Amy’s story

I remember early on when there were proposals to put in filters to local streets to make them low traffic. This was back in 2020. My friend, who was setting up Streets for People at the time, asked if I’d join the group.

A neighbour was complaining about how if there was a filter, it’d stop her driving the normal way to the doctors. 

I spoke to my friend about this and my neighbour’s worries. “She can just go round” said my friend casually. It was a penny drop moment for me. Before that chat I couldn’t conceive that we would choose to cause any inconvenience to drivers for the sake of pedestrians. 

I realised it would actually be very easy for my neighbour to go a slightly different route to get to the doctors. Even though I had been a regular cyclist for quite a few years, I still saw driving as the ‘normal’ way for people to get around and couldn’t imagine a world where we would reduce the right to roam for cars.

I did join Streets for People and since then I’ve learned a lot. I realised that nearly 40% of households in Manchester are car free. Even those households with cars, there may be two adults, one who drives and one who relies on walking. 

Driving is far from normal for many people in our city and a huge proportion rely on walking and cycling. Why then do we give up so much public space for people to store and use vehicles? It’s become unbalanced and we need to give more back to pedestrians. 

Becoming a mum in 2021 was an eye opener. Forced to push my pram on the road because the pavement was blocked by parked cars and then later trying to safely cross the road with a 3 year old toddler at a busy junction with no green man crossing. 

We will keep pushing for more!