The term “user-friendly” is used to describe a product or program that ensures user satisfaction and acceptance by users. In computers, a program is widely considered user-friendly if the user interface is clear and intuitive and if the program offers useful help and tutorial features.
I wonder if any of this applies to our streets and if they could qualify as being user-friendly. The comparison may not apply here, but it is time we seriously considered making our streets as user-friendly as possible. The street is the place where we live, given the time we consume in driving and walking.
Some may say our streets have never been user-friendly either for motorists or pedestrians — and will never be. This is true because when talking about our chaotic streets and the number of road accidents, the focus is always on the victims of a car crash with accidents involving pedestrians seldom mentioned.
How many cases can you recall of people you personally know who have been knocked down and run over by speeding cars? I can tell of a number of them. One concerns an old man trying to cross the street to attend a social gathering on the other side, another of a small child who was playing on the Corniche, a third involving two foreign workers, a fourth involving a woman walking on the street, a sixth involving a university professor from a neighboring country, a seventh involving a group of pilgrims sleeping on the ground during the annual Haj and an eighth involving a man who survived a car crash on the highway only to be run over by a speeding vehicle.
In general, accidents of this kind account for between 7 and 10 percent of the total number of road accidents. In other words, if there were 5,000 fatal accidents annually, 350 to 500 of these would be run-over cases. I expect the number to be much higher since pedestrians are the weakest and most vulnerable and also the least reported. They are the ones who usually die compared to those inside cars since accidents such as these normally lead to instant death. If we did proper calculations, we might come up with a figure double this one. The damage caused to pedestrians as a result of road accidents (the overall figure is estimated to number 360,000 in 2004) is thus enormous by any standards.
Our sidewalks have lost their basic function of serving pedestrians and have been taken over by traffic signals, electric power poles, advertising boards, flowerbeds, fast food kiosks, etc.
Walking our streets is becoming an increasingly risky business. Just watch someone running at high speed, trying to cross the street before being hit by a passing car and you will see how much maneuvering, talent and diligence it takes to arrive safely on the other side. The strong may have these qualities but what about the old, feeble and the vulnerable?
