I nipped into the village centre this moring and took my daughter's car while she was out jogging.
Coming back, I rounded the bend just before our house and she ran across the road in front of me! That would have been novel - being run over by her own car!!
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didnt that loser from a boy band do that, but he actually ran over himself....whilst being at the wheel
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About a year ago, I was heading in the wrong direction and left a dual carriageway in order to turn round and go back. At the top of the sliproad was a roundabout. I slowed down, stopped, looked round several times as I moved off onto a deserted roundabout a jogger flew at me from the grass verge on the right, put out the "discouraging" hand, almost hitting my bonnet and darted round the front of my car and glared at me whilst jogging on undaunted.
I continued round the roundabout and was able to witness this local Forrest Gump blindly jog straight over the exit road (the road I was going to enter) in front of yet another car. The runner's only interest was maintaining his pace, smashing his weekly record, whatever, but on both occasions he carried on jogging as if the cars simply weren't there.
Shouldn't be allowed out. Then again, a few thousand like him chained to large treadmills could considerably cut down our dependence on fossil fuels.
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on both occasions he carried on jogging as if the cars simply weren't there. Shouldn't be allowed out.
Don't complain! He's doing his bit to improve the gene pool
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Utterly baffling that a jogger would put himself in harm's way like that when so many drivers are only too pleased to do it for him.
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so many drivers are only too pleased to do it for him.
Do you mean put themselves in harm's way in his place IT? Not all that many, surely?
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I beg your pardon (and everyone else's). I meant that there are many inconsiderate drivers on the nation's roads who do not take care to avoid pedestrians, bicyclist, mums with prams, etc. So, what sensible jogger would increase the danger to himself? However, I think we all agree that this jogger was not acting sensibly.
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So what sensible jogger would increase the danger to himself? However I think we all agree that this jogger was not acting sensibly.
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Indeed - and as discussed recently on a cycling thread on HJ, it seems some people are so incensed with their 'rights' that their instinct for self-preservation has been removed!
To re-iterate... YES, mr jogger/cyclist, you do have a right to use the road, YES, there are certain car users who aren't really up to snuff, and will cause a danger to you, BUT the fact remains that you have to look after your own hide.
To put things back into a motoring perspective, I know that a green light means i can progress. BUT I would be a damn fool if I drove through that light in the knowledge that the bloke at the red light isn't going to stop.
Same with jogger/cyclist... he may be in the right, but his 70kg body (with or without bike) is no match for my 1 ton car.
But how happy he will be, as he lies in hospital ... or wheels himself down the street in a chair... or looks down from heavens above KNOWING that he was in the right after all!
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Ever seen the episode of the "Britas Empire" when he ends up in hospital because he always walked out onto a Zebra crossing without stopping "because if he was on the crossing he was in the right" his wife predicted it would happen... and it did - very funny, but made the point!
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Not a great Brittas fan, but I can just picture it.
Back to joggers/runners...
Travelling in to work at 5am, I often observe the chaps out there pounding the tarmac.
Now, I take my hat off to them, it is ahrd enough for me to drag my body, hobbling and coughing, to the car in the morning, let alone go out and knock off a quick 10kms... BUT, in keeping with my previous post, some of these buffoons are jogging three abreast along on the hard shoulder of a duel carriageway, in pitch darkness, often in the rain, *wearing dark tracksuits/tights/shirts*.
Deathwish?
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I used to pound the pavement around 6 a.m. in my area. Even at that hour, I had to be cautious. Most drivers who were about probably were not expecting to see my pathetic self jogging along, so I always came to a dead stop before crossing roads. Still, there were drivers who were both surprised and glad to see my pathetic self. They would throw cigarette ends at me while passing or swerve widely in order to drive through a lake-sized puddle and douse me.
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I saw a jogger locally running down a 60 mph road, in the road, alongside the pavement - had to laugh - the misses said I should clip him with the wing mirror, make him think next time. I didnt mind you, it was just a nice thought :)
They should be arrested for endangering the public.
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This sums up how motorists are regarded by non-motorists/govenment/local authorities/plod etc.
Even when driving safely on the road and obeying the rules we are regarded as deserving of contempt by non motorists.
With the 'green blindfold' on this will only get worse - I'm sick of this countrys medieval attitude.
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Here lies the body of Walker, Jay
Who died defending his right of way
He was right, dead right as he walked* along
But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong
* or jogged/sprinted/hopped, skipped & jumped/cycled/whatever - insert appropriate mode of progression
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Quote by Biblioman:....""About a year ago, I was heading in the wrong direction and left a dual carriageway in order to turn round and go back. At the top of the sliproad was a...""
At first I was thinking you meant you were going the wrong direction along the carriageway, against traffic flow! Then I realised you must have been going a a personally wrong direction, in relation to your destination LOL
Edited by Sofa Spud on 04/08/2008 at 15:11
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In my view it is so much easier to walk about than to drive that as a pedestrian, when crossing side roads for example, I usually slow down or hesitate to allow cars to go first if they are turning off the main road. When driving I try to slow, and sometimes stop, for the convenience of pedestrians, although when they rudely take precedence if I myself am turning off a main road I curl my lip a bit at their ignorance or selfishness.
