Am i….going mad? Pedestrian crossing content

I’ve got a zebra crossing I use every day near my office, at least 30% of people sail right through, sometimes even when you’re already into their lane!

I think they need to start putting the crossing on a raised speedbump section  that you simply can’t whack over at full speed without headbutting the steering wheel.

Canadians are incredibly aggressive drivers anyway

I was surprised by this when I was out there last year.  I think it feels worse because they all drive those gigantic fragile ego trucks.  At least in the UK when you’re being tailgated by a simpleton it’s probably just an Audi A3.  Over there it’s a truck bigger than my house and all you can see in the rear view is a pair of wheels like you’re about to be run over…

 raised speedbump section

Do not get me started on this, as this is what the council put close to our house.  In absolutely does not work.  In fact now I get woken up at 5am by the local scaffolding / council / balfour beatie flat bed using it as a ski jump as they hit it at 40+ mph (in a 20) and get air.

They actually removed refuge islands in 3 places to build 2 raised zebra crossings.  The refugees gave you the ability to cross safely by only having to worry about a single lane of traffic at a time, they were far far safer, especially if you were trying to cross with a pram or small kids, or are elderly / disabled and can’t sprint across the road dodging drivers who refuse to slow down.

Absolute waste of money in the name of ‘improving’ safety (which I absolutely support and its needed)

I think average cameras is the only way to make it safe or mandate black boxes in cars.  I’ve noticed those travelling at 20mph or close to it will always stop.  Those doing 30-40+ are the ones you need to watch out for.

About to pop out and use it in a sec.  Wish me luck

DT78

Do not get me started on this, as this is what the council put close to our house.  In absolutely does not work.  In fact now I get woken up at 5am by the local scaffolding / council / balfour beatie flat bed using it as a ski jump as they hit it at 40+ mph (in a 20) and get air.

Bad luck, those kind of drivers in those kind of vehicles are a PITA. At home I have a similar issue from those off-road tipper trucks and skip lorries going over a speed bump at full pelt. The chains banging around on the skip lorries in particular are chuffing loud.

Tosspots above aside, I think it does work for 95% of the traffic though…?

In my town, they had to stop the school traffic patrol (aka Lollipop Lady/Man) because there were so many near misses.  How you can miss someone in a bright yellow coat and a big sign.  I seem to recall there was an ‘accident’ where the car ‘took out’ the big sign!  We now have TWO sets of pedestrian crossings.  Along with lots of zig-zag lines.

They beeped at me and gave me the finger as they drove away? WTF?

You probably know this but the real meaning of such behaviour is of course…

“Deep down in my subconscious I know I’ve just been a total selfish **** of the first order.  Unfortunately I am currently demonstrating my lack of ability to accept and learn from my blatant mistake and doing so on a level that a toddler would be dismayed by through transferring that aggression to the person who highlighted my exceptional stupidity”.

You can see why when you type that out it’s quicker to just beep and give you the finger.  🙂

Does it work?  Being the pedestrian crossing or the fact its raised?

I’d say it is less safe overall than the refugee islands it replaced, when it was a 30mph with no designated cycle lane (it has little cone things to seperate it’

Before the ‘improvements’ I was happy to ride with my kids on quieter times, as I could ride next to them and prevent them from wandering out into the traffic when looking behind them, now I can’t so they ride on the pavement

As this thread prompted it, you cannot trust cars to stop, I’d say its about 1 in 20 time I look to cross that a drivers fails to stop

The raised speed bump is only effective for those drivers that do not regularly use the road, all locals know full well they can hit it a 30+ and it’ll be fine.  The sort of drivers that go faster either don’t own the vehicle or don’t care.  So all it does really is create additional noise for no real benefit

If drivers were doing 20mph the speed bump makes virtual no sound, so they need to start actually enforcing the limits.  The times I go to cross, those doing 20 ish have always stopped.  Its the tosspots, usually in commercial vans who just don’t seem to care.

Standards are slipping and have been slipping for years. Best not to pay any attention to it. People are so much more aggressive these days for some unknown (well, i can think of a few really) reason. I find it’s best to stay cool and not let knob heads like this affect you. As long as you’re right, then it’s all good, there the one with the problem.

Last week i was in London and there was a Merc SUV hurtling down one of the side streets near Earls Court, must have been doing 45-50mph. It was around 0800 so plenty of people around including kids going to school. A woman with a kid about 7, waved her arms at the guy as a gesture to slow down. He screeched to a halt and then was calling her a dumb C U next tuesday, threatening to have her shot etc….. i mean, where do you go with someone like that….. i see and hear more and more things like this from numerous posts on here and just walking around. It’s all a bit odd.

useless cockwombles everywhere.

I strongly think that ALL cars should have to have dashcams factory fitted, that not only film outside, but also the driver and car interior too.

And that the police should be able to remotely access it at any time.

Give them a reg and a time and they can check to see who the idiot as and take some action.

Probably not populer with doggers, mind.

