Pedestrians Association

OP the only pedestrian lobby group I am aware of is Cosáin in Galway. I can only find them on Twitter so you could probably contact via a twitter message. They work in tandem with the Galway Cycling Campaign. Grandeeod, I think the AA could be described as a lobby for motorists, dont you? coylemi, the motorists who contribute these hundreds of millions must surely sometimes be pedestrians too since the number of drive-in shops, workplaces, restaurants, offices and cinemas is limited!

I'm sure you're right but he defends high speed limits in urban areas, keeping cars on the quays etc and when himself and Pat Kenny get on their joint high horses.......AA seems to have ear of Government and RSA and is well got with RTE

I would love to see a pedestrian's association. Even if all it was achieved was to raise awareness amongst people to improve safety.

One thing the association could focus on would be trying to encourage the gards to be more pro-active in dealing with people who are a danger to pedestrians. My OH is an avid cyclist and is from the US. He quite aggressively shouts at people cycling on the pavements here and every single time comments to me about how if you did that in his State, you'd get a ticket so quickly! Additionally there needs to be something done about pedestrians walking out in front of bikes.

Even just the awareness that we should all be working together to respect each other would be worthwhile. Working with other interest groups eg cyclist groups wouldn't be that useful because it's not usually avid cyclists who are the ones cycling on the pavement, it's the casual cyclist. So a wider safety campaign could be worked on.

Corca Baiscinn wrote: »

OP the only pedestrian lobby group I am aware of is Cosáin in Galway. I can only find them on Twitter so you could probably contact via a twitter message. They work in tandem with the Galway Cycling Campaign.

Working in tandem with a cycling organisation is a problem: cyclists are a group of road users who present particular challenges to pedestrians.

This is a great idea.

Of course, policy formation in Ireland, in regard to transport, urban planning, and much else, is very poor (based on short-term goals with little research basis). It really can't be assumed that state or local authorities have the requisite expertise to evaluate and implement beneficial policy changes. Coupled with this, civic society in Ireland is pretty weak. For a variety of reasons, the ability of civic groups to influence policy, unless very well-networked, is not great.

However, a pressure or campaign group centred on the pedestrian, with walking figured as a form of 'active transport' and a strong emphasis on the urban infrastructural changes necessary to create 'liveable cities' would complement some strands of current policy (rhetorical and otherwise). Despite real conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians, alliance with commuter cycle groups would make sense as, notwithstanding questions of civility, most such conflicts are the product of infrastructural deficits rather 'moral failings'. The overarching goal in such an alliance would not be primarily about the promotion of cycling in and of itself but the recognition that good pedestrian and cycling infrastructure delivers a pleasanter and more enjoyable urban environment, centred on people rather than traffic, with a range of health, social and economic benefits.

I'd centre such a campaign around a generalised and pretty holistic vision of what the urban environment and experience could and should be.

Where do I sign up?

https://twitter.com/JustWalkNow - describe themselves as a Dublin-based campaign to make urban walking easier, safer and fun

http://www.dublininquirer.com/2016/11/16/kilmainham-one-woman-takes-traffic/ - this person says she wants to start a pedestrian advocacy group in Dublin, if you're Dublin based and it's not you OP may be worth trying to get in touch somehow

https://www.facebook.com/Love-30-Campaign-1661011850800331/ - not specifically a pedestrian only lobby group, but a campaign to support the introduction of lower speed limits on suitable roads in built up areas, which can make it safer and more pleasant to be a pedestrian!

https://twitter.com/cosaingalway - Cosain Galway, as mentioned further up the thread. Interesting stuff on there even for people outside Galway (although admittedly there is a lot of cycling stuff at the moment).

