Britain’s first ever fast pedestrian lane has opened in Liverpool city centre - following research that claims 47% of the nation finds slow walking the most annoying aspect of high-street shopping. Dr Alastair Moore, an independent retail expert, said: "Perusing the high street is one of my favourite past times but I do have my own shopping bugbears, from middle of the street chattering to battling through the crowds. The most popular reason for supporting the lanes was to avoid wasting time, with 31 per cent of shoppers saying they were annoyed by people blocking the pavement.
– If you don't enjoy getting stuck behind slow walkers while shopping, you're not alone—and you might consider a trip to the UK to try out the country's first ever fast lane for pedestrians being tested this week in the Liverpool One shopping complex, reports the Telegraph. The move comes after retailer Argos announced that 47% of people it surveyed are more annoyed by slow walkers than anything else. "As the research demonstrates, a faster high street could vastly improve the overall shopping experience for British shoppers across the UK," an independent retail expert says. "With nearly 30 million Brits saying they'd like one on their own high street, the pilot [which runs through Sunday] is set to be a success." But it turns out the idea is far more popular among 16- to 24-year-olds surveyed (at 69%) than among those over the age of 55 (at 37%), reports the Independent. And while the top reason to support the fast lane was to save time, one in three surveyed said they were simply annoyed by people blocking the pavement. Other top 10 shopping annoyances, according to the Argos survey, include conversations in the middle of the street, people checking cell phones, and waiting in line, with rude staff rounding out the bottom. (See how Georgia sought to solve the problem of slow drivers in the passing lane.)