I hate drivers at times. So many absolutely bell ends who shouldn’t be allowed to be in charge of a vehicle. Was out on a road ride at weekend and some knobber in a van gave us a deliberate close pass on a wide open road. He obviously didn’t realise there were traffic lights just round the corner

my 6.4 100kg mate offered to have a ‘a discussion’ with him when he caught up. Driver wasn’t so tough at that point strangely enough. Oh how I laughed..

my 6.4 100kg mate offered to have a ‘a discussion’ with him when he caught up. Driver wasn’t so tough at that point strangely enough. Oh how I laughed..

Haha, I am ‘that’ guy (only 6ft mind, but that makes me taller and heavier than almost anyone else who says they’re 6ft), but I have a very short allowance when it comes to motorized dicks.

I think I once made a hells angel* wet themselves whilst kindly explaining to them the error of their ways. It’s not my fault if I look more intimating 6″ from your face making myself heard over the exhaust pipes you chose in lieu of a personality.

I’m quite a nice person really when car’s aren’t involved, honest.

*Berkshire dentist

Given the immediate possibility of wrecking their vehicle by wrapping it around a pedestrian doesn’t put selfish people off driving like arses, I really don’t see that the gradual cumulative wear and tear of whacking over speed bumps at speed does much to slow them down either. I have speed bumps outside my house and am treated to the sound of scraping car undersides and all the rest hourly: all speed bumps do is create unnecessary noise and wear and tear on vehicles. There’s simply no substitute for enforcement of reasonable norms for driving with actual likely consequences.

At least in the UK when you’re being tailgated by a simpleton it’s probably just an Audi A3

I dunno, there’s an awful lot more massive SUVs around now. Guy near me has one of those colossal Dodge RAM pick up trucks that’s so huge it overhangs the entire pavement when he parks it on his drive.

I’ve seen it in the supermarket car park. Top of the wheels was as high as the neighbouring car’s roofline. 🤯

what ped-controlled crossings “need” is a pair of cameras (one for each lane) that activate when the lights change … and then the will to fine (heavily) drivers seen to be taking the piss.  Zebras could do the same, just with a button to activate the camera before you step out.  Both systems would need a button to save the last 30 seconds of footage like a dashcam might

There are some properly vicious speed bumps in Spain, (well theres a mixture actualy, there doesn’t seem to be a standard), but you’d properly wreck your suspension if hit some of them any faster than jogging speed. Keeps you on your toes when driving!

Guy near me has one of those colossal Dodge RAM pick up trucks

Yeah you’re starting to see them a bit here now. But there are areas of Canada and the US where every other vehicle is one of those!

I have speed bumps outside my house and am treated to the sound of scraping car undersides and all the rest hourly

Same here. Although I get a chuckle from it at least, laughing at the plonkers damaging their cars because they refuse to drive properly…

Nothing boils my piss more than twunts barrelling through a zebra crossing when I’m walking my daughter to school. Of course, they’re never in the wrong even when you point out it’s a 20mph zone directly outside a school. Nothing beats a car for bringing out the absolute worst in people.

I was about to say it’s an age related thing, but that would be wrong…  It’s mostly just selfishness & lack of awareness, and that’s not age related.

Back in in my late teens/early 20’s, I was guilty of driving like a bit of a knob, so I can’t really talk.

In my 40’s now, I find driving much more pleasurable by driving as progressivley as I can, according to the conditions, of course…it not only saves fuel, it makes for a much smoother ride – If I have to brake any more than very gently, I take that as a personal failing on my part (emergency braking aside).

And above that, it makes for a much more stress-free flowing driving experience, which also is safer for me and those around me.

A friend of mine drives quite agressivley, by my standards, anyway, and always seems to be stressed when driving… IMO that really doesn’t help anyone.

You’ll always get idiots, though, so all you can do is be aware, I suppose.

I don’t know if it’s an old wives tale or not, but I read a long time ago, a test, for would-be Chauffeurs, would be to put an egg on a shallow bowl fixed to the dashboard.

If the egg ever rolled out of the bowl, then they would fail the test.

You’ll always get idiots, though, so all you can do is be aware, I suppose.

And there’s a lot of people who are just vile beyond words.

Some piece of human refuse C- bombed my 12 year old son today while he was cycling home from school along a quiet residential road and from what I can gather the thing that occasioned this was that the van driver pulled off the grass verge that he shouldn’t have been parked on without looking.

It comes to something when you think your child needs a camera to ride two miles to school.

Worse driving does seem to have increased in line with car leasing/ PHP – newer cars, often faster, and people seemingly driving them like actual hire cars, rather than as if they have to keep them with every scratch and dent for the next 12 years.

In… Spain? maybe France? there’s an invention in a few towns with a speed camera and, a little further on, an arbitrary traffic light. If the camera sees your speeding, the traffic light flips to red, so you have to sit and wait. Unless, I suppose, you’re *really* speeding, in which case you might beat the light before it turns red…

In… Spain? maybe France? there’s an invention in a few towns with a speed camera and, a little further on, an arbitrary traffic light. If the camera sees your speeding, the traffic light flips to red, so you have to sit and wait.

