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| Media Release Traffic Man out to make the streets safe for walking
Article in the Christchurch Star, from New Zealand. Steve Abley, a traffic engineer and our honorary technical consultant, has a simple message: everyone is a pedestrian even if they drive cars or catch the bus. Abley, pictured right, is a senior traffic engineer at Gabites Porter Consultants in the central city but is also the honorary technical consultant for the UK Pedestrian Association known as "Living Streets". He believes Christchurch and London pedestrians face similar issues, such as slipping and sliding on ice over winter, or needing easier access to parks and walkways such as the Square. "The issues are endless and range from getting people moving for their own health reasons to ensuring everything a city has to offer is utilised by its locals," he said. "It doesn't matter if we drive a car or not, we're all pedestrians at the beginning and end of every trip we make". He said Christchurch streets could be intimidating for pedestrians because of their lay-out and traffic flow. And if mobile and active pedestrians were intimidated crossing the road, it was harder for more vulnerable people such as the elderly, the very young and those with pushchairs. He cast his expert eye over the busy Bealey Ave-Victoria St-Papanui Rd intersection for the Christchurch Star. The intersection was designed to carry a high volume of traffic, and pedestrians are often forced to wait on the small central traffic island space as they cross the road. "It is intimidating. You don't have to have to have too many people on the central island to have it over-crowded, then people are standing to close to the traffic. The route provided for pedestrians, on one section of the crossing, was not actually the shortest available and more confident people may choose the quickest route. "But if you are slower, you are more vulnerable and have to take the path provided for you. So you have to make sure the paths are well designed. Another way to help pedestrians was to ensure they did not get a green light to cross at the same time as turning traffic, which often intimidated pedestrians. "This is quite intimidating, even for me, for a mother with a pushchair it must be very intimidating. But giving pedestrians such a clear run meant holding up traffic a little longer, and such changes need to be accepted by the community as a whole, as part of a change of mindset. Abley continues to work on projects in the UK including a Designers guide for Living Streets. "Living Streets is a UK charity which focuses on enhancing communities, and advocates for pedestrians by promoting walking through education and policy initiatives. It has been around for 80 years and has a strong reputation for objectivity. One way to help local authorities was to audit the accessibility of streets. A walking advocate and a handful of local residents would walk down one of their streets and discuss what upsets them about their pavements and street environment. Problems could include trip hazards, problems with a designated crossing spot, and "curb shyness'' --- where traffic scared people from walking on the footpath. He got involved with "Living Streets" when he was living in the UK from 1999 to 2003. He returned to Christchurch with a long list of "pitfalls" from the UK, which local authorities could try to avoid. But he said Christchurch traffic problems were nothing compared to London. Here congestion was low, and the peak period amounted to around a half hour each day. "In London it is almost all daylight hours. "There is a long way for us to degrade but it will happen if we don't make changes now. "As a country we are only now grasping the concept of demand management. We continue to predict and provide. We predict we need more roading but if we provide it we create a potentially bigger problem. It can create a vicious cycle. "The UK has changed their 'predict and provide' solutions to demand management techniques and now often look at other ways of reducing congestion such as introducing roading pricing, congestion charging and severe parking restrictions. "In turn it also means improving other transport services such as public transport, carpooling, park and ride - where you park the car and take a bus, and the newest concept, park and stride - where you park centrally and walk to work on special pedestrian priority routes," he said. ENDS
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