Footpath Rage (again)

Promise not to get distracted (too much) this time, after all what could possibly detract from such a serious problem as ‘footpath rage’. I’m probably talking to the converted already, I mean such a widespread menace as this, affecting every strata of life, wealth, health, location and property. People who are quietly getting on with their lives suddenly are confronted with this scourge, and attempt to confront it, and are on almost every occasion defeated and are left with the backward look of derision from the perpetrator.  It’s at this point that Mr. gentle public person turns into what can only be described as from the light and good in the world into an avenging angel, with single minded determination to destroy the FR as it is known in certain circles.

Not that FR is a new problem, it stretches back throughout our history.  But it hasn’t always been a UK problem, far from it, when looking back in the annuls of the past, one of the most affected eras was that under the rule of the romans.  This race of ‘intellectuals’ made big advances in many spheres of philosophy and engineering, with an incredibly high standard of discipline in all that they did.

These ancients had running water, central heating (in Italy of all places- perhaps not so bright), buildings many stories high, organised armies, amazingly able to import anything you could imagine, very much the Amazon of their day. They had an advanced and higher political structure with their leaders who dictated how not only Rome was controlled but nearly the whole world as it was then. But if you read between the lines there was a steadily growing problem. The one place that I have seen which highlights the main areas of concern is Herculaneum.  Here for all to see and evidence to speculate upon, is the epitome of a civilisation which finally collapsed under the severity of FR.  Let me throw a couple of examples at you showing how the romans tried to legislate to remove the risks caused by FR. The footpaths themselves were narrow which was a result of a law passed forcing the size of the vehicle axles to become uniform. This resulted in deep ruts in the all ready narrow streets surfaces which in turn kept ‘vehicles’ from straying. This gave rise to the youth of Rome playing a form of ‘chicken’ with the carts and barrows which constantly worked they way across the town. The game was simple but the result of the play, caused another section of the community to be harassed and upset to the degree of becoming the investigators of FR.

Imagine the youth having been kicked out of homes during the working day by parents all trying to seek a decent standard of living out the rat race which was Rome. So, the kids in order to amuse themselves would stand at crossroads watching the steady flow of traffic waiting for a suitable gap in the procession to begin the game. Remember the traffic were stuck in the ruts in the roads unable to swerve away but destined to move along without recourse to safety.  The youths would at the appropriate moment, usually egged on by ‘friends’, would make a dash attempting to reach the opposite side of the road. Having launched themselves in front of the carts etc. the next step was to avoid collision with the pedestrians on landing on the opposite walkway. Collision equals FR in varying degrees you can (or maybe not) imagine all the names being offered to the youngsters.

Since those early reports the world has changed and it would appear that FR ‘has remained constant throughout the years – like baseball’ (field of dreams – great film) as quoted by James Earl Jones.

Which in brief brings me to the modern form of FR. No longer is it restricted to youth, in fact it’s current most dangerous guise would suggest that although very similar to historical records on the subject,  insofar   as the  youth of today bear great resemblance to the youth of yesterday, it would appear that small numbers of, dare I say it, the more mature generation, the oldies, our senior counterparts, the rockers/hells angels of the modern era have taken  not only to the roads and dare I say it, the aisles and walkways in the modern supermarkets and malls, main streets, footpaths and routes deemed wide enough to support their chariot of choice.

These ‘new’ demons of the game drive around in small groups or singularly depending on the time of day.

They are seen on CCTV during daylight hours, but seem to be wary of the night, particularly dusk, when on rarely observed occasions, they can be seen racing to their domiciles.

All that aside, the prompt for my observations to this problem came about when I purchased a mobility scooter as an aid to my health. I will mention at this point that I was given no prior warning as to the potential risk from FR.

Having purchased the scooter, I was given instruction on driving forward, in reverse and stopping. I was lectured on watching for road signs, to always use pedestrian crossings and never leave your keys in the ignition. Great stuff, but you should have seen my son’s look of delight at the salespersons’ expression when my previous car was a Mercedes-Benz S350d AMG spec limo which I drove with other vehicles achieving on average 40k miles a year. Let’s say that with my driving instructors qualification (expired years ago) I thought I’d manage the scooter.  Moving on, I had a practice around the car park and felt confident enough to travel down the road to my home, a distance of about a kilometre, straight road, two corners, set of lights and turn into the drive.

I started this epic journey traveling out of the car park and turned to go over the railway bridge, to take the first corner. At this point in the background, I heard the sound of tyres on tarmac coming up behind me. Once round the bend (in more ways than one) an all-black mobility scooter, larger than my own, sporting a frame to support a rain cover, with a driver also bedecked in black and wearing black gloves, swerved off the path onto the grass verge in a dramatic attempt to overtake me. The look of derision thrown at me was intense before the driver faced front again and ‘accelerated’ away down the path leaving a cloud of absolutely nothing behind (he wasn’t going fast enough to raise dust).   What an introduction to modern FR!!

Since then I have had further experiences with similar outcomes, the most memorable being overtaken, and passed a derisory look from a much more senior citizen than me, driving a bright green vehicle and fluffy hat.

This as you can see is an ongoing saga and as with all good sagas preparation is needed so in true form I’ll leave for now and start tomorrow