People Want to Walk

This is Hove seafront on Sunday 26^th December – icy cold, and sunny. It’s a pedestrian superhighway, and it’s full of people walking.  (See previous post). We are fortunate that Brighton and Hove seafront is a huge pavement, not just an adjunct to a road. The result is a major east-west traffic-free route for pedestrians. But Brighton and Hove doesn’t have equivalent routes heading north-south. There are oases of pedestrian friendliness like New Road, but it’s time they were joined up. Where to start? Here’s a suggestion: East Street. One end of East Street is taxis only, the bit in the middle is pedestrianised, but as East Street approaches the seafront, the pavements just aren’t wide enough for the volume of pedestrian traffic. Cars are infrequent, but many drive too fast. It’s not a good mix: fast cars and ambling pedestrians. The solution is obvious: Finish the job and re-balance the street: it’s time to pedestrianise the seaward end of Brighton’s East Street.