Gibraltar has limited space, yes we all know that, and many
years ago some clever fellow came up with the idea of pavements. Fortunately
for us in this day and age we are not forced to walk through streets of mud
pulling along a donkey. The car has been invented and the roads and
thoroughfares have been designed with motor vehicles and pedestrians in mind.
As children we were all told by our Mothers not to step out
onto the road, as she yanked us along the lane, our arms near pulled from their
sockets, we all knew from small that there was a safe and sensible place to
walk on, that the ‘naughty cars and lorries’ were not allowed to go.
Why then do pedestrians walk on the road? Why do they ignore
the pelican and zebra crossings and jay-walk across busy roads in the area just
before the crossing? You drive down Devil’s Tower Road and see for yourself.
Despite a central reservation of iron railings and large concrete pots
containing spiky bushes there is always some idiot who can’t be bothered to
walk a few paces down to St. Theresa’s and cross at the lights, no, he has to
clamber over the greenery and squeeze his way through two iron poles and dangle
there precariously while he waits for the cars to pass so he can quickly leg it
to the other side.
I have to now single out runners as the worst offenders. You
drive past Both Worlds on a Sunday morning and there they are, running on the
road, forcing all traffic to swerve out around them on a narrow stretch.
There’s a pavement there! Why don’t they use it? And it’s not just there; you
seem them all over the place, running NEXT TO a perfectly adequate pavement. I
have questioned said runners about this and they come up with some nonsense
about the tarmac being better on their knees than the substance that a pavement
is made out of…if they are that concerned about their knees then they should
either stop running altogether or run around the track 20 times at Victoria
Stadium.
And before you say ‘what about all those terrible car
drivers’ I further move to condemn them also. You want to go and buy a plastic
container from Saverland in Governor’s Street? Well half the time you can’t get
to the door because someone has parked right up in front of the shop door.
Mothers with prams have to walk out onto the road in order to get by. Why do
some car owners think it is okay to park on the pavement? It’s high time that
people stick to their designated area; cars on the road people on the
pavements, it really is quite simple isn’t it?
Comments
Post a Comment