Phil Clements: Kerb rage at cars on my home patch

COMMENT

In the drive to reduce speed, authorities are targeting harm inflicted on pedestrians by vehicles travelling over 50km/h.

In this, there is the assumption that injuries occur while cars are travelling along roads, but what about accidents caused by cars on footpaths?

I am a runner, one of those people you see thumping past in all weather with a slightly manic look in the eyes, intent on getting wherever it is runners want to get to.

I also tend to run for longer than some others, spending more time on footpaths and roadsides experiencing the delights and dangers of exercising in a city.

If the transport department of our police is really serious about reducing vehicle-pedestrian accidents, more emphasis should be on patrolling the areas pedestrians are supposed to be and vehicles are not.

On an average run I will experience, at the very least, one vehicle parked in such a way as to partially or completely block a footpath. In this situation there is only one solution - to go on to the road and around the obstacle, therefore creating a danger that no vehicle speed reduction can remove. I often wonder what it would be like if I was a parent with a pushchair and how difficult it would be to navigate past this hazard.

I would like to see our law enforcement agencies solidly policing these dangers. It would not take very much time at all for our traffic wardens and police department to issue infringement notices for parking on or across a footpath. The benefits are immediate. If 10 per cent of culprits who read this go out and remove their vehicles from footpaths, then I and all other footpath users will be an equivalent 10 per cent safer the next time we venture out.

Footpaths themselves should be preserved for intended users. My other request to drivers is to be more vigilant when crossing a footpath. Please look and please give way. I regularly experience the vehicle that turns right into a driveway (in one instance I almost went under the front wheels of a car), the vehicle that reverses from a parking space or driveway without looking, or the vehicle that comes out of a driveway, sees the pedestrian, but blocks the footpath anyway until they can turn onto the road.

C'mon drivers, consider us bipeds!

And while I'm on about footpaths city councils, please look at where you place your signs and directions. I'm not referring to those loose signs advertising businesses and cafes, they are mostly placed out of the way, I'm referring to the fixed concrete poles with bus stop, or parking signs on them.

It's not at all unusual to find one of these signs placed in the middle of a footpath, or in such a place that only one person at a time can squeeze past between them and some other obstacle. The worst examples are those by bus stops, where footpaths are already narrowed, where the sign is placed by a corner of the shelter and often beside a power pole. Next time you are on Fanshawe Street by Victoria Park you will know what I mean.

Usually I can squeeze past, but again, if I had a pushchair I doubt I'd get by without going onto the road. (And sorry Auckland city, you are the worst offender with this.)

Thundering along a footpath I have time to consider these dangers. But with more commonsense, injury can be prevented and footpath rage eliminated - yes, we pedestrians get angry too.

So please motorists and council planners, put yourselves in our place and consider us next time. After all, it could be your partner pushing that baby onto the road into the face of oncoming vehicles.

* Phil Clements is a runner from Titirangi.


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