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Greek pedestrians take direct action

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We think there’s a lot to do to make Toronto more pedestrian-friendly, but a recent article in the New York Times about pedestrian problems in Athens (brought to my attention by a citizen who came to the Toronto Pedestrian Committee meeting last week) certainly provides some perspective.

“Step on a sidewalk or try crossing any street here, and chances are you’ll instantly feel like the prey of a safari hunt,” said Vassilis Theodorou of the Hellenic Association of Road Traffic Victim Support. “This is the only place in Europe where the golden traffic rule — that pedestrians have the unconditional right of way — is so brazenly disrespected.”

In Athens alone, swarms of scooters race down crowded sidewalks. Pedestrians struggle to circumnavigate construction debris, torn-up pavement and mounds of refuse. The greatest impediment, however, is the fleet of vehicles that each day mount the city’s approximately 1,200 miles of tree-lined sidewalks or other walkways to park.

Not surprisingly, Athenian pedestrians are indulging in more militant direct action to assert their rights.

In the last year alone, the most innovative display of activism has sprung from the Streetpanthers, a band of thirtysomethings who under cover of night prowl the streets of Athens slapping the vehicles of egregious parking violators with Day-Glo orange stickers depicting a donkey in a car above the message, “I park wherever I want.”

The article also discusses other intriguing ways of taking direct action to deal with cars parked on sidewalks, including “car-vaulting,” in which rather than stepping dangerously out onto the street to get around a car parked on the sidewalk, you go over it.

While we often compare Toronto’s pedestrian-friendliness unfavourably with European cities, we rarely encounter this problem of cars parked completely on the sidewalk, which I believe happens elsewhere in Europe too (car-vaulting was apparently invented in Germany, presumably reflecting a need).

photo by Yannis Kontos/New York Times 

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13 comments

  1. Check out a street scene in Taiwan:

    Where you gonna walk? Note that the scooters have completely taken over the shoulders, while if you look closely, you can see that vendors have colonized the sidewalk (which, very typical for a hot and humid climate, is underneath an arcade) to an extent that would never be tolerated here. Some sections of the sidewalk are completely enclosed by somebody’s store or office!

    To walk down a street like this, we usually picked our way carefully among the scooters and sidewalk sellers and often had to resort to jumping into the travel lanes. Between this kind of obstacle course, the heat and humidity, and the air pollution, it’s not surprising that most people take cabs or ride scooters even for very short trips.

    Of course, there are streets in Taiwan, as I’m sure is also the case in Athens, where it is comfortable to be a pedestrian. Usually these are very wide streets where there is adequate room for cars, sidewalks, vendors and scooter storage. Compare this photo with the narrow streets in Toronto where there is a constant battle for space. Here and elsewhere, vehicles seem to win out. Is it just because we love machines so much, or is this a failure of design?

  3. I seriously have to look and see if its legal for us to let out air of car tires. If so, that’s a great way to fight cars parked in bikes lanes.

  5. I’ve heard of a group referring themselves as “Indians” in Denmark who place small beans or pieces of gravel under the (tire)valve caps of SUVs flatting tires. How very tempting ..
    It behooves me why a sister to mybikelane.com has not been created to document the scofflaws who, not content with abusing public roadspace steal pedestrian space forcing pedestrians into private space or roadspace to pass. The wheelchair bound are left helpless until the scofflaw returns and removes their mobile pedestrian way obstruction or a helpful passerby can be enlisted to aid them about the artificial barricade.

  6. Hopefully the cyclists union is a success. Surely a pedestrian union would follow if a good precedent was set.

    scruss: Do they still sell carbusters in town anywhere? I haven’t seen in at Pages for about a year.

  7. “I seriously have to look and see if its legal for us to let out air of car tires. If so, that’s a great way to fight cars parked in bikes lanes.”

    Who cares if it’s legal?

  8. @geoffrey: that little tip to flatten SUV tires is very tempting… it seems like it’d be hard to do on Toronto streets though. Too many people around…

  9. As cathartic as it is, wouldn’t letting air out of tires for cars parked illegally compound the problem of getting the car out of the way? Instead of just being parked for however long, the owner must then contend with either re-inflating or replacing the tires or have the vehicle towed which will add to the time the space is “inconvenienced”.

  10. Hopefully it would send some kind of message to the SUV owner like: “if you park here again, be ready to deal with this hassle again.”

    Kinda cutthroat, but hey, if it worked…

  12. “wouldn’t letting air out of tires for cars parked illegally compound the problem of getting the car out of the way?”

    Good point.

    Smash their window instead.

  13. I just found this news story on the CBC website. A man was arrested for denting an illegally parked car in Athens.