Safe Speed Forums

Just posted this on a police website, Paul, you will know the one.


Where do we stand?

Taking my kids to the cinema this evening, come up to a traffic light controlled junction, lights on red, I stop at the stop line.
The lights change to green, just as I am starting to roll forward, a woman pushes her buggy out into the road causing me to stop again, What the hell?
She strolls across the road causing a car coming the other way to have to stop, What the hell?

I fully understand and accept that as a driver, I have to obey road law, yet when I am obeying the law, a pedestrian can totally disregard the law with impunity, What the hell is going on?
Shae also used the baby and buggy as a means to stop traffic, is this not deliberate endagerment of a child?

This is not a rare occurance, this is total disregard for the laws put in place to protect all of us, yet nothing is ever said to a pedestrian, WHY?
Are pedestrians sacred cows or something?

I had something similar happen in front of a police officer, and he did nothing, What the hell?
Are drivers not entitled to protection from cretinous pedestrians who abuse the law like this knowing full well that if something untoward were to happen, it would be the drivers fault?

Please, I know that drivers are considered to be the great satan, but come on, it can't be all our fault.

If this total disregard of the law by pedestrians continues, there will be anarchy.

I have a responsibility of care to other road users, be they drivers or pedestrians, don't they have the same responsibility of care as well?

ps, my speed would have been less than 3mph, no speeding related incident there then

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Semper in excreta, nur quantitat variat.

Well, road safety should be the responsibility of everyone, pedestrians, cyclists, motorists... It seems that only motorists are really having the message to be vigilant reinforced - when was the last time you heard anyone mention the green cross code? - so we are able to avoid a lot of otherwise nasty accidents.

I agree that it's not right, but it seems to be the way that it is.. The onus is always on the nasty man in his car to improve road safety.

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

Has any Pedestrians ever been done for an offence or is there any such offence? The United states have 'Jaywalking'. Perhaps we should start taking a leaf out of their book? Why have speed humps when people walk In the road?

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RoADA Member -GOLD 2008
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.

Arguably you could only have such offence in a limited zone where an ample number of pedestrian crossings were provided. After all, pedestrians are allowed to cross the road, and they are allowed to make errors of judgment in doing so, so in the absence of numerous official crossings it would be impossible to prove.

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Highway Code rule 18

At All Crossings. When using any type of crossing you should

* always check that the traffic has stopped before you start to cross or push a pram onto the crossing.

Rule 19

Zebra Crossings. Give traffic plenty of time to see you and to stop before you start to cross. Vehicles will need more time if the road is slippery. Remember that traffic does not have to stop until someone has moved onto the crossing. Wait until traffic has stopped from both directions before crossing.

Well, drivers aren't allowed to make any errors of judgement, especially not about something like driving through a red light.

ooo this gets on my nerves when they do that! I just keep going, I know I should perhaps stop, put hazards on, get out of car and lie in front of it etc, but surely when the light goes green it is my turn to go. So go I do. And mums and dads, I'm affraid if you childs bike goes though my whind screen I will be coming to you to fix the damage. We cannot have one set of strickly enforced rules for one set of road users and just ignore them for another set.

Since we are on the subject, if I use my phone while I'm driving I can get into trouble. But as I saw earlier, when I was bringing my car back from a service, it would appear perfecly acceptable to use the same phone while riding a push bike. No doubt had I run him over after he lost balance it would have been me making my first court appearance.

Perhaps you also reward them with a cheery toot on your horn, a friendly gesticulation of the hand, and then go to the trouble of winding down your window to offer some parting words of encouragement?

Whilst running them over?

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

It's quite difficult to hit the window button, rev engine, swear and jesticulate all at the same time! If they only knew just how experienced I am at the art of road kill they would wait for the man to turn from red to green.

It's a series of posts like this that severly detract from the quality of the Safe Speed site.

Yeah, motorists aren't allowed to have a sense of humour.

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-mike[F]
Caught in the rush of the crowd, lost in a wall of sound..

I too have worried about this thread. But I'd say the critical factor is that we wouldn't dream of censoring opinions.

Safe Speed policy is that all road users are responsible for safety, and all groups must contribute. Every group of road users has good and bad members, and the greatest benefit will be delivered if the worst in each group are addressed. All road users are entitled to care, courtesy and respect from other road users - no groups are excluded.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

Sarcasm, lost on the internet .... again.

Why do people see quite obvioulsy sarcastic and over the top remarks such as

And think the poster is being serious?

It's quite obviously a ludicrous thing to say therefore is most probably sarcasm.

I could be wrong but.........

My intentions in this post were entirely humourous!

Apologies to anyone who interpreted it seriously.