Narrow street, even narrower pavement

[heleninwales]

I'm pleased to say that I'm fully recovered and completely back to normal today. I slept well last night and even the arm soreness had gone by this morning. So it was a normal Wednesday with a quick visit to the Co-op before walking through into town to the cafe where the Welsh chat group meets. This morning we had a visitor from Connecticut who is learning Welsh. She was actually born in Wales and learned a bit of Welsh in school. She did really well.

And here's this week's alphabet photo challenge shot.

40/52 for the group 2024 Weekly Alphabet Challenge

This week's theme was: N is for Narrow

The little town where I live has some narrow streets and even narrower pavements (sidewalks). This road is two way so cars have to squeeze past one another.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Where is it you actually live?

[heleninwales]

We're in Dolgellau. We've lived there since 1978 and our kids grew up here. Sadly they had to move away to get good jobs, so they're in South Wales now and we don't see them as often as we would like.

[eve_prime]

That is indeed narrow!

[heleninwales]

It's a real nuisance for people pushing kids in pushchairs or those who use wheelchairs, but it's a very old town and so we're stuck with how things have always been.

[eve_prime]

It would be tempting to lobby for making such narrow streets to be pedestrian and bicycle only, but of course only if there are alternate auto routes, which there may not be.

[heleninwales]

Unfortunately there would be no way for the shops to receive deliveries if the centre of town was pedestrianised. Also the buses come into the main square, which is just to the left where the blue arrow is pointing. At least the centre is mostly one-way and as the streets are narrow with sharp turns, the traffic can't go very fast, even before the 20 mph limit was introduced. In fact I can rarely drive through town at anything approaching 20 mph because I'm usually following someone driving like a snail, looking for one of the rare parking spaces.

[eve_prime]

Is there ample parking on the periphery so that people who don't mind walking can mostly do that?

[heleninwales]

There is ample parking about 3 minutes walk from the square, but it's not free, so people drive at a slow crawl in the hope of spotting one of the free parking spaces. I park either in the Co-op car park or the Eurospar car park. I shop in both supermarkets and you can have up to two hour's free parking in the Co-op's car park or unlimited at Eurospar because it's further out and most people won't walk that far.

[eve_prime]

Our parking meters are generally free after 6 pm and on Sundays, and sometimes people plan their shopping around that. I'm glad I live only half a block from a supermarket, though.

[kaishin108]

So happy to hear you feel better. That really is a narrow lane. I am hoping it is one way!

[heleninwales]

It's actually two way. In fact I squeezed the car past one coming the other way at that very spot yesterday. Often people give way and wait to take turns at the narrowest part, but this driver just came straight on.

[kaishin108]

Whoa, that must have been a bit scary. You sound like a braver driver than me. ;)

[heleninwales]

I think you just get used to the type of driving you do. I would never dare drive in a city and haven't been on a motorway for a long time, but rural back roads and narrow streets are just something I regard as routine.