The installation of 60 bollards to protect a stretch of pavement outside a primary school in Birmingham has been described as barmy in the media this week. However, if you’ve ever walked a child to school you’ll have discovered that no amount of yellow lines, polite emails from the head or near-misses will prevent drivers from parking as near as possible to the gates – and frequently on the pavement.
When asked about the cluster of 60 bollards, a local resident seemingly oblivious to why the bollards might be necessary, told the Telegraph that since their installation, “Delivery drivers have also been unable to park up and I hear parents have had difficulties too.”
The simple fact is that Birmingham City Council was forced to act. Such was the persistence of drivers, who ignored the presence of the school, double yellow lines and a bus stop to park on the pavement, that city chiefs responded in the only way they could.
Pavement Parking – Countermeasures
It feels like the successive governments have been talking about making pavement parking illegal for decades. We’ve lost count of how many consultations have come and gone. But with schools around the country effectively under siege from pavement parking, we devised a fictional device designed to be installed along kerbs that quickly punctures tyres.
Catclaw is the size of half a small orange and was designed to be installed in its thousands along kerbs and pavements. When a car or lorry drives over a CatClaw, its weight exposes a sharp steel tube that quickly punctures the tyre. However, it poses no threat to pedestrians – a person standing on top of the device would not be heavy enough to activate it.
If a car mounts a pavement fitted with Catclaw, it’s tyres are quickly and efficiently burst
Catclaw is an extreme idea that is unlikely to be practicable, or even legal. Other than the sharpened spike hidden within, what, you may ask, is it’s point. The purpose of the project is to highlight the plight of the 40-plus people killed each year on pavements in Britain by drivers and the many thousands of pedestrians every day who have their path blocked.
The project allowed us to talk at some length about the need to radically alter the way we tackle road danger in all its forms. The project appeared on television and in The Daily Mail, The Express, The Mirror, Metro, The Manchester Evening News and been viewed over 135,000 times on YouTube.
The systematic approach to road danger reduction Britain so badly needs will not rely on Catclaw or anything as outlandish. As has happened in countries like Sweden, it involves placing needs of people ahead of cars. The benefits are numerous, but include safer roads, reduced healthcare costs, greater independence for children and increased quality of life for all. However, change of this kind can occur only once people – as opposed to politicians – consider it vital. And that process starts with getting it talked about. Please watch the film we made about road danger and share.
With the exception of London – where a ban already exists – only lorries are currently prevented from parking on pavements. The solution to pavement parking isn’t endless consultations, public information campaigns or silly gimmicks, it’s a simple change to the law to allow local authorities to enforce the obvious: Pavements are for people.
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Maddie Parisio
Brilliant! Well done Birmingham City Council!
Patricia Richardson
I agree and I’m a driver. Where I live park in the middle of the pavement if there are yellow lines.
Traffic wardens state not there problem that’s the Police.
I asked it’s that the invisible Police.
We only see Police cars from the station at bottom of the road
Andrew R
Whilst it is technically not illegal to park on pavements outside of London, it is illegal to drive on a pavement. So unless the car has been craned or flown onto the pavement, then the law has been broken. Why don’t the police and local authorities enforce this law which was passed in the 19th century and is still quoted in the Highway Code?
Pete
great idea – needed outside every primary school with a pavement that is parked or driven on.
Catclaw
That catclaw idea is daft, people wouldnt understand, and then you are left with a car that can’t.be.moved for hours while waiting for a tow or mobile tire fitter. And what about the tow truck that would also have to mount the curb in order to pull the car on?
Just clamp and fine them.
edmund white
Good on you Birmingham, needs to be done to get it through some peoples thick heads, YOU CANT PARK THERE
Chris
When I used to the school run, the number of parents who thought that the zig-zags outside the school were provided for dropping-off and picking up their precious Jocasta and Chardonnay was depressingly large.
And of course, lots of them did so in their huge 4x4s, this was in Weybridge in Surrey, where most 4x4s do their off-roading in supermarket car parks.
Anne
Where I live the pavements are wide and people drive along them to find the right house. Some even drive backwards on the pavement. I sometimes remonstrate with drivers, and learn new words of abuse in return.