There isn't any national pedestrian lobby that I'm aware of but I agree it is badly needed.
However, the idea that a pedestrian or general road safety campaign collaborating or working together with a cycling campaign is a problem is stupid - many of the same issues are faced by both - speeding traffic, car orientated road design, motorist inattention, infrastructure that forces pedestrians and cyclists to share space when they should be segregated, etc. Cycling campaigners will often share the same interests as pedestrians and generally speak up for them when they can, but a separate pedestrian lobby would be much more focused and if done right could potentially attract a lot more volunteers or public support, since nearly everyone is a pedestrian at least some of the time.

The mode of transport used by the shoppers surveyed is shown in Figure 2.4 [attached below]. Overall, 60% of shoppers surveyed had travelled to the city by public transport, with walking accounting for 17% and 19% of shoppers travelling by car. When the spending patterns over the prior four weeks of all of the shoppers surveyed were calculated, the contribution of car based shopping accounted for €1 in every €5 of retail spend, while public transport users accounted for almost three times this amount.

walking.jpg

Source: Dublin City Centre Transport Study Consultation Document (June 2015)


Details on pedestrian network in Dublin city centre, pages 54-57.

Hexen wrote: »

Notwithstanding a lot of pretty poor behaviour, most such problems are infrastructural rather than due to the assumed moral qualities of any particular group.

As a pedestrian the actual problems I've faced this week were with cyclists riding in a pedestrianised zone and not stoppinh at a red light. Can't see how either of those are infrastructural.

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

As a pedestrian the actual problems I've faced this week were with cyclists riding in a pedestrianised zone and not stoppinh at a red light. Can't see how either of those are infrastructural.

Sure and, no doubt, that's very annoying behaviour. I'm sure we'd all agree that cyclists should stop at red lights (absent an overriding safety concern), that they shouldn't intimidate pedestrians at crossings (pedestrians should be and should feel safe when walking about) and should respect fully pedestrianised areas. Personally, I think the existence of a proper, segregated cycling infrastructure that minimises conflicts with pedestrians and others would support that; it wouldn't of course turn everyone into perfect citizens and some people would still do stupid things.

More importantly, a discussion of the poor behaviour of some cyclists will derail the purpose of this thread. There are plenty of other opportunities on threads on this site to cavil about cyclists. The point is that both pedestrians and cyclists have similar infrastructural interests. That is, less car-centric urban designs, road calming features, wider footpaths, properly engineered junctions, properly engineered pedestrian crossings, segregated cycle paths which minimise conflicts between cyclists and pedestrians, etc.

In terms of current policy goals, here and elsewhere, they are also grouped together as forms of 'active transport' which allows for their joint promotion on the grounds of health economics. Likewise they both feature strongly in most models of 'liveable' cities. The interests of commuter cyclists and pedestrians are not, of course, identical but they share enough common features to make alliance likely profitable.

Added to which most people are at least multi-modal to some extent in their transport choices, so oppositions between pedestrians, those on mobility scooters, wheelchair users, motorists, cyclists, public transport users, etc., are, to some extent, moot. The goal would be to make the urban environment accessible, pleasant and interesting for everyone. Doing that will probably entail making certain transport choices, specifically the car, less preferable, and others more preferable, in most circumstances.

loyatemu wrote: »

Whilst I agree that pedestrian provision in Dublin is poor, pedestrians aren't a "group" as such. They're just people who happen to be walking; I think it would be difficult to generate much interest in a lobby group. Public transport lobby groups have not been that successful and it usually ends up being very small numbers of people who get involved.

magicbastarder wrote: »

agreed, people don't seem to self-identify as 'pedestrians'.

I for one would support a group of people who would raise issues of pedestrians to the authorities, esp. in Dublin city, i'm sure much much worse outside the county.. Walking through city streets isn't too bad, however when you get out to the suburbs you have to contend with lack of safe crossings, broken footpaths, or ones full of litter, leaves etc...Also parked vehicles on roads, short crossing time at traffic signals, no pedestrian island for longer crossings, enforcement of motorists stopping at Zebra crossings and traffic camera's at traffic light crossings which photograph cars breaking red lights and issue fines and points through the post..