OT Nice new village roads

Yes I've heard two schools of thought about whether or not you should stop for a pedestrian which has not yet stepped off the pavement onto a zebra crossing. I tend to use common sense: if a person is walking towards a crossing and looks as if they intend to use it, I calculate whether they will have reached it before me, and I plan to stop in that case. If they are walking purposefully but I am *certain* that they will not have reached it before me, I keep going. If they are stopped at the kerb, facing to cross, I will stop, irrespective of whether it is a legal requirement in that boundary case: it takes a lot of nerve to step out into traffic on the assumption that it will be able to stop in time. Obviously you need to apply common sense: someone who is facing away from the traffic, having just crossed, is unlikely to turn round and cross back (though I won't say "never"). Two people who are having a conversation at a crossing and continue to do so after I've stopped for them clearly have no intention of crossing *at that time* so I will try to establish eye contact, as if to say "are we both agreed that you're not going to cross and it's safe to let me continue?" There's also the rule somewhere that it is not permissible for pedestrians to keep crossing backwards and forwards as a way of stopping the traffic as a protest: the police can move them on under some form of "taking the piss" type of rule. I don't have a citation for that; I'll have to ask my nephew who's doing his training to be a PC.

Reply to
NY
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Why isn't that a surprise?

The police around here are looking for a mobility scooter "driver" who knocked an 87 yo over and seriously injured her before making off on the scooter.

Some rider/driver training is needed.

Reply to
dennis

Did he also tell you that its not a traffic offence to stop on the crossing?

But Zebras aren't like that, what if they have 10 mm of toe on the road?

Reply to
dennis

Saved a fortune on the divorce costs then.

Reply to
ARW

I'm not sure what the relevance of this is. I'm not certain whether it's an actual offence (I presume it is), but it's something that I try very hard not to do when I'm in a queue of traffic: to increase the gap ahead of me slightly as I'm approaching so I can treat the zebra markings as a box junction that I must either stop before or else be able to stop beyond with none of my car overhanging the crossing. In dense traffic, a lot of people don't do that and it causes pedestrians to have to slalom around the stopped cars.

I've already said that I stop even when a person isn't quite on the crossing if I judge that they will be on the crossing by the time I reach it - since you need to make the go / no-go decision a few yards/seconds in advance. If I judge that the person won't have reached the crossing by the time my back-end clears it, I keep going. I don't apply the "one toe on the crossing" rule too literally. And unlike some drivers, I treat the front of a pram or pushchair as being the thing that has to be on the crossing to decide whether to stop: many people wait until its wheels (which are further back) are on the crossing...

Reply to
NY

Saw that yesterday morning,

And he was naked.

Reply to
ARW

Yesterday I saw this niced "Police Road Safety Partnership" vehicle with its radar speed detector parked up on a pavement. mmmmmmm

Reply to
charles

I've not seen that one before, but there was another in papers last year. Apparently the idea is to confuse drivers, so that they slow down. It seems a poor idea to me, I want drivers to know what is going on around them and not be concentrating on solving an unnecessary extra problem. Anyway, those that drive there regularly will soon be speeding through - and colliding with those that think it is a roundabout and who slam their brakes on or who turn thinking that it they have priority from the right.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Pedestrians only have priority if they are already crossing, they should not step out expecting vehicles to stop.

It is designed to look like a mini roundabout to confuse drivers and make them slow down, but that could easily lead to someone interpreting it as a mini roundabout and turning across the approaching traffic, thinking that they have priority.

Highway code section 195:

"Zebra crossings. As you approach a zebra crossing

- look out for pedestrians waiting to cross and be ready to slow down or stop to let them cross.

- you MUST give way when a pedestrian has moved onto a crossing"

i.e. be ready to stop if a pedestrian is there or very close, but you do not have to stop until they put a foot onto the crossing.

The crossing starts at the edge of the kerb.

You are not required to stop for every pedestrian that is waiting to cross. Only for those that are already crossing.

Indeed, anything *can* happen and you have to be ready to cope with the unexpected.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

They'd just tow it and then charge you the cost of removal. Do you know anyone with a traction engine?

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Not if it was on fire they wouldn't, and a couple of fire engines would get through the cyclists no problem.

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

Pretty much as I ride.

I will pass stopped traffic on the left, but will wait at pedestrian crossings and won't pass to the left to get in front at a junction.

The worst I have had was 10 miles, in a long queue of traffic, at 10mph stuck behind a broken down milk tanker being towed by another tanker along winding country lanes.

We don't get that at least, but we do get a lot of teenaged schoolgirls who take their ponies out onto the main roads after school, right into the rush-hour traffic.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Unless you have permission and some organisation

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Reply to
ARW

It's over 12 months ago since it last caught fire.

Reply to
ARW

I doubt they would be able to bill me if I have already called a breakdown company.

Reply to
ARW

Very good :-)

Reply to
ARW

Why would anyone want to ride a bicycle faster than the whippet can run alongside? It'll only wake the ferrets. And the pub'll still be open so what's the point in rushing?

Owain

Reply to
spuorgelgoog

And it's a malicious rumour that Yorkshire people wear cycle helmets in the shape of flat caps :-)

And there's a limit to how far Yorkshire people will cycle because (to quote Hale and Pace in their Yorkshire Airlines sketch), "if it's outside Yorkshire it's not worth bloody going to".

(I'm allowed to take the piss out of Yorkshire folk because I am one!)

I've just done my first bike ride of the year, since last autumn. Only about

6 miles but with a couple of killer hills, and I managed to get up all except that last 20 yards of the last one when I had to get off and walk. Average speed abut 9 mph. Not bad for a 56 year old who had a heart attack 8 years ago! I've got a little way to reach my personal best - I log my times on Strava to compete against *myself*. I know I'll never get anywhere near the record times that other people had logged for that route on Strava, but that's not who I'm competing against.
Reply to
NY

Of course it is different when officially organised and roads are closed for the event, as they officially cease to be public highways for the period of the closure.

It is the idiots using apps to race against themselves and others at different times that are a problem. They want to reduce their time, so are indifferent to the effects on traffic around them. It should still be classed as racing on the highway under those circumstances.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

What on earth for?

You shouldn't be competing against anyone. Racing on the public highway is illegal.

Reply to
Tim Streater

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