Footways - planning

[Mike Sales]

It is highly complicated in Wales due to the legacy of streets never designed for high levels of vehicle use, and the need (outside cities) for people to have access to cars to go about their daily business. An outright ban on pavement parking sounds great until you see real streets where it just wouldn't work. Perhaps a ban with signposted exceptions would be practical.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6593837 ... ?entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6615237 ... ?entry=ttu
This is what that street looks like in the middle of the day when most of the cars are not there.

I used to live on a narrow street in a small Welsh town. It was built in the nineteenth century. The frontages were (are) narrower than many cars, and front doors most often opened onto the pavement.
Usually cars were parked on one side, leaving the narrow pavement clear. This was insufficient parking for the number of car users. So, often there was an outbreak of both side parking. This would have left the road unnegotiable for motor traffic ( fire engines especially) unless these cars were parked on the pavement.
Sometimes I had to lift my bike over my head in order to sidle past the car blocking my door.
There was an informal attempt, backed by the council, to give residents permits, and discourage outsiders parking. It failed. There was insufficient free parking close to the town centre, so these non-residents invaded our street.
An old man a few doors up called to me to take a cuppa, or panad, to the builder working opposite. He could not deliver it himself because the builder had parked across his door. I made sure to explain to the builder why it was that the sweet old man could not deliver it himself.
I would say that the present situation does not work. Short of rebuilding the town and many others, how can we continue to adapt our environment to suit the motor car?
We all, car owners or not, suffer from the problems mass motorisation brings.
The external costs need to be born by those who benefit, so that they can make more social choices.

It is a messy situation and I wouldn't claim to have all the answers. On a positive note, even in the area from which I took my two images, streets where the cars don't have a real reason to be on the pavement tend not to have cars on the pavement. The default does seem to be to leave the pavement clear if it can be done without blocking the street for the bus. But in the street I showed, which is exceptional, there is no real alternative to pavement parking along most of it. And it's no use saying people shouldn't have cars, because that community is not in a town and most of the jobs are miles away. If you were doing a shift in Port Talbot that started at 7am you might not be able to do it by bus. To get to a lot of employment from there is not practicable by bus, and a bit of an athletic endeavour by bike. I have cycled up there and a few of the hills have had me seeing stars. For a lot of people up there in that relatively remote location a car really is essential.

I don't have all the answers either. Just suggestions.
Unlike you I have seen many motors with at least two wheels on the pavement when there is no obvious need. I have seen this even in a line of cars parked correctly! I surmise that for many drivers it is automatic to park thus.
We live in a society where many decisions about home and employment have been made on the understanding that driving and parking will be easy, with no reference to external costs to others, and no consideration as to whether a different mode of transport might be available. This has been going on for about a century. We are now beginning to see that there are serious difficulties with this. Naturally an abrupt switch to a more rational, less destructive arrangement will be difficult.
If we are going to reach a better way of moving about, then the pressures need to be changed. Instead of 'predict and provide' we have to stop favouring motor vehicles, make drivers pay the full external costs of their choice, and make a real effort to improve public transport and make roads safer for the unarmoured.
This analysis should not need to be restated: it has been stated again and again, but no progress has been made. We know why. Any attempt to make motor travel less attractive is met with squeals of various intensity.
The necessary changes will take time, but they are necessary.

[mjr]

But in the street I showed, which is exceptional, there is no real alternative to pavement parking along most of it. And it's no use saying people shouldn't have cars,

So instead we simply say some people mustn't park where there isn't room for everyone.

because that community is not in a town and most of the jobs are miles away. If you were doing a shift in Port Talbot that started at 7am you might not be able to do it by bus. To get to a lot of employment from there is not practicable by bus,

It ought to be. Bus services could be reformed relatively quickly if there was will to have public transport service more than dividend maximisation.

[Bmblbzzz]

Not some people, all people mustn't park where there isn't room. I believe strictly that's the law already.

We can always find edge cases where a broadly sensible approach meets its limits and exceptions or alterations are made; it doesn't invalidate the general principle.

[mjr]

It is highly complicated in Wales due to the legacy of streets never designed for high levels of vehicle use, and the need (outside cities) for people to have access to cars to go about their daily business. An outright ban on pavement parking sounds great until you see real streets where it just wouldn't work.

Why wouldn't a pavement parking ban and enforcement of laws against obstruction there cause commercial off street car parks to open to serve the demand, increasing land values and providing some jobs, boosting the economy?

People are lazy and don't like walking and they like to park outside their houses, for free of course. Some are elderly or disabled, especially where I live for example, so walking a long way is difficult.

Disabled parking is a red herring. Normally they can park for hours on yellow lines and there are processes for creating longer term spaces.

Elderly parking is best handled the same way. If someone can't walk far, they qualify as disabled. Not all elderly people.

Of course people want everything for free but we have laws so that the strong don't stuff the weak. It seems bizarre that we allow this bullying on our pavements.

[PH]

It is highly complicated in Wales due to the legacy of streets never designed for high levels of vehicle use, and the need (outside cities) for people to have access to cars to go about their daily business. An outright ban on pavement parking sounds great until you see real streets where it just wouldn't work. Perhaps a ban with signposted exceptions would be practical.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6593837 ... ?entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6615237 ... ?entry=ttu
This is what that street looks like in the middle of the day when most of the cars are not there.

