475 crossroads in the city of Luxembourg do not comply with the law. This is the result of an analysis made by the collective Center for Urban Justice (ZUG). The collective sent these results to the municipality five months ago and since then, nothing has happened. For our interview, we met Francesca and Federico, members of the collective, at Rue de Trevires in Bonnevoie, where a bus stop is situated only a few centimetres behind the crossing for pedestrians. The bus would hide crossing pedestrians from the view of passing cars and the risk for accidents is high.

One could say, drivers had to pay more attention and not drive faster than the 30 km/h allowed. ZUG thinks differently. Francesca says: From a purely human perspective, if you are given a big road that is all straight, on can expect that the people don’t immediately think, on the length of this road, I need to always go 30 km/h.” Federico adds: “The messaging of everyone has to do his part, is very distorted and sometimes even deviates into victim blaming. As a pedestrian, if you want to cross the street on a pedestrian crossing, you should be able to do that in the greatest safety possible.” Guaranteeing the safety of crossroads, according to ZUG, is first and foremost the responsibility of those providing the infrastructure, the municipality.

ZUG advocates for more equality in urban spaces, their aim is to raise awareness for the fact that not only motorized vehicles, but also pedestrians, cyclists and all other parts of the urban community deserve a share of the space and guaranteed safety while using the infrastructure.

Story from our Local Matters archive.