• Preston’s iconic bus station brought to life in illustration (TransportDesigned)
• Managing railway earthworks in a changing climate (GarethDennis)
• Study reveals the world’s most walkable cities (Guardian)
• Europe is finally slowing down… their cars (CityLab)
• Scandinavian Arctic railway: Building a future or destroying a culture? (RCI)
• Most pedestrian infrastructure is really for drivers (StreetsBlog)
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Great set of links this morning thanks! Especially liked the Gareth Dennis piece (and lots of other really good stuff on his blog) and the Arctic Railway story..
Utterly pedantic point on the managing earthworks article. It refers to HMRI requiring Network Rail to focus on renewals. In fact it was ORR – the economic regulator – who did this. Yes, I know that HMRI – the safety regulator – is in ORR, but the formal requirement came from the economic regulator, not the safety regulator. I have no doubt that the safety folk were involved, it it was not they that made the agreement.
“Most pedestrian infrastructure is really for drivers”.
I tend to the view that quite a bit of it is really about insulating the backsides of road designers. Because as well as annoying the non-motorised users to the point of non-compliance, they often fail to benefit the driver either.
An example is the widespread misapplication of Pelican Crossings. Except at junctions that are already light controlled for other reasons, in most (30mph and under) situations a Pelican crossing imposes additional delay on pedestrian and motorist alike. A zebra crossing, in comparison, minimises delay for all parties. The pedestrian crosses on demand and so doesn’t have to wait at all. And the traffic is only held up as long as it takes the pedestrian adequately to clear the crossing. It only becomes essential to convert to a Pelican Crossing when the pedestrian traffic is so heavy that the road no longer has sufficient capacity to handle the motor traffic level: in that case an extended tail-back forms at the zebra.
And then there is the non-compliance incentive we all know about. You just cross when you can, because why should you wait when the lights don’t change at a sensible time? Which annoys the motorists to arrive at a red light with no pedestrian to cross. It doesn’t help that many Pelicans are programmed to have a minimum delay after the pedestrian presses the button, regardless of how long it has been since the last time the lights operated. That’s just sadistic, really.
There are clearly important exceptions, if there is a safety exigence for example. I have known one or two rather dangerous zebras that I was pleased to see changed to Pelicans.