h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Those people walking all around while you're driving are called pedestrians... not targets for your incomptent handling capabilities and subsequent abuse.

Are you the guys who look shocked and annoyed when we almost drive into you after we forget to signal for a left turn ?

In answer to post 1 - well said And I write as someone who earned their living from driving for 12 years.

Those objects moving all around you while you're walking around completely clueless and otherwise oblivious to your surroundings are called cars... When you unexpectedly step off the pavement in front of an oncoming car against the pedestrian signal, then you deserve whatever happens next and if you get away with just a few harsh words from a driver than that driver was obviously paying closer attention to his surroundings than you were...

I think that blame can be attributed to both sides really. As a driver I've had people step out in front of me for no apparent reason, and one of my mates frequently just crosses the road without looking.
But then again my mum nearly got run over on a zebra crossing by someone reversing along a one-way street! I guess it is a two way thing.

>>> Those objects moving all around you while you're walking around completely clueless and otherwise oblivious to your surroundings are called cars...

... whose drivers have to pass two tests to legaally drive them. If successful in your test, you have a license to drive responsibly, not with one hand on the radio, the other with your mobile phone while steering with the wheel between your knees

I don't remember having to pass my pedestrian proficiency to walk on the pavement

That was almost the first thing my driving instructor explained to me on my very first lesson.

You don't have a right to drive, you have earn a licence to drive. Licence doesn't mean that piece of paper or plastic - that's simply proof that you have earned the licence to drive. Licence is what's granted you after you've satisfied the licencing authority, whoever they may be, that you can drive safely and proficiently. It can be taken away if you show that you can't drive safely and proficiently.

Pedestrians don't have to earn a licence to walk along the street - they have the right. They also have an obligation to take responsibility for their own safety bearing in mind that so many drivers forget almost everything they learned the moment they pass their driving test.

Well maybe people should be required to take a proficiency test to walk on the pavement. It may cut down on the number of encounters between car and pedestrian...

but hey I am just playing the devil's advocate because I have been on both sides of the argument(complete with fist raised and foul language)
I think the best situation is that all persons, whether pedestrian or driver, remove their heads from the clouds and actually pay attention to the world around them.

However, we will always have the people that feel it is there birth-right to hold up traffic for no other reason than the fact that they can!

I'm mostly in agreement with you - I would need more fingers and toes than I have to count the number of times someone has sauntered out onto a pedestrian crossing in the belief that it's their right to do so without firs looking, and that all vehicles must come to an immediate stop. Very few pedestrians (and many motorists too) realise that there is a section of the Highway Code just for them - leastways there was last time I owned one. Similarly, there ar rules, laws, and reponsibilities which they have a duty to uphold.

But when you consider that most pedestrians are also motorists, and that *all* pedestrians except the very young know that they're going to come off much worse in a collision with a car, most pedestrians do take more care than most motorists.

Case in point. My driving instructor told me that in any situation where cars and pedestrians mix, such as a car park, you shouldn't drive faster than walking pace, or about 5mph. But almost no-one does. I live in apartment complex where people are walking around, where kids are playing, riding bikes, skateboarding, where pets are strolling around, and people drive through like they're on a normal road. There's a 15mph speed limit which almost everyone ignores, and that's 10mph too fast IMO anyway. So, if a kid, playing outside his own home but within the complex - gets knocked over by a car doing 25mph, how is that the driver's fault?

4 crossing stories from 2 points of view in 1 week

1st, one road near where I live has a right turn on it, and at the turn another fairly major road comes of to the left, and many drivers treat it as a straight on, so don't indicate, so have now got into the habit of standing in the middle of the road infront of the people who don't indicate and then turn. Lots of kids play aroudn that area and somebody will get hit sooner rather than later

2nd, Crossing at a pelican crossing across 4 lanes of traffic, on the near side was a stopped double decker bus, the pedestiran light was green, so steped onto the crossing, walked infront of the bus and was just about to step past it when a white van shot past, though the red light at 30mph, if I'd been 1 step further on, I'd be roadkill from a van driver

3rd, Driving up to a pelican crossing, lights were on red, on my left was a double deker bus that I couldn't see past. Light turned green, about to put foot on accellorator and 3 girls apeared from infront of the bus, obvilious to the fact I easily could have been in motion and they wouldn't have had a chance

4th, Traffic Light controlled cross-roads. Was at front at the lights, crossing traffic's lights when red. Just as our lights went green, teen on a bmx shot past accross on the opposite side of the junction and then went accross the oppossite lane of trafic, was lucky the signals were staggered cause they would not have seen him and more road kill.

Be it car drivers, van drivers, pediestians or cyclists, people really should know how deadly a moving car really is ...