Oxford Pavement Rage

I may well deserve a prize for grumpiest 70 year old woman.

I walked to see friends who live 10 minutes away yesterday. On the way I had to negotiate undulating & sloping pavements caused by tree roots & access to parking in front of houses, where kerbs have been lowered. I also avoided potholes & broken paving.

It was bin day so people's wheelie bins were not just on the pavement but the binmen pull them out to the kerbside ready for the lorry. This means pedestrians have to weave in and out because the pavements are too narrow & there are bushes in front of houses over lapping the pavement. (I am actually tempted to go along the streets I walk & trim all the hedges & low tree branches, but no doubt that would be illegal.) You actually have to go out into the road.

In addition there are cars parked all along most roads, so you have to walk out in the middle of the road. Here in affluent North Oxford many of them are vast status symbol 4x4s totally unsuitable for city driving. In theory cars are parked in designated marked resident parking areas. In practice everyone plays Russian roulette with the parking wardens & cars, vans and & even huge lorries are parked on double yellows straddling the kerb. There is imminent danger of walking headlong into the mirrors of lorries. Again often the pavements aren't wide enough to walk past.

Then there is the perennial infestation of skips in North Oxford to negotiate.

Bikes are a constant silent hazard because cyclists ride up one way streets the wrong way & weave in and out of pedestrians on the pavement. Apparently warning bells are no longer de rigeur. If you walk at night you realise that neither are lights! Then there are the ubiquitous scootering children whizzing up & down.

Finally there are the pavement hogs. Groups of adolescents, families, friends who amble along chatting, taking the whole width of the pavement regardless of people trying to pass or approaching. 

It really isn't pleasant walking the streets. I am surprised that there aren't more accidents, although I did see an elderly cyclist knocked off his bike by a carelessly opened car door this week - parked illegally.

I really don't know how parents with pushchairs or the elderly needing "wheeled walkers" manage. I have only seen a couple of elderly people on motorised scooters since I have lived here, it just isn't a practical option. Anyone on crutches takes their lives in their hands.

It seems ridiculous that pedestrians in cities are marginalised & can't walk safely on pavements. It's a really difficult problem to solve. Roads have to have drainage & presumably a camber, but I do wonder whether it's possible to do away with kerbs altogether in residential streets. It would cost a fortune though.

The fact is that our cities are unable to cope with the conflicting needs of people & modern life.To quote - this is "No Country for Old Wo/Men"