Road Works that Forget About Pedestrians

For two years they worked on a motorway bridge. For two years they cut down trees, added tons of soil, and then widened roads for cars. Never during that time did they consider that people might want to walk along the most direct route from A to B.

More recently I have been walking into and out of town and for a while I had to walk on a dirt path. I had to avoid heavy machinery, large puddles, and cross the road on a busy road several times.

Yesterday, and for the last week, the cycle lane that they had “completed” was then dug up so that a deep hole was the end of the cycle lane. The result is that you either had to dismount your bike to get onto the road, or ride on the pavement with pedestrians.

Yesterday, to add insult to injury the workers added a large truck in the middle of the pedestrian path. blocking the route. In the end I walked through mud, luckily relatively dry.

It’s fantastic to improve cycling and walking infrastructure, but only when it doesn’t destroy people’s walking and cycling routes for weeks at a time.

It’s got to a stage where I don’t want to walk locally anymore. I’m tempted to get in the car, and go for a local drive, somewhere away from road works, where they don’t forget about pedestrians.

The thing about walking is that it takes ten minutes to walk a kilometre if you walk fast. It takes an hour to walk six. With these road works detours that would be nothing in a car become a nuisance on foot.

High Traffic With No Walking Infrastructure

The other nuisance is busy roads with nowhere for pedestrians to walk. The walks that I loved during the pandemic became too dangerous for me to walk along them both because of traffic but also because of mud. Every time I came back with muddy shoes I had to spend half an hour removing that mud from my shoes.

Blocked for two entire weeks

Within a few days they will close a road for two entire weeks, to resurface it. In other parts of the world they can do that in a day or two, but in Switzerland they will close it for two weeks, and in that time there is no mention of whether people will still be able to walk along the route, or not.

Three Walking Routes affected by works

This wouldn’t matter, if it was one road, for a few days, but it isn’t one road. It’s three roads at once. The direct road between Nyon and Eysins will be cut for two weeks. The road between Nyon and Crassier also has road works that have made walking less pleasant, but there are also further works on the Route de Divonne, that make walking more unpleasant.

A Positive Blip

In Nyon itself, there are road works, to bring steam heating to apartments and other buildings. For this they are digging up roads. The process takes months, if not years, so they are creating new “walks” for people to walk along and I have grabbed this opportunity to explore routes that I would not otherwise be authorised to use.

And Finally

For years, or even decades, the default was to get into the car, and drive for twenty minutes to an hour, to go for a walk. Now my default is to put my shoes on and walk from the doorstep. I got down to using the car twice per week, for food shopping and that was it.

With the road works that complicate my walks, and degrade the pleasure I derive from my local walks, it is increasingly tempting too take the car and walk somewhere else. Some people drive to the Lac De Divonne, or to the Arboretum. I don’t want to get that habit back, but with the way things are degrading my habits might be more car centric, ironically because of how they are adding cycling and walking infrastructure.

TLDR

If you plan road works for encouraging people to walk, don’t destroy people’s favourite walking paths in the process. Ensure that people’s pedestrian habits are not impacted. You want people to keep their pedestrian habits.