are on the right side of the pole where the button is, what puzzles me is ( and this affects a family member) a lot of the ones that used to bleep when the green man comes on, don't.
I enjoyed your video and no doubt there'll be more comments from people's experiences. All the best Ed 👍
It's pot luck, no two pedestrian crossings are the same. Yesterday I saw the Poileas parked on the yellow raised paving for blind people.
Hi Jim. Yes that's an interesting point. Someone else may be more knowledgeable than me, but it may be the case that there is a small bit that sticks out at the bottom of the metal boxes containing the illuminated WAIT sign. When a green man appears, this things twirls or rotates so that the blind person - who will have their hand on it - can feel that it's a green man. This may be rubbish, but I think there may be a grain of truth in it. Anyone know for certain?
@@EdExploresScotland It does. Well, It's supposed to. 😅
I can't see a reason for removing the bleeping, people who are older are not necessarily go8ng to use these things often.
I went to use a railway station the other day, it had been redesigned to remove the ticket office aparently. Now its some sort of display board. On the other side! So I never saw it.
People who knew the station would know wher3 to buy a ticket, but not strangers. I just went in immediately behind a guy who had a ticket, so the gate opened for him. There was an employee standing there, his sole job was to make sure everyone had a ticket !
I bought mine at the real ticket office upstairs, platform level. Aparently avoiding payment is rife. I would have thought they need to catch these people and ban them, facial recognition and all that?
Pedestrians already on the road have right of way, jaywalking isn’t a thing in UK, but I know what you mean about not wanting to compete with hunk of metal
It's very bad. At least pedestrians in the UK can cross the roads when it's safe to do so, not just at pedestrian crossings when they have a green light as in the US. I ride a bicycle, and I give way to pedestrians. People tell me they won't cycle as it's too dangerous. Others drive because they were injured by a car driver themselves, which is a bit pathetic. Motoring isn't safer, going at speeds up to 70mph. Someone died after their ex-partner grabbed their handbrake on a motorway, making the car spin. But what killed them, was when they got out and were hit by another innocent driver hurtling along at 70mph.
Yes, it's not good. The speed and fast acceleration of cars is a major factor. Almost impossible for a cyclist to survive on these big roundabouts where car speed is excessive.
Thanks for highlighting this Ed. Glasgow is a tangle of roads. A deadly legacy of building infrastructure around cars not people. Now the council can’t seem to maintain the basics of what they inflicted upon the city. There are so many pedestrian crossings with lights that don’t work.
I don't live in Glasgow, but my council has a website where you can log defects with crossings and road defects, hopefully Glasgow does too?
The reality of council funding is that they probably don't have any spare staff to go out and check if infrastructure is broken from years of funding cuts.
You're right Sarah. I reported WAIT lights out a while back, which were fixed immediately - almost the same day. But for whatever reason the bulbs didn't last long. And, as you say, councils, like every area of society, simply no longer have the manpower or the funding to maintain things properly.
The FixMyStreet app is a handy way to report issues. It’s not a council app, but sends reports etc. to relevant local council departments.
Well highlighted. Stick to the mountains no one to spoil your day there
Absolutely. Apart, perhaps, for the odd dod of mud.
i chuffing hate pedestrains, but i hate everyone in all the other cars too
I hate everyone too.
A rather curmudgeonly video Eddie, but an important one nonetheless! Chinese woman driver; Chinese lightbulbs in the crossings; Chinese students in the flats. Bendy Chinese steel lamposts...😂
Nobody seems to indicate anymore!
Absolutely.
Spot On Ed 🫡
Walking through the City Centre is horrendous with these guys bombing around on electric bikes, delivering takeaway food to students etc.
Must be huge amounts of accidents to pedestrians that don’t get flagged up.
Yes, the e-bike, or indeed any bicycle, on pavements is a major issue, but police, like all walks of life, do not have the manpower or funds to tackle these low-level offences. Whole country's going down the pan.
I enjoy a walk and cycle so have mixed views on shared paths. Most of the time the issue I see is people walking tend to walk in the middle of the path rather than to the side and rarely ever look back to see what's coming. However, when I walked that clyde path and ones in Central Edinburgh there seemed to be a lot of delivery cyclist's zooming around on big electric bikes using the paths as a shortcut of sorts.
Hi David. Yes, there's a whole range of issues going on. For some unfathomable reason I always like to stick to the notion that folk should be walking on the left, in the same way that traffic does on roads. But this is a notion not adopted by most and I've had many instances where I've tried my best to stand my left-hand ground then had to move aside for another bull-headed pedestrian. Such is life.
I just checked Google Maps and see that you are on the other side of the Clyde to where my grandparents lived in Linthouse in the 50's and 60's. I used to love going there for the school holidays from our home town of Alloa! We have the same problem with bikes and pedestrians here in Melbourne. The cyclists get their lycra on and think they are in the Tour de France. We have had a few injuries in our local area.
E bikes should be banned from pavements / pedestrianised zones. Sauchiehall Street is a NIGHTMARE.
Totally agree.
Illegally altered e-bikes. Legally they can't exceed 15.5mph and do not have a throttle, just a cadence/torque sensor.... The ones that delivery riders blast about on have been modified to go much faster and use a throttle, so then they're basically electric mopeds. So yes, get rid of the illegal ones and fine those who use them.
@@notyetiYes, the sort of e-bikes they sell in Halfords and Go Outdoors aren't the problem. Delivery couriers and youths are cutting about on what are effectively electric motorcycles and they should fall under the A1 category of road vehicles and have to be licensed and registered and used as motorcycles rather than bicycles. I'm a nightshift worker who cycles into work in Edinburgh and I have to be alert to the danger of these things on shared paths and cycleways, often being ridden by someone who's not looking where they're going because they're too busy texting. That said, I'd still much rather take my chances with these things than share road space with motor vehicles.
wait is the guy who tags "milk" everywhere still around? He must be about 90 by now!
He’s not! Just never been cleaned or replaced in the last 30 years!
He tags as 'X-tra mature cheeze' nowadays 😊
Just slap their bonnet Ed and say "I'm walking here" no need to raise yer blood pressure mate have some fun with your old age ffs
Cheers Dave. I'm afraid if I'd stood my ground in order to slap the bonnet I'd have found myself on the ground under the car. Another driver in La-La Land.
@@EdExploresScotland th-cam.com/video/X6s-rtAkjKA/w-d-xo.html lol
I've stopped using the shared paths on disused railway paths on the north side of Edinburgh for the same reason. I find it impossible to relax knowing that at any moment a fast moving cyclist, some of them on electric bikes, could come flying up from behind. Not helped by the fact that, counter to common sense, almost everybody walks and cycles on the left, when it would make more sense for pedestrians to walk on the right to face incoming cyclists.
Unfortunately a lot of drivers believe that the roads belong solely to them. Also as the pedestrian is the one that would get hurt, its up to them to look out for themselves.
Cyclists should be made to have a bell to warn pedestrians of their presence.
It seems to be the same everywhere Ed. A lot of people don't know , or maybe care, how to drive properly. People on their phones while driving, speeding and jumping red lights. In Edinburgh there are so many cycling routes created with little or no thought for pedestrians. The canal used.to he a nice walk but cyclists have spoiled that now. Pedestrians seem to have been forgotten.
Cheers Drew. I totally agree about canal paths. I love walking by water, but some canal paths aren't that wide and having cyclists in the mix just spoils the walk.
it seems to be ,the more lycra the cyclist wears, the more aggressive and selfish they are