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A large number of pedestrian involved accidents today are blamed on the car or vehicle driver but have seen people walk out in front of cars, lorries and even buses as if they don't even see them, aren't they big enough to see coming towards them. How many people instead of waiting at the pedestrian lights walk across them right in front of vehicles. Cyclists are just as bad some of them are OK but others seem to have had their brain removed before taking their cycle on the road. I had one ride up on the inside of me the other day and then chop right in front of my car to turn right how I missed him I will never know, he then proceeded to go straight in front of a car going in the opposite direction up the kerb and narrowly missed a woman with a small child. A lot of accidents are blamed on the vehicle driver but one sometimes has to put a great deal of blame on pedestrians and cyclists who are rarely blamed for causing accidents. Cyclists should also be aware that riding at high speed through shopping precincts and pavements is dangerous for old folk who cannot move away quickly and when appoached from behind the shock can send them quickly off balance. If a car jumps the lights at a pedestrian crossing huge howls would go up from the pedestrians involved but how many of them jump the lights when they turn red against them and run over as cars are moving off ? Drivers are no angels but they are not always to blame for accidents.
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You're right, Marman. Everything is stacked against the motorist theses days, and it is a deliberate attempt to get our cars off the streets. Even the governments own figures show that 80% of pedestrian/vehicle accidents are caused by the pedestrians themselves walking out into the road without due care - but still the blame is heaped on the driver. Then we have the bus lanes, bus priority schemes, speed cams, road narrowing, congestion charging etc,,, When the hell are we going to start kicking a few doors in?
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this was debated to death (no pun intended a few weeks ago - use the search facility). You are right, most pedestrian accidents are their own fault , but not all. Also remember that 86% of pedestrians injured are young children or pensioners, so not necessarily able bodied or able minded. As the driver, you are responsible for controlling your machine and avoiding the hazards.
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Michael
You have a good point about the "able bodied & able minded".
This is a requirement for drivers (although not always adhered to), but is never an issue for pedestrians and cyclists.
Parents who would never let a child out of sight next to a river let them run around the streets until al hours. We have a mentally handicapped relative who is never all owed out on his own, but legally he/she could jump on a bike and cause all sorts of carnage.
I agree that pedestrians and cyclists should have equal rights to motorists in the appropriate context, but with those rights must go equal responsibilities.
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Michael was right when he says that this topic has already been debated to death. Let's not see it resurrected now.
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Brian, I agree about cyclists to a point, not sure I agree about pedestrians though. In the overall scheme of things, people are more important than cars. People live in communities and have rules to govern their behaviour. Cars were invented by people to provide transport between a and b. Roads are thoroughfares for transport and, with one or two exceptions, can be used by anything from people to cycles to horses to cars to lorries. It's the risk of death and carnage that goes with the motor vehicle that brings standards, rules and regulations to the party. Early cars and drivers had few rules to abide by. The heavy death toll was responsible for the restrictions. There are not many cases of death as a result of one pedestrian walking into another and not many as a result of being run into by a cyclist, albeit more likely. Generally, in my experience, able bodied/minded pedestrians are not much of a hazard. It is the young and old, as said before, and they rely on the more able bodied/minded to look after them. Primarily, it is friends and relatives who should keep them safe from harm. In the absence of good friends or family (some pensioners lead very lonely and isolated lives and not all parents know where their children are at all times) it is down to the driver to ensure he/she avoids them if they stray onto the road. Inconvenient, I know, but roads are not race tracks and the prospect of testing and licensing pedestrians before allowing them out on the street (what do you do with those that fail the test?) is perhaps a step too far.
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oops, sorry Martyn, delete my last entry if you please....
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A writer on Cycling Plus Magazine recently claims to have spent three years researching road casualty figures and reckons that in 1870, before there were any motor vehicles in existance, 1600 people died in road accidents. That is with a considerably smaller population who did not travel as much as we do to-day. Puts the present 3500 road deaths into perspective.
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Tom
The same article (I think) claims that more cars drive on the pavements than cyclists. I was sceptical, so I counted them. Nineteen parked cars on the pavement in a one mile section of road going into the village where I live. Two of them blocked the pavement completely, so I had to walk on a busy A road to get past, thus putting myself in danger. A lot of wing mirrors were flipped back that day.
Chris
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You could always campaign for the road to be widened to allow two lanes, plus two parked cars ;-)
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Article in the local paper yesterday about a fire engine that couldn't get to a fire.
"Considerate" motorists had parked on the road.
"Official" advice was that they should have parked up on the kerb so as not to block the road (and as they hadn't and had they could have been towed away)!
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