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

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When I'm walking through town I sometimes play chicken with chavs who think they own the street, limping around like they've been shot in the hip, reppin'. I might be a lanky streak of piss but I do feel an occasional moral duty to disabuse them of their front.

Unlike in the US, I believe jay-walking isn't a crime here and pedestrians have as much right of way as cars, eg. if you've already started crossing the road.

hmm, well, sort of. There is one road in my town that has two road humps instead of one - my van is narrow enough to go exactly between them, so yes I do sometimes aim for the middle of the road when a car is coming. My excuse is that due to the shape of my van, driving over speed humps is extremely uncomfortable and has to be done very slowly. I never speed anyway, so I don't see why I should have to slow down to 5mph over these stupid humps which are bad for my van, bad for my back, bad on my petrol consumption, if I can avoid them.

There is absolutely no reason not to drive in the centre of the road. In fact in advanced driving you are often expected to be on the other side of the road completely!

jay walking should be made law here as well the number of times i have seen people trying to cross the road and get stranded in the middle nearly getting run over trying to cross to the other side and there is a crossing a little bit further down the road

Best of it they do it when they have there child with them witch sets a really good example and wonder why they get knocked down and then instantly blame the driver for going to fast or not paying attention . If they had set a example of using a crossing and teaching them the green cross code i wonder just how many could be avoided

Isn't there already an offence of 'endangering traffic' or something similar? Why introduce a new law when that one serves better, since it wouldn't penalize people just trying to save everyone a bit of time, and doing it safely too?

When I drove taxis, there was a quiet street near the office which used to fill up with drunks staggering around at pub closing time. They would see a taxi and, regardless if the "For Hire" light was on or not, would try to stop it. This was a pain in the neck to drive through, necessitating a lot of hard braking and weaving around. Worse was when they tried to get in if you stopped. They would open the doors and pile in, even if you had passengers. Some got violent of course. It culminated in 3 drunks beating up a driver so badly he was hospitalised for 2 months and unable to work for some time after that. A quick meeting was held and a group decision reached. From the next night, not only did we not stop for the drunks, we barely slowed down and if they got hit, it was their lookout. A fair few got knocked down. (Bear in mind it was impossible to drive at more than 15-20mph). I got one myself - he just staggered straight in front of me & I sent him flying. The Police attended the most serious incidents, but as the drunks could barely speak let alone stand, the Taxi drivers were never punished. Eventually, the Council banned traffic from that street entirely which had the side effect of killing off a few businesses who relied on passing trade.

Wanna play chicken? Go for it. I drive a company car so I don't give a damn about dents or insurance premiums and if I think I've got the slightest chance of talking my way out of it with the Police - I'll hit you.

Of course, with some drivers you have to play chicken on the zebra crossing. But maybe that's another issue.

sprout

The thing that bugs me when a pedestrian gets knocked down is the automatic assumption that it must have been the driver's fault. This is especially true if the person knocked down was a young child.

Many years ago, when I was living in Coventry, a couple of kids were knocked down and at least one of them died. A local councillor dared to cast doubt on kids' behaviour on the streets and around traffic. (In those days, many children played in the street, regardless of traffic.) She was pilloried for suggesting the sweet little darlings might not have been faultless victims of a bad / dangerous driver. Personally, I agreed with her. I've seen too many children with no concern about the traffic around them. I've seen them step into the road in the path of oncoming vehicles, yet the drivers are expected to miss them. If I knock somebody down, that's the Darwin-effect at work, IMO.

Regarding zebra crossings, the Highway Code says that cars only have to stop once you are on the crossing. In the UK, drivers will usually stop for somebody who's waiting to cross. In France, they don't even stop when you are on the crossing. During our honeymoon (Loire Valley region), we often had to run across the road, even though we were on a zebra crossing at the time. Back then it wasn't a problem. Now, due to health problems, running across a road isn't an option. It takes as long as it takes, and drivers can darn well wait.

I've been hit (well, nudged) by cars a couple of times, and it's always been at least largely my fault. I've been at apins each time to point this out to the driver and any bystanders, apologise conmpletely, and check that there was no damage to the vehicle. I'm well aware that there are two sides to every accident.

Just Bob

Personally i have never heard of "endangering Traffic" but for the sake of argument let us say you are right until some one can defiantly confirm the law exists

when have you ever seen this law enforced on the road you don't

"Why introduce a new law"

Because this one doesn't work

The other week there was 2 kid on a bike while i was in the work van they was flying down the road they had not seen me pulling up to a junction (i wasn't speeding) and as luck would have it about 3 meters before the was going to hit my van a speed they fell off (probably because they had seen me at that point)otherwise they would have gone over my bonnet i got out and asked if they was which they was

What common sense did they use going up to that junction Non what so ever did they follow any green cross code No Did they have any bike proficiency i Doubt it

Wasn't there a study once that concluded that speed bumps caused more deaths than they saved? This was based on ambulance times to hospital being slowed by speed bumps, compared to road deaths. The time in which an ambulance gets a seriously injured/sick person to hospital is a major determinant in whether they survive. Lengthening this time form the residential area from which the ambulance has collected them has a deleterious effect on their survival rate. The study compared the number of such journeys and the number of road deaths before and after speed bumps were introduced, and concluded that speed bumps cause more death than they save.

RF

pffft, wouldn't surprise me RF. The thing is, it allows councils to appear to be "doing something". "Doing something" is terribly, terribly important. I just wish they could fill the potholes as quick as they could make speedbumps.


Ah They're digging holes in the road to get the tarmac to make the speedbumps!

If the injured person has spinal injuries, taking them down a road with speed humps is a major no-no. Getting them to hospital by air-ambulance isn't always possible, so they have to go by road.

Tschh. Bunch of.....

Seems like only me on this thread admits to playing the full heated-up version.

And I have to be careful what I say.....

Come on am I the only one?

I've not driven a car for several years, so I can't really comment...

Yes, I did

RF

"Drivers judging how to negotiate humps are distracted from watching out for more serious hazards — like children.
When the London Borough of Barnet removed its speed humps, accidents reduced by 14.9% during the first six months of 2005."

http://www.abd.org.uk/speed_humps.htm

Never driven a car in all my 25 years. Besides, I'm not the confrontational type.

<>

Oh good grief! I used to tutor an intellectually handicapped young man who was a genius of some kind, until some speeding tosser hit him on the pedestrian crossing outside his school!

The school my son went to in the 90s, has teachers and crossing guards precventing the children from playing silly beggars and yet they still got knocked down, and sometimes killed! Teachers kept a log of drivers who sped through the zebra crossing outside the school, never fewer than three a day.

It *is* more often than not, the fault of the driver. People get killed and that's not a joke, but worse IMO, is when they survive hideously disabled.

I am reminded of a complete tosser of a talkback host (in the days I used to listen to talkback) who ridiculed a crying woman whose husband had been killed in a hit and run as a whining old biddy whose husband *must* have been at fault, because the talkback host with his brand new beamer assumed that the world was made for the middle class wealthy drivers, and that anyone who doesn't drive is not worth considering.

yes, I have been hiot by a car, twice. No, it wasn't my fault, and yes, I am angry at the arrogance of the nuts behibnd the wheel.