This page illustrates how pedestrians have become increasingly excluded from public roads in the course of a century, to make way mainly for car proliferation. A process of relegation to second-class citizenship that is likely to continue.
Dog Kennel Hill, London SE22 at the beginning of the 20th century. Pedestrians free to walk along and across the public road if they so wished.
The same hill at the beginning of the 21st century. Pedestrians now largely denied free access to a once public road. Islands have been introduced to prevent head-on collisions between speeding vehicles. Note the parked cars in the top right hand corner of the hill taking up valuable lane space. A parked lorry is also blocking the left pavement and there are pedestrian segregation barriers in the foreground.
During the century the population of England approximately doubled and many more roads were built to accomodate not only more people but also their increased mobility.