The thick blue line
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Coventry's council has very recently had a blue line painted on the pavement between a point in the city centre and the train station, just outside our city's famous ring road. Since the train station is virtually next door to my office building (at least until I change jobs later this month), and I walk through the city centre every day to get there, I couldn't help but notice it.
The line itself is nothing special. It runs from one of those directional signposts, where each arm points in the direction of the landmark named on it, to the aforementioned station. It's about six inches wide all the way along and (I'd guess) about eight hundred metres long. It appeared overnight between the 6th and 7th of October 2010, though nobody I know is sure exactly when it was done. It is evident by the number of blue footprints leading away from some sections of it that it was done during or shortly before a period of reasonably high pedestrian activity. Incidentally, if it's a line that's meant to stay there for any length of time, then good luck cleaning up those footprints…
While I was somewhat caught off guard by its presence the morning I first saw it, it didn't take long to figure out its purpose. It's to guide people between the station and the city centre. This makes a lot of sense, as I'm frequently asked by visitors to the city for directions to one or the other while en route between them. But that's not why it's inspired a blog. Far more interesting than the actual line is the effect it has had on the pedestrians.
The line cuts straight through the centre of the paths along its route. While pedestrians on these routes normally wouldn't show much consideration (or etiquette!) for where they walk—much to my regular frustration—the line has added an interesting new dynamic. It's effectively created lanes! In much the same way as a traditional road has bidirectional lanes for vehicles, this route now has bidirectional lanes for pedestrians.
It's as if people are scared to cross the line. Granted on the first day, the paint didn't look very dry. And the footprints mentioned earlier couldn't have helped matters. There aren't many that would want their footwear stained with blue paint designed to withstand whatever the weather can throw at it. But a habit that developed as quickly as the line seems to have stuck. Now, people walking in one direction tend to stay on one side of the line, while people walking in the opposite direction stay on the other.
A completely unintended side effect of a line designed simply to show visitors how to get from one place to another is that it's made the walk through town so much easier. I'm less likely to have to weave through crowds of people coming in the opposite direction who feel the need to spread out and be as obstructive as possible. It's ironic that this comes at a time just a week and a half before I'm due to change jobs, having worked by the station and walked that very route for just over nine years. On the bright side, my last week should be somewhat easier to navigate.