WDB
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Post by WDB on Dec 16, 2023 17:42:18 GMT
The 2022 revisions to the Highway Code are a well-intentioned mess that creates dangerous misunderstandings. Rule H2 - Rule for drivers, motorcyclists, horse drawn vehicles, horse riders and cyclistsAt a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning.Makes perfect sense in principle, reminding drivers that we use urban streets by consent, not by right. But so lamentable is most road users’ knowledge that it’s almost impossible to adhere to. Driving home through town in December teatime darkness, I twice encountered pedestrians waiting to cross roads I was turning into. I paused to let them cross if they wanted to but each time the body language made it clear that they expected to wait for me. From the darkness behind my headlights, I had no way of indicating that I knew I should wait for them, so I went carefully ahead and left them to cross behind me. Other times, I’ve had impatient responses from drivers behind, who plainly had no idea what I was doing. Whatever the correct hierarchy of road users, it seems unwise to invite pedestrians to step out in front of drivers who are likely to have no idea of their own obligations and feel only entitlement. Yesterday in London, I saw a Passat driver use his horn to clear a group crossing a side street as he turned right off Piccadilly. I don’t suppose waving Rule H2 at him would have had the slightest effect — although as the pedestrians were already crossing, not waiting, he’d have been in the wrong even under the previous Code. Personally, I’ve always preferred to walk a little way up a side street to avoid crossing the mouth of a junction, because it reduces the directions of trouble from three to two. But not everyone does, and it’s hard to see this rule helping them until some serious effort is made to educate drivers about it. And I can’t see that happening this side of a general election. www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/introduction#ruleh2 |
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Rob
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Post by Rob on Dec 16, 2023 17:57:57 GMT
I'd walk from a junction too if it made it safer. Also always cross where you can see both ways so there's a bend that is taken into account.
The rules of roundabouts are not followed any longer it seems. You get to a roundabout and say let the first car to the left or right go.... then it should become your 'turn'. But near me the other drivers just drive onto the roundabout without stopping to give way to you. They treat it as a through road going straight ahead without any roundabout. And so I don't trust anyone. And if it's in a 20mph zone they seem to be going way faster so if you did venture out there's no knowing that they are slowing down either.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Dec 17, 2023 11:24:49 GMT
While that may be considered an important update by many it has probably been lost in the nose reported in the Daily Angries (looking at you Express and Mail).
Rah ! Six new rule changes that will land you thousands of pounds in fines, rah ! eating an apple will land you in gaol (they target the language to the reader), rah! having a soft drink in your car ? Death by hanging, rah ! tyres, rah! Windscreen, rah! not clearing snow, and on it goes. These are all existing rules. No one cares and without enforcement no one will until it is them directly affected then it's sad eyes, chest unclothed, news story time.
After a while people stop listening and the important stuff goes unnoticed too. What's the old phrase, when you highlight everything you highlight nothing.
Me, a jaundice view of the world ? Maybe.
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Post by EspadaIII on Dec 17, 2023 16:06:17 GMT
I was driving along last night and realised that I could not turn left out of a junction because buses were stopped at a bus stop just after the turn and just before a traffic light. Most bus stops in the UK are in a similar position. It made me realise that trying to cross the road in front of the buses was potentially dangerous and that in some other countries I have visited, bus stops are just after a junction, so that traffic keeps moving and pedestrians can cross the road without worrying what is coming behind the bus.
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WDB
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Post by WDB on Dec 17, 2023 17:12:43 GMT
I’d have thought bus stops and junctions were a poor mix, whether before or after. Impatient drivers will try to pass the bus, or to turn right around it. And you can imagine the left-turning (!) Express reader behind the driver who does wait for the bus before turning right.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Dec 17, 2023 18:15:32 GMT
Here, in Germany, it is illegal to stop on a roundabout. What do they do ? Put pedestrian crossings on the entry/exit of each leg of the roundabout.
Rush hour, lots of pedestrians, traffic can't move. Kind of defeats the objective of a roundabout which is too keep traffic flowing.
They also like to paint stop signs on the road at junctions and place pedestrian crossings less than a cars length from the stop line. Illegal to stop and block the crossing, illegal to drive through a stop line.
Edit: I'm getting the word, entrapment.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Dec 17, 2023 18:24:29 GMT
"https://www.google.com/maps/@50.9934616,6.7404599,0a,75y,201.18h,79.45t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1srRTPlQPCC649ddHxVNotew!2e0"
Stop at the stop sign, you can't see beyond the building, move to the stop line and you're blocking the crossing if a line of traffic comes from the left.
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Post by EspadaIII on Dec 18, 2023 14:17:03 GMT
Oh there is stupidity everywhere. The better bus stop situation is really good in Israel. But then they decide that at all right turns at traffic lights, the green light for traffic to turn right comes on at the same time as the green man for pedestrians to cross the side road into which the right turning traffic is headed. Traffic jams ensue... and there are pedestrain crossings at roundabouts...
Nowhere has good traffic/pedestrian control...
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Dec 18, 2023 18:42:21 GMT
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Post by EspadaIII on Dec 19, 2023 10:15:35 GMT
To reduce car use you need to provide excellent alternatives first. Unlike in London, Andy Burnham may be on the way to a better future in Greater Manchester by not having a ULEZ zone where there are fines, but by offering good public transport alternatives. My wife uses public transport frequently these days during the day go go into the city centre where she is a magistrate or to Bury where she plays bridge. Both are on a direct bus route with frequent buses and driving would take just as long and you have to park.
Brussels, Barcelona and Paris are very much cities where middle class families live in the heart of the city so the need is pressing and easily acheivable as the middle class can afford to change. London by contrast either has very wealthly or low-income and neither want to or can afford to give up their cars.
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Dec 19, 2023 13:04:21 GMT
When we're in Edinburgh I don't drive to many places, the buses get us to most places we want to visit.
As a young lad growing up in rural Northumberland the last bus out of Newcastle was at 21:50, not much use when you're at a concert or having a night out with friends. £100 for a taxi at the end of each night out is no problem for me now being older and not going into town very often, that's a big chunk of change to a young person. The solution ? Move into the city, pushing up competition for rental properties and pressure on local services or stay in a hotel every night out.
Where I live now there is a system in place where I can get a train to my local station and a taxi takes me the final miles home at a discounted rate. That won't work for cash strapped local authorities in the UK.
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Post by dixinormus on Dec 20, 2023 20:47:54 GMT
Brussels and Barcelona are a lot smaller than Paris. Maybe people don’t perceive the scale of the problem? Even if the traffic is bad the distance is short so they’ll drive anyway. Whereas getting from one side of Paris to the other….
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bpg
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Post by bpg on Dec 21, 2023 14:56:48 GMT
Don't all French people have a bike, a stripey top, a string of onions and a Gitanes hanging out the corner of their mouth ?
A Gallic shrug of the shoulders and off they go or, they could put on a hi-viz vest and torch everything.
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