Pedestrian ‘fast lanes’ are being trialled in two UK city centres – to allow fast walkers to cut through the crowds. The 50m-long and 2.2m-wide tracks have appeared in high-footfall areas of Glasgow and Leeds. Sky Broadband is testing out the specially marked lanes in busy pedestrian streets, after research found 44 per cent support were in favour of introducing fast lanes.
In Scotland’s biggest city, the fast lane has been painted down Buchanan Street – famed for its packed shopping crowds and rushing commuters. Meanwhile in Yorkshire, swift-footed pedestrians can power through along Briggate, avoiding shoppers and street performers.
The fast lanes are clearly marked with bold icons and have been installed to celebrate the rollout of its new Gigafast+ broadband packages, the fastest from any major provider in the UK.
Ben Case, managing director of connectivity at Sky, said: “From slow walkers to traffic jams, delays are part of everyday life. “We’re launching ‘Fast Lanes’ to speed up more than just broadband, helping commuters reclaim their time and keep life moving frustration-free.”
It comes after research of 3,000 adults revealed transport delays (42 per cent), buffering internet pages (41 per cent) and slow walkers (33 per cent) are among the nation’s top time-consuming frustrations.
A fifth of Brits consider themselves impatient by nature. A third are willing to wait less than three minutes before losing patience.
When it comes to online waiting times, patience wears thin even quicker, with 32 per cent confessing they can only endure a minute of waiting before irritation sets in. Public transport is another bugbear, with commuters typically losing their rag after 12 minutes of delays.
When confronted with delays, many Brits will grumble under their breath while others vent their frustration by frantically refreshing apps, yelling at their smart speakers and drumming their fingers.
However, Londoners consider themselves the most patient (76 per cent), compared with 66 per cent of Scots and 64 per cent of Yorkshire residents.
Women claim to be slightly more patient than men (22 per cent vs 18 per cent), while Gen X has been dubbed the least time-tolerant age group (24 per cent).
Gen Z, on the other hand, claim to keep their cool the most – with only 12 per cent describing themselves as impatient.
TOP 10 THINGS THAT FRUSTRATE IMPATIENT BRITS:
- Transport delays (e.g. plane, train, bus delays)
- Slow or buffering internet
- Slow or bad drivers
- Slow service (in any capacity)
- Slow walkers
- Queuing
- Pedestrian traffic
- Waiting for or missing a delivery
- Film or TV show buffering part way through
- Waiting for something to download or update
