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Protect a pavement
Think of a car parked on a pavement. Inconvenient, inconsiderate, out of place? Yes - but for many street users, including people with Guide Dogs, pavement parking is also something more serious, and Living Streets, the national charity that stands up for pedestrians, is campaigning for an end to it.
When drivers park their cars on the pavement, pedestrians are forced dangerously into the road. Some people will take this in their stride – not that they should have to. But those most affected include some of the most vulnerable pedestrians: parents with prams, people in wheelchairs or with mobility problems, older people and people with a visual impairment. For these groups, even more than others, being forced off the pavement into the path of cars is a serious threat, while backtracking to find a different route is inconvenient and time-consuming as well as completely unfair. Drivers parking on pavements probably aren’t trying to put anyone at risk, but that is exactly what they’re doing.
The unpredictability of the problem particularly affects vulnerable people: more so than others, for example, people with visual impairment might rely on well-known routes to key destinations, which could be blocked by inconsiderate parking at any time. Moreover, pavement parking damages pavements, costing councils thousands of pounds every year in repairing potholes and cracks and adding to the hazards for pedestrians.
Blind and visually impaired people have been campaigning on pavement parking for many years, with mixed results: often, campaigners report that the buck is passed between the council and local police. Living Streets advocates a nationwide ban on pavement parking, to make sure that everyone knows where they stand and that pedestrians have the space they need to move safely and comfortably. Though stopping short of this, Transport Minister Norman Baker made a clear statement earlier this year encouraging and empowering English councils to ban pavement parking. Living Streets’ campaign, which Guide Dogs has endorsed, helps anyone to email their local councillors to ask them to tackle pavement parking, while adding to the growing momentum in Scotland for a Members’ Bill to ban pavement parking throughout the nation.
Often, despite the amount of time we all spend in them, people take the state of their streets for granted, with serious consequences for vulnerable pedestrians. But pavement parking is a great example of a problem that doesn’t need to exist. It’s already illegal throughout London, with councils enforcing the law in the same way as other parking restrictions, and councils in England now have the power to ban pavement parking locally. If Guide Dogs supporters – and anyone else who has ever been a pedestrian – will join the campaign, there’s room for some real progress to be made in returning the pavement to its rightful owners and making our streets safer, more attractive and more enjoyable for everyone.
Comments
Nikki Watson, 1:59pm Mon 7 Nov 2011:
Thank you so much for this campaign Living Streets and three cheers to Guide Dogs for supporting it. This has been a problem all my life. I actually thought that it was already illegal to park on a pavement as I believe it is illegal to obstruct a footpath. It's a lazy and selfish behaviour which puts peoples lives at risk. I have often had to do'off kerb obstacle' maneouvers with my Guide Dogs over the years and sometimes on some very busy, fast flowing roads.
Clive, 3:38pm Mon 7 Nov 2011:
Several related issues about how cars are given precedence - crossovers leading to very poor pavements and reducing available parking spaces, loss of front gardens, disincentives to walk and cycle, safe routes to school.
Phil, 6:50pm Mon 7 Nov 2011:
I recently brought this issue up at a West Teignmouth resident's meeting at which our local councilor and PCSO was present. My objections and points, almost identical to this article, fell on deaf ears. Neither the council in Teignbridge it seems, nor the PCSO are prepared to take this issue seriously: basically the line seems to be that there are too many cars for such a tiny town and they have to park somewhere. In other words, the problem is too big for them to be bothered to do anything about; car drivers perhaps have a greater vote; the PCSO is more worried about good community relations than enforcing parking on the street instead of the pavement.
So, what are guide dogs doing to stop this? Persuation doesn't seem to work. So a huge and loud public campaign maybe? Name and shame the councils and counsilors who won't stamp it out.
Remember the old NFB Tony Robinson video and song an graphics: 'Pavements are for People'?
Michelle, 4:42pm Wed 9 Nov 2011:
Selby is a small market town, or should I say used to be the amount of local traffic is beyond belief. I didn't notice so many cars parked all over when my vision was ok, but since getting my guide dog over 2yrs ago this problem seems to have esculated. I believe the police council and highways need to have a campaign involving the public showing them how this affects vunerable groups by placing them in a wheelchair giving them sim specs to see how they manouvre around cars parked on the pavement.
Guide Dogs, 4:51pm Wed 9 Nov 2011:
Hi everyone, thanks for your comments - Clearly this is an issue, which many people, including ourselves, feel is of great importance.
In addition to lending our support to, and promoting, organisations like Living Streets, we help people on a local level with resources including template letters and petitions to local councillors and newspapers. If you’d like to email campaigns@guidedogs.org.uk we will be happy to provide this for you. If possible, supporting letters with photographic evidence would be advantageous, although people should exercise caution when taking photographs of cars and avoid confrontation with drivers.
Many thanks,
Guide Dogs
Peter, 8:28pm Thu 10 Nov 2011:
I think a start could be made by asking driving instructors to make their pupils aware of the parking laws; then Police car drivers. I have seen doth of these classes of drivers park on the footpath when it has been totally unnecessary. Today drivers park on paths to indicate that they are not just dropping off or picking up; it is a statement that "I am parked". I wish I had the nerve to put a note under the wipers of such vehicles saying "Sorry if my pram/mobility scooter/anything else scratched your car - but it is parked on the FOOTPATH!"