yagamuffin
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Neil":m1bwsh7f said:
Indeed, one of the things my driving instructor drummed in to me, no-one has 'right of way' different people have priority in different situations.
Worst nightmare....
- Thread starter saltyman
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Indeed, one of the things my driving instructor drummed in to me, no-one has 'right of way' different people have priority in different situations.
Signal11th
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Humm as I commute 30 dailys daily I do see more than my fair share of idiots on the road.
Had one pull out on me at a junction (had to swerve into the opposing lane to avoid him).
Gave him a "WTF?" look to which I got a middle finger and a load of verbal and him shooting off down the road.
What he forgot is that at the end of the road is a busy junction with lots of traffic. He didn't enjoy the experience that he got for the next 5 minutes neither did his car.
Unfortunately being an ex motorbike rider as well this is almost a daily occurrence for me.
Had one pull out on me at a junction (had to swerve into the opposing lane to avoid him).
Gave him a "WTF?" look to which I got a middle finger and a load of verbal and him shooting off down the road.
What he forgot is that at the end of the road is a busy junction with lots of traffic. He didn't enjoy the experience that he got for the next 5 minutes neither did his car.
Unfortunately being an ex motorbike rider as well this is almost a daily occurrence for me.
Signal11th
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JamesM":1s67fih1 said:
Personally I follow the "I cross at traffic lights and crossings" school of thought.
If you cross anywhere apart from these places you have to expect the worst to happen.
Makes me laugh when pedestrians cross the street because they can't be arsed to walk an extra 10 foot to the crossing point. As far as I'm concerned you cross anywhere apart from a designated crossing point and get run over..tough shit basically.
So?JamesM":2eoo7m8d said:
All other things being equal, cars have priority on the road. If the pedestrian is already crossing when the car arrives, the pedestrian has priority. Otherwise (ie pedestrian is not currently on the road) vehicles have.
If you're asking whether it's OK for a pedestrian to stride out in the road, knowing full well they'll hold up traffic, then clearly they don't have that priority. If you're asking in a stalemate scenario, whether it's OK for a pedestrian to stride into the road, inconvenience normal traffic, that they can (or should be able to) see and predict, the answer is still no - in the assumption that they're not striding out onto a pedestrian crossing.
All other things being equal, pedestrians merely have priority when they're already there, on the road, when traffic arrives - they don't have priority to assert over vehicles in preference, though, outside of crossings.
The problem is, is that some, mistakenly extrapolate the "pedestrian has priority when crossing" thing to assume that pedestrians have priority before they're even on the road. And conversely, some people wrongly extrapolate the whole, vehicles on the road, have priority over pedestrians on the pavement, such that when they turn into a road, with pedestrians already crossing, they rage at the pedestrians. Well there's two things to that: 1) once the pedestrian(s) is / are there, they have priority 2) it could well be that pedestrians have launched out into the road, when really they shouldn't - and it's merely a race condition whereby they've got there first.
the situation that i was trying to bring into discussion is one i face daily.
a traffic light junction where i cross an intersection (turning right), has an almost immediate left turn proceeding it, which i take.
i find most often - regardless of how much traffic is flowing - that the majority of pedestrians never look when crossing at this turning and that this situation would undoubtedly be avoided if the pedestrian actually looked before crossing.
the fact that i have (to date) not collided with a pedestrian is that i am aware of this, so make allowances - and being on a bicycle i am usually travelling at a speed that allows me to correct and avoid these situations without incident (another pro when comparing cycling to car travel)
without sounding like a cliche/hippy/whatever, i believe cycling should be a relaxing and/or rewarding experience wherever you ride...
it is quite the opposite as far as my commute goes. we've to come a long way to successfully integrating cycle traffic into inner cities (this also includes improving attitudes). not sure why this isn't the case already since bicycles have been around for a very very very very long time.....
a traffic light junction where i cross an intersection (turning right), has an almost immediate left turn proceeding it, which i take.
i find most often - regardless of how much traffic is flowing - that the majority of pedestrians never look when crossing at this turning and that this situation would undoubtedly be avoided if the pedestrian actually looked before crossing.
the fact that i have (to date) not collided with a pedestrian is that i am aware of this, so make allowances - and being on a bicycle i am usually travelling at a speed that allows me to correct and avoid these situations without incident (another pro when comparing cycling to car travel)
without sounding like a cliche/hippy/whatever, i believe cycling should be a relaxing and/or rewarding experience wherever you ride...
it is quite the opposite as far as my commute goes. we've to come a long way to successfully integrating cycle traffic into inner cities (this also includes improving attitudes). not sure why this isn't the case already since bicycles have been around for a very very very very long time.....
highlandsflyer
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JamesM":1ijpjm8e said:
One of my pet peeves is runners charging out onto the road in similar circumstances!
Worse are runners who run on the road where there is a pavement, but plenty cyclists do that as well so I just expect anything and that is usually what I get!
Any pedestrian or cyclist wearing headphones is in real danger in amongst traffic.
