OPINION: Modern Cities Need Pedestrian Lanes
The city of the future is an idyllic place: low-emissions, greener spaces and a pedestrianised city centre. In a vision of this utopia, with life continuing to move faster, how would we keep a pedestrian city moving at the necessary pace?
Without some rules and regulations this new biped-based metropolis would surely fall into disarray and chaos. People walking anywhere they want and at any pace? There would only be disorder and a newer, up close and personal form of road rage – foot fury!
The answer to this conundrum exists in our carbon-heavy, wheeled travel surfaces that currently exist in our cities: roads. Specifically, the lanes on these roads are what hold the key to a fully functioning city that will stride into the future.
The average person walks at around 3 to 4 miles per hour, or roughly 100 steps per minute. These common amblers would be the basis for the central part of a lane system designed to keep a modern city plodding on. The lanes could follow as such:
Lane 1
This lane would follow the current UK highway code in style by being the outermost lane on the side of the carriageway (footway) - the fast lane. Reserved only for stompers of the highest echelons of strides per minute. These people would mostly consist of runners, running-late-ers or those of us that get frustrated walking behind those of a slower gait.
Lane 2
This would be where our common strollers meander their way through town. The prime average pace lane would take most of the traffic and would be strictly monitored with the minimum speed limit (3mph) enforceable by law.
Lane 3
Lane three would be for those who wish to wander care-free at their own pace. Reserved for the high street hingers who have no real point of arrival and no real estimated time of arrival.
Hard Shoulders
The footway of the future can’t exist without the humble hard shoulder. Taking inspiration again from current carriageways, this would offer less of an emergency stop for changing tyres, and more for an emergency stop to gaze into shop windows to check out a deal that simply can’t be missed!
The loose concept for this idea has been tried in the past, with only two lanes: one for people walking with their mobile phone glued to their face and one for people without. This implementation was a step in the wrong direction though – using your phone while walking should be seen as heinous a crime as using a phone while driving. The hard shoulders would provide a place for people to stop, put on their pedestrian parking brakes and then use their phones, failure to do so would result in a fine (with repeat offenders kneecapped for public safety, of course).
The city of the future is an exciting prospect, in places like our Dear Green Glasgow we’re already making strides towards this picturesque blueprint. The best part about these concepts is that they could become reality as soon as we want. Perhaps, in the current climate, we would need to add an extra lane for the dog-sized rats who’ve just been gorging themselves on the bin-buffet available in the city!