Vulnerable road users

sevenhills

With some time lapsed since the changes to the Highway code at junctions, what are your thoughts.
It works for me, but some do go OTT and just let people cross anywhere. Is that a good thing.
I believe that we should have more zebra crossings, that will formalise things.
Do other countries have more relaxed zebra crossings, without the zig-zags? Difficult to agree on the location of a zebra crossing, if zig-zags are needed.
The main difference is at school closing time.

ontheroad1970

It's a false position if people are allowed to park close to zebra crossings which affects visibility for both pedestrian and motorist.

chrisw

I walk our dog twice a day and I haven't noticed any difference. Those who let me cross probably would have before the changes, others just carry on as if I wasn't there. I suspect most people are unaware of the changes anyway.

sevenhills

ontheroad1970 said:

It's a false position if people are allowed to park close to zebra crossings which affects visibility for both pedestrian and motorist.

I was thinking more about having zebra crossings close to houses or entrances, where the authorities seem to think zig-zags are optional. I agree with your point.

ontheroad1970

sevenhills said:

ontheroad1970 said:

It's a false position if people are allowed to park close to zebra crossings which affects visibility for both pedestrian and motorist.

I was thinking more about having zebra crossings close to houses or entrances, where the authorities seem to think zig-zags are optional. I agree with your point.

To meet the regulations, zebra crossings have to have the zig zags.  

Brie

In Canada where I grew up we never had zebra crossings - just pedestrian crossings with lights.  And the assumption that someone standing on a corner (not mid block) might want to cross a road.  After having had my license for about 5 years or so I was driving in a new town and wondered why there was a car stopped at the side of the road not close to anything in particular.  I was about to drive by it when a young girl cautiously looked around the front of the vehicle and that was when I realised this was a zebra crossing.  To this day (a few decades on) it's the only one I've seen in Canada.  Given that they are so rare I imagine they are highly dangerous for pedestrians to use.   They had roundabouts on some highways when I was a child but those got phased out as also being much too dangerous.  

But net result for me is that I try to be aware of where pedestrians and cyclists might be and so be ready to brake, swerve, whatever to avoid a nasty accident.   I have been known to stop (thus blocking traffic) to let someone elderly, with slow dogs/children etc cross the road as I know that otherwise they're likely to need to dash across in front of speeding cars.  If it makes me late for work well that's ok by me.

HillStreetBlues

ontheroad1970 said:

sevenhills said:

ontheroad1970 said:

It's a false position if people are allowed to park close to zebra crossings which affects visibility for both pedestrian and motorist.

I was thinking more about having zebra crossings close to houses or entrances, where the authorities seem to think zig-zags are optional. I agree with your point.

To meet the regulations, zebra crossings have to have the zig zags.  

And not zag zigs.

Bigphil1474

I think most local councils would go bankrupt if they had to paint crossing marks at every suitable junction, with or without zig zags. 

I've got to say that in my experience, i haven't seen a big change in pedestrian behaviour (as a driver), and I haven't really changed my behaviour as a pedestrian. From both sides, I always look at the eyes, and don't move unless it's clear they are giving way.

MattMattMattUK

The big problem where I live is that the council road planners are complete idiots, most road junctions are badly designed, pedestrian crossings are situated in bad or even dangerous places etc. There are several spots where there is a road junction with traffic lights, followed by a pedestrian crossing with independently operated traffic lights only 10-15 meters past the junction, the light goes green on junction but red on the crossing. There are also lots of random lane splits and merges, they make things worse than just having one lane all the time, the merges are situated in awful places, with merges in lanes on roundabouts, on blind corners, directly before a junction etc. The council have also introduce pseudo-crossings, not actual legal crossings, but contrasting road and pavement surface colours that make it look like it should be a crossing but is not.

There are several regular accident spots where crossing pedestrians are hit on an almost regular basis, the council add choke points, speed bumps, change speed limits etc. but fail to address the the fact that the issues are almost entirely caused by bad road design.

If the town was populated entirely with good drivers most of these would be just about navigable, but the reality is the quality of driving is far worse than almost anywhere else I have driven, get out of the town, to the nearby towns and the standard of driving increases dramatically. The two things combined make driving there a nightmare. 

facade

From my experience it hasn't made any difference.

Presumably the drivers who never look where they are going have never looked at rule 170 either.

ontheroad1970

facade said:

From my experience it hasn't made any difference.

Presumably the drivers who never look where they are going have never looked at rule 170 either.

As a pedestrian, you have to be very careful.  I stopped to let someone across by a dropped pavement and the car next to me almost didn't stop.  The pedestrian seemed to be aware of the rule change.