How To Walk On Busy Streets
September 03, 2004
The population of Dublin city has substantially increased in recent years. We are now a major European city in many respects, and not the Western European backwater we were in times past. As such, the good people of our city need to learn how to share more densely packed urban spaces. The government is taking it upon itself to police a lot of things - smoking, drinking, children in pubs at night...but not walking on city streets.
Dubliners are bad at walking in a straight line, and that's the crux of the problem.
I know this because most days I have to walk down O'Connell street in order to get to my gym. I've lived in other large cities where you quickly join the flow going in your particular direction. From memory, the Aussies walk on the right, while Londoners tend to go for the left. Maybe it's an equator thing?
In Dublin, people walk all over the place. Left, right, straight, in, out, oh - admire the shop window, and move out to walk past the bus queue. Bus queues are surprisingly ordered and regulated, we are quick to dive into a 180 degree stright line when we're standing behind a blue painted pole. And wo betide the poor soul who chooses to stand under the shelter - yes! even during the pouring rain and even if they have a prepaid bus ticket!
We still have kept a hold of that lovely tradition lost to many other big cities of making eye contact. But it's rather unnerving to have some tracksuited person keeping eye contact with you while they're weaving around the pavement. And if they're wielding a buggy, it's even more hair-raising.
I felt compelled to write about this because last week I had a guest over from Australia who found it took ages to make it from one end of Henry Street to the next on Saturday afternoon. All these individuals walking this way and that, my Australian friend didn't know what to do!
And so, as Dublin grows up and becomes even larger, our city streets remain the same size and sooner or later we're going to have to work out some sort of system for handling the flow of foot traffic. In the absence of any government dictat, it's anarchy out there.
Have a nice weekend everybody.