MADAM – Are pedestrians an endangered species?

It seems clear to most of us they are invisible and therefore do not require any special provision made to keep them safe along our frantic highways.

This has come as a devastating surprise to me.

When I first came to live in Stroud, I chose a delightful old house at Ebley.

Only to realise very soon that I had chosen to live on the busiest road in Gloucestershire.

Heavy traffic shook my house, and many others, to its foundations. All day and every day.

It was for this reason that I first stood for a position on Gloucestershire County Council.

“Something must be done,” I cried and galvanised some equally irate residents by various means (eg we once crossed and recrossed pedestrian crossings in a gaggle) to draw attention to the problem.

Eventually we achieved sufficient opposition to the volume of traffic that convinced the county council of how dangerous the situation was; accident statistics proved it.

The Ebley bypass was built. ‘Hurray,’ we cried. We rejoiced too soon.

After all these years I now attempt to stagger across the road with my walking frame, listening intently with my failing ears and peering with my failing eyes for the oncoming traffic into which I am obliged to step because several cars with careless owners have completely blocked the pavement.

Meanwhile the carefree, speedy traffic continues to narrowly miss me.

I am not alone and nor is Westward Road the only place in the Stroud area where we face these challenges daily.

I had assumed all these years that obstructing the pavement was a traffic offence.

Is this no longer the case?

What about access for emergency vehicles? What about parents with children in prams? What about wheelchair users? What about children going to school? What about people trying to visit churches and parks and nurseries? Are our lifestyles such that we leap from house to car without touching the ground and park within an inch of our intended destination? It seems that for most people it is just that.

The rest of us still struggle to stay on the ground, on bicycles, on our feet, running, walking; feeling the ground beneath us. Although breathing a polluted atmosphere and keeping a lookout for danger.

Maureen Rutter

Westward Road

Stroud