Palmer Street, Garran

Wanon said :

Evil_Kitten said :

No white stripes, no pedestrian crossing! Anyone who just steps out without looking is fair game to be mowed down. On that note, you should stop and look and wait even if it IS a pedestrian crossing – am I the only one who was taught that? Common sense really, but that appears to be lacking in a lot of people these days.

ProTip: You’re going to jail if you mow down a pedestrian, crossing or not.

If a pedestrian is on the road, they ALWAYS have right of way.

And here I was thinking roads were built for cars! Silly me! Do cars get right of way on their footpaths? Fair’s fair!

I was, of course, not seriously suggesting you’re allowed to mow them down. But sometimes I think you should be allowed to LOL

Funnily enough I just left Canberra Imaging there about 20 mins ago and had a group of kids run out on it and I nearly cleaned them up. If it is a crossing signs would be nice for us unsuspecting motorists

Wanon said :

Evil_Kitten said :

No white stripes, no pedestrian crossing! Anyone who just steps out without looking is fair game to be mowed down. On that note, you should stop and look and wait even if it IS a pedestrian crossing – am I the only one who was taught that? Common sense really, but that appears to be lacking in a lot of people these days.

ProTip: You’re going to jail if you mow down a pedestrian, crossing or not.

If a pedestrian is on the road, they ALWAYS have right of way.

There was a court case several years ago where a driver had run into a couple of pedestrians in the Dickson area late at night. They were wearing dark clothing and not crossing at an intersection, so it was virtually impossible for the driver to see them until just before the driver reached them. The court case was to decide if the driver was still 100% at fault for the accident. From memory, the driver was still convicted for the accident, but the court very sensibly decided that the pedestrians had played some part in their own fate, and reduced the conviction somewhat (I can’t remember by how much now).

I guess the point is that even though a reasonable observer would say the pedestrians were at fault for the accident, the law still says the driver was.

shirty_bear said :

Evil_Kitten said :

No white stripes, no pedestrian crossing!

Seen a school crossing lately? The trouble with making some exceptions to rules is it’s hard to know what’s an exception and what isn’t. Yeah, school crossings look like a crossing … so do these paved not-crossings. They’re an accident waiting to happen.

It probably doesn’t help that there’s a similar-looking (albeit elevated) school crossing around the corner from this spot. As far as I know school crossings are only in force when the flags are up, though.

Evil_Kitten said :

No white stripes, no pedestrian crossing!

Seen a school crossing lately? The trouble with making some exceptions to rules is it’s hard to know what’s an exception and what isn’t. Yeah, school crossings look like a crossing … so do these paved not-crossings. They’re an accident waiting to happen.

Wanon said :

If a pedestrian is on the road, they ALWAYS have right of way.

Pretty sure this is true of horses … not so much pedestrians. Just coz you’re not allowed to run them over at will doesn’t mean they have right of way.

Pathways leading to a paved section of road, yet no zebra markings or signs…….I can see how both motorists and pedestrians could be confused to thinking they have right of way.

You’d think the motorist party would be onto fixing this stuff, rather than overturning plastic bag bans……

Wanon said :

Evil_Kitten said :

No white stripes, no pedestrian crossing! Anyone who just steps out without looking is fair game to be mowed down. On that note, you should stop and look and wait even if it IS a pedestrian crossing – am I the only one who was taught that? Common sense really, but that appears to be lacking in a lot of people these days.

ProTip: You’re going to jail if you mow down a pedestrian, crossing or not.

If a pedestrian is on the road, they ALWAYS have right of way.

Jeez, now you tell me. Can anyone recommend a panelbeater that knows how to keep their mouth shut?

Evil_Kitten said :

No white stripes, no pedestrian crossing! Anyone who just steps out without looking is fair game to be mowed down. On that note, you should stop and look and wait even if it IS a pedestrian crossing – am I the only one who was taught that? Common sense really, but that appears to be lacking in a lot of people these days.

ProTip: You’re going to jail if you mow down a pedestrian, crossing or not.

