Continuing my theme of not being anti-motorist, I would now like to illustrate the rightful dominance of the car in society today using the two photographs below.
The first shows a scene along the A56 Bury New Road close to where I reside. This was taken sometime in the early 1900's. As you can see these were dark times indeed and the car in not apparent. While this is obviously a single moment in time and motorists may have been able to make use of this highway, they would certainly have had to battle with a number of obstacles to do so. Here we can see a tram (complete with annoying tracks), a number of horse drawn vehicles, several pedestrians and a cyclist who cannot even be bothered riding his damnable contraption and is certainly not wearing a helmet or hi viz gear. It is also arguable the road surface is not of adequate quality for the modern motorist who needs to travel everywhere as quickly as possible.
The more recent photograph (taken today at 09.30hrs) show a somewhat different scene. Here the motorist has rightful dominance along the same stretch of road (the viewpoint is slightly different as the crash barriers limit access to the road and I certainly wouldn't want to get in the way of any motorists and impede their progress). It is clear to see the road surface has been improved and pedestrians coralled more tightly. What is really needed here is get rid of that annoying crossing and build some kind of elevated or sunken walkway to allow pedestrians to cross the road or better still give them all a car each so they don't have to walk anywhere. Once these footwalkers have been dealt with then the official speed limit could be increased to 40 or maybe even 50mph.
Still happier motoring times don't you think?
The more I cycle, the more I think how daft it is that our urban planning privileges private car ownership, which you've illustrated brilliantly here.
ReplyDeleteDitto.
ReplyDeleteIt's also telling that the first pic is taken in the carriageway, whereas the second is taken from behind a damaged barrier.
Thanks for you kind comments. However, I think you have misunderstood my intent.
ReplyDeleteThe more recent image does not illustrate a perfect vision of the road by any means but surely it is a lot more car friendly than the B&W image?
Please remember, I am not running an anti-motorist campaign.