Brian Deegan, Principal Design Engineer, shares some thoughts on his and Chris' Walk to Work. Walking is easy, one foot in front of the other and so on, the end. I know of a proposed ‘Year of Walking’ initiative that was cancelled, because it was considered too embarrassing to focus on something that everyone just does anyway. What next: a Year of Breathing? Well, since people are struggling to walk in safety and air quality is taking years off people’s lives, maybe we should have both. Just what is wrong with our walking conditions? Sometimes it is hard to put a finger on it as we all just get on with things. That’s why it is good to travel and experience other approaches. So, my colleague Chris Martin and I went for a two-hour walk around Brussels, observing and debating the differences with UK practice. The basics were the same, but there were some stark and obvious differences which dramatically improved the experience of walking. The use of zebra markings at every side road gave us the confidence to step out even when cars were approaching and assume a natural priority to just keep walking. It made us smile every time it happened. Brussels is a big, and sometimes dirty city, like London, with serious congestion issues; and yet drivers routinely gave way to people walking thanks in large part to the addition of the great British invention that is the zebra marking. That’s why I’m happy to be working with Greater Manchester to try and bring this approach to the UK. The other startling difference was how little delay there was for pedestrians at signal junctions and how much time people were given to cross multiple lanes of traffic. At one point we walked straight across several lanes of traffic with no stress or deviation. We had 20 seconds remaining by time we got to the other side, and I am a slow walker. Bringing in signal junction solutions that enable this level of service is a long-held desire of mine, and I’m currently developing a five-year plan of how to get there. It’s sad that it will take that long to get an option, but we tried with the ‘Turning the Corner’ campaign and failed to get the necessary progress; so we need to find an alternative way of achieving the same results. There were many other more subtle differences, of course. As a registered street nerd, I was personally fascinated by the approach to tactile paving and specifically the use of the guidance surface, which seems far more legible and logical than typical UK practice. Another colleague, John Dales, is on a team that’s currently exploring an update of the 1998 UK tactile paving guidance for the DfT; and I’m keen to see what that process will lead to. Walking in Brussels was largely a pleasure, and it’s important to note that this isn’t a holiday village, but a major international capital city. We can make walking a pleasure in the UK if we look at what is successful elsewhere and try to bring it all back home. International visits are a key part of Urban Movement approach. We love to share the best of what’s out there with clients and we work tirelessly to help get these things built or adopted. Anyway, you can have a look at what Chris and I saw, and our comments on it, by clicking on the links below.
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