Crosswalks, Or The Lack Thereof In London

By Ethan Christ

I was undoubtedly shocked at the lack of crosswalks in such a metropolitan city like London. While the tube is a fantastic and convenient way of getting around the city, the actual walking component was much different than I imagined it would be. There was a large shortage of actual crosswalks, I only counted 11 on the entire trip. Crosswalk being a part of the road where pedestrians have the right of way, that does not have a button to stop traffic at a light to cross. While London has a fair amount of those types of crossings, they give you a very short amount of time compared to American crosswalks to cross, as short as 10-15 seconds. To put it frankly, they are not accessible. If you were in a wheelchair, crutches, or had a disability that prevented you from crossing at the speed most people do, it would be extremely difficult to actually get all of the way across the road. I read a little bit about it, and apparently the time you have allotted to cross the street was implemented in mind for able-bodied college students, but for some reason still has not been changed over the years. There are many different crosswalks where this is absolutely no signal for cars to stop, it just has a simple message for pedestrians: “Look Right”. Oftentimes when I was walking across these crossings cars would come flying right in front of me, and I would definitely describe myself as a cautious walker. As shocked as I was all trip about this situation, I figured it was probably in my head and I was exaggerating how bad it was. However, after getting home I did some research and found the “London Living Streets” movement which is all about making London more walker friendly and accessible, and they argue many of the points I have stated earlier. As good as the public transportation is in London, it is soured by the accessibility issues permeating throughout the city, and London needs to do better!

Grant is a second year student at KU, majoring in Environmental Studies and Music Composition. He enjoys organizing work on campus and is involved with multiple environmental and music student organizations. Grant’s favorite part of London was taking walks along the Thames to get to know the heart of London and many of its districts.

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