WHEN LEDRA and Onasagorou Streets, in the old part of Nicosia, were pedestrianised some 10 years ago, shopkeepers on the street and areas surrounding it were beating their breasts, ranting and raving that their businesses would be ruined because everybody used their cars. They have been protesting for years against this perceived injustice, even though these streets are full of pedestrians, from morning till late evening, seven days a week. No other streets in Cyprus attract as many people as Ledra and Onasagorou, emphatic proof of the success of pedestrianisation.
A couple of years ago, the municipality, under pressure from the moaning shopkeepers, destroyed this solitary safe haven for pedestrians by opening a part of Ledra Street to traffic during the day. People still turned up in droves but a stroll was not the carefree experience it used to be. At least the decision kept the shopkeepers quiet for a short while. Now the small shopkeepers are up in arms again, threatening ‘dynamic measures’, because Nicosia Municipality has decided to close down Ledra, Onasagorou and several adjacent streets to cars every weekend starting from yesterday.
It was a commendable decision, which sparked a new wave of moaning by the small shopkeepers, whose ‘Struggle Committee’ claimed that businesses would be affected. This is a ludicrous argument, strengthening the suspicion that they like moaning for the sake of it, considering that they close their shops at lunch-time on Saturday. Mayor Michael Zampelas has said the municipality would stick to its decision, regardless of the threatened ‘dynamic measures’, and quite right it is to do so. Thousands of people go for strolls in the old part of city at weekends, and they will appreciate the small luxury of not having to make way for cars to pass every minute.
It was high time that a group of decision-makers took into account the interest of people who like to walk, because in Cyprus pedestrians have no rights. Because they are not organised into struggle committees and do not threaten dynamic measures, the authorities seem to think they do not exist and never give a second thought to their welfare and interest. It is always a case of keeping shopkeepers, motorists, bikers and café-owners happy without a thought being given to pedestrians, wheelchair-users or people pushing prams.
Yet pedestrians trying to cross a road in the busy part of any town are playing with death. It suffices to say that at only a tiny fraction of the busy junctions are there traffic lights which are programmed to come on for pedestrians, who are forced to take the risk and run across when lights change, praying they will not be hit by a car. This problem has never occupied the authorities – police, road-planners or local government – because they are all working on the assumption that pedestrians do not matter.
Pedestrian crossings are almost non-existent in our cities – they are only considered necessary outside schools. There is not a single pedestrian crossing on Nicosia’s main shopping street, Makarios Avenue – from Leonidou Street up to the intersection with Grivas Dighenis Avenue, which has no pedestrian crossing in its 3km length. The installing of pedestrian lights is obviously considered an unnecessary expense by planners – in the whole of Nicosia there are fewer than 10 – while zebra crossings which are less costly have never been popular. The very few that do exist are ignored by the majority of motorists who drive through them without even slowing down. They drive through the red lights at pedestrian crossings, so it might be too much to expect them to stop at zebra crossings.
Drivers’ disregard for their fellow citizens who walk does not end there, as they have also taken over the pavements, which they use as parking places. A couple of weeks ago, a reporter from this paper counted 119 cars parked on the pavement in Nicosia’s Stasinou Ave, and not a single one had a parking ticket on its windscreen, suggesting that traffic wardens turn a blind eye to cars parked on the pavement. As if the lack of pavements is not bad enough, the few there are used as parking spaces. In central Nicosia the municipality has set up barriers along some pavements to stop this happening, but without hefty fines being imposed, drivers are unlikely to stop using the pavements.
Unless people who like to walk organise themselves, into a pressure group, and start pestering the authorities about their rights, like the Ledra Street shopkeepers do, nothing will be done to make our cities pedestrian friendly. But because this is unlikely ever to happen (pedestrians are disparate group of individuals) perhaps the government should undertake an initiative, building awareness about the rights of pedestrians, setting pedestrian crossings on all busy streets, programming traffic lights at busy junctions to take into account of pedestrians, building more pavements and imposing hefty fines on cars parked on pavements. These are straightforward measures which are easy to implement and would amount to only a tiny fraction of the estimated cost of the Paphos-Polis motorway. And surely making our city streets safer for pedestrians should be given precedence over a motorway hardly anybody will use.
