Some series, like Last of the Summer Wine, follow people going on local walks and getting up to mischief. We often hear of people that love to go for walks on the weekend. The issue, as traffic density increases is that the local walks that were along quiet roads are now along busier and busier roads.
At the same time, when road works block one road traffic is diverted along secondary and tertiary roads. Recently a very important road was shut to traffic entirely. As a result of this closure a route that was once an agricultural road, reserved only for rural roads was used by a Transport Public de Nyon bus as well as a French car from Ain. What was meant to be a quiet road, exclusively for farmers, by being metalled, became a short cut for local buses and commuters.
Within the space of a few minutes I saw three cars go down what should be a prime walking path. It wouldn’t be so bad, but the main road has no walking path. The only walking trail is informal, created by people walking along the route and preventing grass and other plants from growing.
When I got to Signy, I walked along a tertiary road and along this road two cars drove by too fast, and too close, but especially too close. It is a shame for the people that live in this village.If people that live in a village can’t respect people walking in their own village, then what respect will the same villagers get from those that are commuting via that village?
When I got to Grens, they narrowed the road to slow cars down, but it doesn’t slow cars down. It encourages them to shoot the rapids to get through before they’re blocked.
Yesterday as I walked in Grens a TPN bus went onto the pavement ahead of me squeezing me against the wall, without any respect or due care and attention. Of course I could stop, and make space for the bus but the road is narrowed for cars and buses, and I was on a “protected” segment of road, that was ignored by the bus.
If this happened once I’d accept it without a word. The issue is that every single village is becoming a 30 zone, and real physical pavements are being replaced by bollards and flattened. This means that cars no longer need to mount the curb to get on a “pavement” and that pavements are now conceptual rather than real.
This means that if you walk in Eysins, cars can run you over, with ease, especially at rush hour, and the same is true of Signy, Grens and other villages.
In the past when we walked on farm roads they were made of dirt so cars didn’t drive along them. When we walked in villages we had real pavements and 50 zones, so cars would destroy their tires if they mounted pavements too fast. The more 30 zones I see, the more real pavements, real barriers are removed, the less pleasant walking becomes.
In the idealised world imagined by bureaucrats 30 zones are respected but in my experience as a person walking up to five and a half million steps per year theory and reality are different.
What gets to me is that in Europe at least, towns are already walkable and cycling is possible, if we’re ready to take secondary streets and roads. They spend months adding walking routes, and I use plenty of them in Nyon and Morges, and cycling routes near Divonne and Geneva, so I take advantage of the infrastructure.
My issue is that Eysins, Crans, Grens, Arnex-sur-Nyon and other villages are turning into commuter towns and suburbs rather than walker friendly. They are being optimised for people that drive everywhere, at the expense of local walkability.
The fact that two cars in Signy drove by without slowing when they saw me, and that the bus skimmed me in Grens illustrates that walking is a second hand citizen and that cars are seen as primary in these commuter villages.
In my eyes, and experience making towns and cities walkable is a fantastic idea, but if the countryside stops being walkable due to commuters and transit traffic, then we lose something very important. Why live in the countryside, if to go for a walk we have to drive to town, in order to walk safely?
What I want is simply a gravel path, alongside main roads so that I can walk between villages safely, and without my shoes getting soaked with dew, and muddy. I want villages to ensure that we can walk safely within villages. I felt safer in villages with real pavements, and 50 km/h speed limits. 30 per hour, and no pavement, with rush hour traffic is frightening.
Some will say “So don’t walk at rush hour” and I’d answer, “increase bus frequency, and plan infrastructure that takes human nature into account.” In the end I use the car, not out of laziness, but because the walking infrastructure where I live is not suitable for someone to feel safe to walk. Before the road works to encourage walking and cycling I cycled almost daily, and I walked almost daily. Now I drive the car daily, and then run. Cycling and walking have both been demoted. That new infrastructure work broke my habits, rather than encouraged me.
Idealistically, by this time next year the endless road works will be over, but for now, I’m glad to have an EV to drive to safer places for walking and running.
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