As Scottish city bans pavement parking, is it time to retire the Catclaw?

Edinburgh will be the first city in Scotland to completely ban pavement parking.

In a change to the law seen as long overdue by anybody who has had to negotiate a blocked footpath while pushing a buggy, steering a mobility scooter or travelling by wheelchair, drivers who mount the kerb will from next month be fined £100.

Double parking and parking at dropped kerbs will also be banned.

Director of Living Streets Scotland, Stuart Hay told the BBC: "Edinburgh is taking the right approach to the enforcement of pavement parking, recognising that footways are for people, not parking spaces for cars."

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What is the Catclaw?

Pavement parking is a dangerous and anti-social persistent issue that plagues many. Parking on the pavement is currently illegal only in London, although police are permeated to intervene if a driver is causing an obstruction.

It's highly unusual for the subject of road danger to be covered objectively by the mainstream media, which is odd given the alarming frequency at which it claims lives. When a four-year-old girl on a pavement in Liverpool was crushed to death in front of her mother by a driver who didn't want to hold up traffic, the story was covered by local newspapers but failed to reach the national news agenda. At best, coverage of road danger is highly selective and almost always divisive.

The issue of motorists driving and parking on footpaths prompted us to dream up the Catclaw - a retractable spike that punctures the tyres of cars being driven on footpaths.

Given the Catclaw isn't practicable, or even legal, what (other than its sharpened spike) is its point?

The project highlights the 40+ people killed each year on pavements in Britain by drivers and the many thousands of pedestrians every day who have their path blocked.

The Catclaw is a Trojan horse that's allowed us to talk in the media about the need to radically alter the way we tackle road danger. For example, the Catclaw gave us a voice in a televised discussion about road danger as well as coverage in The Daily Mail, The Express, The Mirror, Metro, The Manchester Evening News...not to mention the tens of thousands of Twitter users who engaged with the story and the 195,000 YouTube views.

The systematic approach to road danger reduction Britain so badly needs will not involve Catclaw or anything remotely as outlandish. As as happened in countries such as Sweden, it involves placing people's needs ahead of cars. It involves small steps like the banning of pavement parking. Well done, Scotland!

The ethical choice

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