If a pedestrian is on the road, they ALWAYS have right of way.

gasman said :

They also had a system with 4-way stop signs at intersections where 2 roads cross. The rule was very simple – whoever gets to their stop sign first has right of way, and each person takes turns going through, depending on when they reach the intersection. With Canadian civility, it worked like a charm. No need to traffic lights, roundabouts or other nonsense. Just common courtesy.

Can’t imagine anything like that happening here.

There is (or was) a cross road intersection in Yass with 4 stop signs.

We spent 2 years in Vancouver, BC, Canada. There, it was commonly accepted that if a car sees a pedestrian trying to cross the road, they would stop and allow the pedestrian to cross. This would happen on quiet suburban streets as well as more major roads. There did not have to be an official pedestrian crossing.

When we (family with 3 young boys) first got there, we were perplexed. As we waited to cross, all lanes of car traffic would come to a stop. We wondered what on earth they were doing. It took a few weeks for us to realise that they were stopping for us to cross. Even hoons in doof-doof cars would screech to a halt allow us to cross the road. After 2 years of this, we got very used to cars stopping for pedestrians.

Of course, there seemed to be some unwritten etiquette for pedestrians too. It was expected that pedestrian cross at intersections, rather than the middle of a stretch of road, and obviously never on a major highway or similar.

Then we got back to Australia. It was a bit of a culture shock to come back to our home country. We had to re-train our boys on how to cross the road. “Well, boys, here cars rule, and they don’t stop, even if you step out onto the road, and often not even at pedestrian crossings. Be very careful”. It took a few weeks and a few close calls to reacclimatise.

They also had a system with 4-way stop signs at intersections where 2 roads cross. The rule was very simple – whoever gets to their stop sign first has right of way, and each person takes turns going through, depending on when they reach the intersection. With Canadian civility, it worked like a charm. No need to traffic lights, roundabouts or other nonsense. Just common courtesy.

Can’t imagine anything like that happening here.

No white stripes, no pedestrian crossing! Anyone who just steps out without looking is fair game to be mowed down. On that note, you should stop and look and wait even if it IS a pedestrian crossing – am I the only one who was taught that? Common sense really, but that appears to be lacking in a lot of people these days.

Spiral said :

These pseudo-pedestrian crossings are quite common.

I think they are a lawsuit waiting to happen when a pedestrian who assumes they are crossings gets hit by a motorist who assumes they are not crossings.

And this is why we can’t have nice things.

Unless people actually take matters into their own hands nothing will happen and then it is the community’s fault. How can bureaucrats know what people want or need if they are not shown?

Probably what will happen is that they will come along and paint over it. So the community comes along and paints it back again. So gov comes back and paints over it. So the community comes back and paints it again.

Gov notices that they’ve spent $5000 blacking out a pedestrian crossing and goes and paints it on properly.

End result everyone wins. Alternative, we sit back and complain. I guess the latter is easier but less effective.

Tactical Urbanism is happening around the world, why not here in the land of Tactical Nimbyism?

These pseudo-pedestrian crossings are quite common.

I think they are a lawsuit waiting to happen when a pedestrian who assumes they are crossings gets hit by a motorist who assumes they are not crossings.

Just do it

http://thisbigcity.net/wikicity-bogota-citizens-improve-road-safety-conditions/

Not a crossing as far as I know, though it does seem to confuse more than a few people. I’ve seen a few slow down because they think it’s a speed bump or something. There never seem to be any pedestrians around when I drive past (evenings, mostly), so I guess I’m missing the real fun.

Ah, my daily commute. I’ve seen a couple of pedestrians jump out there as well, but the biggest problem I’ve noticed is the opposite. Many times I’ve seen cars stop there to let a patiently waiting pedestrian cross. When they stop, the traffic backs up and the cars coming off Hindmarsh back up, letting almost no one through.

It would be nice if either it was removed, or changed to a proper crossing just to eliminate the confusion.

At least the hospital is nearby.