Joggers are pedestrians, and some of them behave as badly as some other pedestrians; others of course are impeccable. The best of them, when they are pausing to let a car pass first, continue jogging on the spot with pleasant expressions on their faces. This is charming, and a timely reminder that just because a person is running it may be incorrect to assume they are in a hurry.
More and more people though are so paranoid or uptight that they never allow themselves to notice the behaviour of other people, drivers or pedestrians, or make eye contact or signals of intent or acknowledgement.
Many relate to all strangers in the blank, hostile manner of rats in a maze. This is a disquieting trend in western societies. Nodding to a passer-by, or waving an apology or thank-you, should not be the bruising experience it sometimes is.
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I curl my lip a bit at their ignorance or selfishness.
Not sure if they're ignorant or not.
I was under the impression [although my last test was 26 years ago] that pedestrians have priority where a roadway bisects a footway; as a side turning usually does.
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I was under the impression [although my last test was 26 years ago] that pedestrians have priority where a roadway bisects a footway; as a side turning usually does.
I remember something like that but always thought it referred to driveways.
Have just had a look at direct.gov and HC Rule 170 says "watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way" - there is even a photo to illustrate it.
This means that the bad-tempered woman who shouted at me the other week for having the temerity to turn into a road that she was about to cross (I had completed the turn and was 20 yards up the road before she even got to the edge of the pavement) should check her facts, as it may one day save not only her life but also that of the two very fine Weimaraners (sp?) she was walking.
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It does start You SHOULD rather then MUST which usually means that , while it is the correct thing to it is not a legal requirement. Common sense, as usual is rare at times.
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These cases should always be dealt with on their individual merits. I don't find it difficult when I am walking or driving to treat other road users of both categories with courtesy and consideration. I don't drive angrily at pedestrians, nor do I cross the road assertively in front of cars even with the legal advantage of a pedestrian crossing. And I acknowledge courtesy in others, if I have a free hand.
In the metropolis, where traffic of both sorts can often be heavy in the same place, the whole idea of legal priority becomes ridiculous. Car or pedestrian, you have to be quick and take de facto priority when you can, but gently and without alarming anyone. Skill, tight timing and firm but very restrained driving are involved. Londoners, or most of them, seem to manage this all right without getting too irritable. Some people however err on the side of excessive politeness - 'after you Cecil' 'No, after you, Claude' - and cause delays. Of course there are the rude yobs too. But as I say, most people manage to be efficient and put a not too unpleasant face on it.
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zookeeper, hilarity, the story about the boyband member running himself over (E17 or something) involved the excuse that he'd had too many baked spuds and his judgement was altered.
Must have been pre-Max Cliff**d
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joined the M61 at J4, going towards preston. Must admit, not totally awake. A girl in lycra came down the slip road, on the hard shoulder bit, looking in my eyes, shouting something like, "oi, wanna have a good look?" pointing at her body. I thought, eh???
I mean. I'll have a look, but she must have had issues!
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OOOOOOOOOOOOh Nooooooooooo! Mad mary's got out again! - and the word wasn't "look"!!!!!!
Billy
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Maybe it was answered in the thread and I missed it, but why do they run on the road and not on the pavement? I assumed it was to show that they were 'serious' runners, but maybe there is a real reason.
As to pedestrians, some are careless, but to be fair I have many times tood at zebra crossings and been ignored by 4 or 5 cars before the traffic has stopped. I've lost count of the number of times I've almost been reversed into by drivers in car parks who have't looked into the rear-view mirror.
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>>This sums up how motorists are regarded by non-motorists/government/local authorities/plod etc.
Even when driving safely on the road and obeying the rules we are regarded as deserving of contempt by non motorists.<<
There can't be that many true 'non-motorists' - the great majority of the population own cars. So presumably many of us are Jekyll & Hyde characters. The tin cocoon which protects us from the non-motorists and helps us get away from them while making digital gestures changes our character.
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road tax revenue pays only for the upkeep of Motorways and A class roads.
all other roads are paid for out of council tax
these minor roads are what cyclist use and also pedestrians (latter when there isnyt a footpath)
Just a thought.
Oh and Oil is still running out far faster than they can find it by 2050 the population of the planet will be 9 Billion and oill will be long gone by then
So well all be walking or biking.
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road tax revenue pays only for the upkeep of Motorways and A class roads. all other roads are paid for out of council tax
'Road tax' is not hypothecated specifically for roads, it just goes into the general pot at the Treasury along with all other taxation. A Council's income is only partly Council tax, with the majority being government grants coming from the Treasury.
So you cannot say 'that tax pays for that' and even if you do not own a car or ever use anything that goes on a road, you still pay tax for its upkeep.
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