Over in Tenerife for a week’s sunshine and it always strikes me how civilised Drivers are when it comes to zebra crossings both here and mainland Spain.
Just about every junction seems to have a crossing at it and everyone always stops, no horns, no glaring!
In Britain we had to change from this to traffic light controlled crossings. Why was that?
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I have no problems with Zebra Crossings.
And it always brings a smile to my face when the crosser waves a thanks, especially if its a youngster.
Recently a group of "hoddies" jumped out on to the crossing, I had sought of guessed that was what they were going to do stopped in plenty of time. Every one of them waved "thanks".
I have a real problem with crossings in dangerous places like just around a corner or over the brow of a hill.
I know the problem re some drivers. The local plod have had to set a camera up at a zebra crossing near three schools (no lollypop person) where drivers just were not stopping when kids were on it.
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Courtesy at crossings is not something I woiuld attribute to the Spanish. You take your life in your hands in downtown Madrid. Not as bad as the the French though. Crossings in France are simply killing zones. There is no law in France compelling drivers to stop, They are just recommended places to cross.
Overall I think we are quite good on Zebra crossings. Incidentally the lights are there to keep the traffic flowing not to help pedestrians. Without lights the traffic would grind to a complete halt.
By far the safest place to cross a road I have encountered is Atlantic Canada. Simply stand by a crossroad there and the traffic will invariably stop.
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>>>>There is no law in France compelling drivers to stop, They are just recommended places to cross.<<<<
You are 2 years out of date!
survivalskills.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/heading-to-france-pedestrian-priority-laws-have-changed/
The biggest problem is that there are no parking restrictions on the approaches ( like the old studs, or zigzags). In most of of southern France drivers will now happily give right of way to pedestrians. As always Paris is a little more aggressive.
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Interesting. In future I shall now simply stride onto a crossing in Paris, confidant that the traffic wil stop and the drivers give me a cheery Gallic wave. :-)
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>> Interesting. In future I shall now simply stride onto a crossing in Paris, confidant that
>> the traffic wil stop and the drivers give me a cheery Gallic wave. :-)
The secret is to do it confidently, not looking at the drivers. You must however maintain a perfectly consistent pace, stutter or speed up, even the slightest, and you are Robinsons.
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Not sure if that’s a useful tip or a way to ensure my demise. :-)
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>> Not sure if that’s a useful tip or a way to ensure my demise. :-)
Never been run down on a pedestrian crossing anywhere in the world yet, stick with me kid.
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>> Never been run down on a pedestrian crossing anywhere in the world yet, stick with
>> me kid.
>>
As long as you steer clear of stairs :-)
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>> >> Never been run down on a pedestrian crossing anywhere in the world yet, stick
>> with
>> >> me kid.
>> >>
>> As long as you steer clear of stairs :-)
Never been run over on the stairs either.
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>> As long as you steer clear of stairs :-)
And he steers clear of buses.
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>> The secret is to do it confidently, not looking at the drivers.
>> You must however maintain a perfectly consistent pace, stutter or speed up,
>> even the slightest, and you are Robinsons.
>>
Yes just pay attention to the latest screen full via EE etc.
Happens every day :-(
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>> In Britain we had to change from this to traffic light controlled crossings. Why was
>> that?
>>
Perhaps where you live, but they work fine in our area of the country.
The only problem Zebra I'm aware of is between two of the university campus locations. At times there can be a continuous stream of people wanting to cross. But even that is handled with good grace.
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Bobby...I returned from Tenerife last Thursday and apart from 2 days swam in the sea off El Duque every afternoon ( self catered in Altamira apartments on the seafront)
One zebra crossing in Settle is directly by a local chippy, and two doors from the Chinese takeaway. Younger locals think nothing of parking on the white zigzags whilst their ‘mate’ queues for the takeaway, reducing traffic flow to one way. And directly opposite is a car park, but that means a 20 second walk. Lazy SOBs. A regular occurrence which annoys me intensely.
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>>Younger locals think nothing of parking on the white zigzags.
Locally folk ( not kids) stop ON the stripes to let passengers out.
Why? Because there are guard rails on that side of the crossing where the most popular shops are and they are too idle to walk a few feet.
IMO most folks do not know all the dos and don'ts regarding Zebra crossings.
Fortunately most err on the safe side.
Many many folks think that as soon as they put a foot on the crossing with a central island then ALL vehicles should stop for them.
Permitted overtaking within the zigzags is puzzling to many.
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I remember lingering at the kerb-side on a Boston intersection..an old lady barked at us "Cross the road like Bostonians"...which we then did. Still here.
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Thats Lincolnshire for you
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Zebra crossings - zippy