There seems to be a fair bit of off-road parking on the other side of the road, with scope to extend it.
But that street isn't really the sort of situation where the problems lie. If it's as it looks with no through traffic it would be better to do away with the pavement and treat it as shared use with an appropriate speed limit.
My street if far more suburban, though irritatingly google maps has caught it the one time there's no cars on the pavement! The annoying thing is most of the properties have a dedicated car parking space, yet residents would rather park on the pavement than walk 200 meters to it.

[irc]

We know that neither one more lane nor one more car park will fix it,

Do we? My estate built 50 years ago has footpaths seperate from the roads. After 50 years of growth in vehicle ownership it still has enough parking. Build it adequately in the first place - problem solved.

In fact at work the other day I remarked that the new build estate we were in was unusual in that every house had 2 or more off road spaces. Compared to the footprint of a house and garden the amount needed for a couple of cars is not much.

I accept Victorian streets will have issues but you can't blame the designers back then for not seeing a century into the future.

[pwa]

It is highly complicated in Wales due to the legacy of streets never designed for high levels of vehicle use, and the need (outside cities) for people to have access to cars to go about their daily business. An outright ban on pavement parking sounds great until you see real streets where it just wouldn't work. Perhaps a ban with signposted exceptions would be practical.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6593837 ... ?entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6615237 ... ?entry=ttu
This is what that street looks like in the middle of the day when most of the cars are not there.

There seems to be a fair bit of off-road parking on the other side of the road, with scope to extend it.
But that street isn't really the sort of situation where the problems lie. If it's as it looks with no through traffic it would be better to do away with the pavement and treat it as shared use with an appropriate speed limit.
My street if far more suburban, though irritatingly google maps has caught it the one time there's no cars on the pavement! The annoying thing is most of the properties have a dedicated car parking space, yet residents would rather park on the pavement than walk 200 meters to it.

The parking bays are there, as you say, but they are partial and inadequate in the evening, when most people have come home from work. I was talking to a resident about this issue a few weeks ago and she told me that the council have looked at widening the street several times over the years, but so far it has come to nothing. I imagine it would cost a fortune. Beyond the railing is a steep drop to the main road below, so the engineering solution would be formidable. https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6595207 ... ?entry=ttu Your suggestion of doing away with the token footway and having a shared space is the solution I would choose. In practice vehicles travel along that street at very low speed, and you don't see much traffic on it. I don't know many streets where this would be necessary. And on my own street there is no excuse whatsoever for having wheels on the footway. In the two and a half decades we have been here it has happened a handful of times.

[Bmblbzzz]

^At the other end there's a 15mph speed limit sign. First time I've seen that figure used.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZH3jMTGrPF2ekdcp6

[pwa]

^At the other end there's a 15mph speed limit sign. First time I've seen that figure used.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZH3jMTGrPF2ekdcp6

TBH I've driven up there many times and never noticed that, but I'd be doing less than that anyway. 10mph feels about right.

[Psamathe]

Scotland's ban on pavement parking is a move in the right direction, although it is up to local councils whether or not they enforce it. Hopefully Wales will be next and I will be checking Welsh Labour's manifesto before the next election. I think the idea has been out for consultation for several years so I am not holding my breath.

It is highly complicated in Wales due to the legacy of streets never designed for high levels of vehicle use, and the need (outside cities) for people to have access to cars to go about their daily business. An outright ban on pavement parking sounds great until you see real streets where it just wouldn't work. Perhaps a ban with signposted exceptions would be practical.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6593837 ... ?entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6615237 ... ?entry=ttu
This is what that street looks like in the middle of the day when most of the cars are not there.

Those look fairly small cars for what seems common these days (not a Range Rover in sight). Even with small card do emergency services have adequate access? refuse lorries?

If the road is not suitable for parked cars then it's not suitable for parked cars.

Ian

[mattsccm]

John Brailsford drove into my bike! I called him a rude name, he said the same back and we went climbing. He did give me some pedals later.

[pwa]

Scotland's ban on pavement parking is a move in the right direction, although it is up to local councils whether or not they enforce it. Hopefully Wales will be next and I will be checking Welsh Labour's manifesto before the next election. I think the idea has been out for consultation for several years so I am not holding my breath.

It is highly complicated in Wales due to the legacy of streets never designed for high levels of vehicle use, and the need (outside cities) for people to have access to cars to go about their daily business. An outright ban on pavement parking sounds great until you see real streets where it just wouldn't work. Perhaps a ban with signposted exceptions would be practical.

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6593837 ... ?entry=ttu
https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6615237 ... ?entry=ttu
This is what that street looks like in the middle of the day when most of the cars are not there.

Those look fairly small cars for what seems common these days (not a Range Rover in sight). Even with small card do emergency services have adequate access? refuse lorries?

If the road is not suitable for parked cars then it's not suitable for parked cars.

Ian

You would get an ambulance past those cars, but not with a lot of room to spare. I think the council send a smaller bin wagon there.