Netherlands has this in places too. As a reward for not speeding, you get a clean flow of green lights. If you try speeding, you get stopped at all of them!

These idiots probably wouldn’t make the connection between their speed and the arbitrary light. After all, they’ve spent their lives going 40 in a 30 yet not working out why I’m still in their mirror when they reach the next junction, and will dangerously overtake bikes just to have them filter past 10 seconds later when they get to the back of the queue.

Referring back to my earlier post about my mates ‘altercation’ the other day, typified many drivers mentalities. The same people who wouldn’t say boo to a goose to you if you met them in the pub, or wouldn’t dream of having the nerve to push infront of you in a queue you were standing in etc, yet put them in their protective little steel box and they think they can do whatever they want. And that extends to how they treat other drivers in on the road, not just cyclists

in some ways its not too dissimilar to this place, where some little nerds are more than happy to spout off and insult from behind the comfort of their keyboards, but wouldn’t dream of doing it to a stranger in the pub..

that traffic light concept is quite a good idea, and probably relatively cheap (compared to digging up the whole road and installing speed bumps / special grippy surface etc…)

so therefore it will never be used in uk….

The synchronised lights are referred to as green wave, i’ve got a few runs of them near me.

Get the first one just as it turns green and you just cruise through at 5-8km below the limit for a dozen sets of lights. Unless any of them are ped controlled (that takes prio in a lot of places here).

Top of the wheels was as high as the neighbouring car’s roofline

This is quite an interesting website, the example highlights a Dodge RAM against my 2014 i20, but you can compare a vast array of cars with each other, although putting on Carlos Fandango super-size wheels isn’t an option (shame!).

The same people who wouldn’t say boo to a goose to you if you met them in the pub, or wouldn’t dream of having the nerve to push infront of you in a queue you were standing in etc, yet put them in their protective little steel box and they think they can do whatever they want.

Exactly the mentality in Canada. They’re so “nice” (deliberate inverted commas there) in person, but clearly love the anonymity of being in a big blacked out box, and letting all their selfishness and aggression. They’re bad with pedestrians, but they’re ****ing awful around cyclists, both in and out of towns

Wait for a nun to cross the road and follow

On a crossing? Now you see her, now you don’t, now you see her…

in some ways its not too dissimilar to this place, where some little nerds are more than happy to spout off and insult from behind the comfort of their keyboards, but wouldn’t dream of doing it to a stranger in the pub..

I’m not sure that intimidating people into feeling unable to challenge you for fear of physical retaliation is an admirable quality either, mind.

that traffic light concept is quite a good idea… so therefore it will never be used in uk

I don’t recall details but I’m sure I remember an article on TV where they were trialling this system over here.  I remember at the time thinking it was a great idea but surely could only work in one direction.

I have found car drivers in Canada ti be unfailingly polite stopping if you even look at a crossing.  Freaked me right out

I remember at the time thinking it was a great idea but surely could only work in one direction.

Use smart lights with variable timing, just make it work in the direction with most traffic, then have (slightly) suboptimal flows in the other direction. Then switch when the traffic does.

There was a documentary about this a while ago, they even make traffic planning software that allows you to trial in in the virtual world, before you commit to actual live traffic.

There was a documentary about this a while ago

I’m sure I’ve seen it, but I’m damned if I can remember what it was.

I’m not sure that intimidating people into feeling unable to challenge you for fear of physical retaliation is an admirable quality either, mind.

This may be news to some on here but you can challenge peoples opinions without resorting to insults. As most people manage to do in real life.

I totally agree.

But it’s a lot easier to call (say) a racist a racist when the fear of having your head kicked in for your troubles is removed.

I came across this photo a while back showing the scale of American 4×4 trucks these days. That’s a Jeep Waggoner (I think) in the middle…

😳

Something I’ve noticed lately though isn’t so much drivers driving too fast, rather they’re dawdling along at 15-20 mph below the posted speed limits, a couple recently were sat at 35 mph on a dry road in sunny weather, where the limit was 50-60. Why? It holds up long strings of cars, and frustrated drivers then take stupid chances trying to get past.

Well my turn to be nearly taken out on a pelican crossing today.  It crosses a road with one lane approaching from the right and two lanes from the left.

Press the button, wait 30 secs, lights go to red, green man comes on, lights make the usual chirping sound indicating it’s “safe” to cross.

Car from the right has stopped, as has the car from the left.   I begin to cross but then notice another car approaching from the left in lane 2 who has clearly not seen the red lights and all the other cars that have stopped and just sails right on through.

Nor did he notice me standing in the middle of the road waiting for him to stop.

Had I just walked without checking (like some folk do with their heads buried in a phone), or indeed someone with poor eyesight, things could have been rather nasty.