Our town planners design roads and crossings to be friendly to cars and unfriendly to pedestrians.
The put barriers in the middle of the road to force pedestrians to walk a longer distance to a traffic crossing. These barriers are not helpful.
If there are no barriers, the pedestrians can use their judgment on crossing the road, when there are no cars. If there are cars, they will walk to the crossing.
In housing estates, the do not provide short cuts for pedestrians to reach the road or bus stops. The pedestrians have to walk the long way, along the roads used by cars.
Even large commercial or industrial buildings are fenced in, forcing pedestrians to walk the long way to the main gate. This may be for "security", but is it really necessary?
I have a gut feel that the town planners in other cities are more friendly towards pedestrians.
Tan Kin Lian
*The writer blogs at http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/