Pedestrian
A
pedestrian is a person travelling on foot, whether
walking or
running. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a
road but this was not the case historically.
During the
eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, pedestrianism was a popular spectator sport just as
equestrianism still is. One of the most famous pedestrians of the day was
Captain Robert Barclay Allardice, known as "The Celebrated Pedestrian", of
Stonehaven. His most impressive feat was to walk 1
mile every hour for 1000 hours, which he achieved between the
1st of June and the
12th of July,
1809. This feat captured the imagination of the public, and around 10,000 people came to watch over the course of the event. During the rest of the nineteenth century, attempts to repeat this particular athletic challenge were made by many pedestrians including the renowned
Ada Anderson who developed it further and walked a quarter-mile in each quarter-hour over the 1,000 hours.
Since the nineteenth century, interest in pedestrianism has dropped. Although it is still an
Olympic sport, it fails to catch public attention in the way that it used to. However, pedestrians are still carrying out major walking feats such as the popular
Land's End to
John o' Groats walk, in the
United Kingdom, or traversal of
North America from coast to coast. These feats are often tied to
charitable fundraising and have been achieved by celebrities such as Sir
Jimmy Savile or
Ian Botham as well as by people not otherwise in the public eye.
Regular walking is very important for both a person's
health and the
natural environment.
Obesity and related medical problems can be effectively prevented and/or cured by moving on foot on a daily basis. The widespread habit of taking the car for short
grocery trips significantly contributes to both
obesity and climate change, owing to vehicle emissions, as
internal combustion engines are extremely inefficient and highly polluting during their first minutes of operation (engine cold start). General availability of
public transportation encourages walking, as it won't, in most cases, take one directly to one's destination.
Nowadays, roads often have a designated footpath attached especially for pedestrian
traffic, called the
sidewalk in
American English and the
pavement in
British English. There are also footpaths not associated with a road which are used purely by pedestrians, particularly ramblers, hikers or hill-walkers and there are roads not associated with a footpath. Such footpaths in mountainous or forested areas are called trails. On some of the latter, pedestrians share the road with horses and
vehicles whilst on others they are forbidden from using the road altogether. Also some
shopping streets are for pedestrians only. Some roads have special
pedestrian crossings. A bridge solely for pedestrians is a
footbridge.
|
Colorful pedestrian Light Tunnel at Detroit's DTW airport. |
Efforts are underway by pedestrian
advocacy groups to restore pedestrian access to new developments, especially to counteract newer developments where 20 to 30 percent do not include sidewalks. Some activists advocate large
auto-free zones where pedestrians only or pedestrians and some non motorised vehicles are allowed. Many
urbanists have extolled the virtues of pedestrian streets in urban areas. Many urban streets in the USA lack
street lighting (lamp poles), based on the reasoning that cars have headlights to illuminate their own way. An exception is
New York City, the only locality in the United States where more than half of all households do not own a car (the figure is even higher in Manhattan, over 75%; nationally, the rate is 8%[
1]). This policy severely restricts or effectively prohibits pedestrian traffic and contributes to excessive car use on short distance trips.
In contrast pedestrian traffic is officially encouraged in some parts of the
European Union and construction or separation of dedicated walking routes receives a high priority in most large European city centres, often in conjunction with
public transport enhancements. In
Copenhagen the world's longest pedestrian shopping area, the
Strøget, has been developed over the last 40 years principally due to the work of Danish architect
Jan Gehl.
The promotion of walking has been linked to the rebuilding of
social capital.
The word pedestrian also has a figurative meaning of "unimaginative" or "ordinary." E.g. ‘'She wrote pages and pages of pedestrian prose''.
*
Pedestrian-friendly*
List of U.S. cities with most pedestrian commuters*
Ultramarathons*
Early Pedestrians in North America*
US Pedestrian Advocacy Groups*
UK Pedestrian Advocacy Group*
Transportation Alternatives: Pedestrian Advocacy*
America Walks*
Street quality promotion by street parties
