23 September 2005

Bonfire abused at zebra crossing

| bonfire
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Last night I was on my way to a political engagement. I started the Stanley steamer, pulled onto the road and proceeded in a northerly direction. I turn a corner, enter a side street in which the road was divided 4 lanes with a concrete strip up the centre. I approached a zebra crossing and saw the pedestrian step onto the crossing on the other side of the divided road. At the speed I was travelling I knew I’d be through before he reached the divide. As I crossed the zebra part on my side, he reached the central divide and screamed ‘arsehole’ (I don’t think it was lurkergal unless she has a potbelly and a beard, but hey, you never know).

My question to the riotact masses is ‘was I in the right?’ should I have stopped as soon as I saw him step onto the other side of the divided road zebra strip ? Was he misdirecting anger after a hard day ?

Am I in fact, an arsehole ? Did I break the law ?

Or did I just act as I should have.

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To quote David Caradine in Kung Fu; “The monkey does not know why he is the monkey, yet he still climbs in the trees”.

RG – several people keep saying this, but i dont know why.

You are an asshole bonfire, but not for the pedestrian crossing thing.

brain fart, i meant to say one of my neighbours has erected a cat run in his backyard.

Samuel Gordon-Stewart2:57 pm 26 Sep 05

You have owners Bonfire? What species are you?

funny you should mention cats, i note one of my owners has erected a cat run in his backyard.

i was watching the cat wander along in his cage liek enclosure yesterday. he seemed depressed.

Or maybe he was just aware of Bonfire’s views on cats which would also warrant a stream of invective from right-thinking folk.

Interesting looking at the road rules. I’d have thought the divided road made bonfire in the right any way. But even on an undivided road this bit gives motorists a lot more scope than i thought we had.

Motorists must give way to pedestrians on a marked pedestrian crossing, if there is a reasonable possibility of a collision.

In any event my understanding (and please correct me if i’m wrong) is that a divided road counts as two crossings so drivers in the other lane don’t have to give way until the pedesrian is about to enter their crossing.

On the other hand if he had to pull up to avoid getting barrelled over then i think he was right to hurl abuse.

It was just cos i’m sure we’d had this conversation before Mael.

Ralph, now I know which crossing you’re talking about and you are absolutely correct. This whole area of which you speak was planned by the devil himself and built by demons, auditors and chartered acountants with the souls of the damned…

Pedestrian crossing aside, most afternoons I am waiting five minutes before someone has the decency to let me into traffic. In that five minutes of quiet reflection I get every afternoon I like to wish I owned a tank…

Which, funnily enough, is also right outside the NCA office; you would think that they could have identified this problem as well…

Samuel Gordon-Stewart4:10 pm 23 Sep 05

I’m in no way qualified to make a judgement here, but if the events unfolded in the way you describe bonfire then I would consider you to be in the right.

well picked up, you pass.

My mistake…

Mael don’t you get it?

RIGHT LEFT RIGHT on Australian roads. On account of the cars you’re most likely to encounter first will be coming from your right hand side because we drive on the left of the road.

Your poor children.

Apply the Amber rule (opposed to it’s enactment).

If you are already committed to driving through the obstacle (the zebra xing), and cannot stop on time, keep going.

It’s a pedestrian responsibility to look L then R then L again, as taught by most kindergardens except those in China, and the teaching is if it’s not safe, DONT CROSS.

It’s also a legal requirement to stop if you are able, so it’s basically up to the interpretation of the policeman on the scene.

That said, if you approach a zebra xing and there’s a pedestrian waiting on the side of the road and there’s a copper behind you, I don’t fancy your chances of getting away with going through the xing first.

Ah SBN you got there before me…

Here’s the road rules handbook (relevant section is on p10 of the pdf)

if it was a normal two lane road, with a zebra crossing i would have stopped. but its a wide road, and the divide in the middle is wide too.

i could have stopped ON the crossing as i wasnt going more than about 5 -10 KPH at that stage.

perhaps ssantas advice is the right advice.

swissbignose3:30 pm 23 Sep 05

Tried to put a link in there, but it didn’t quite work.

swissbignose3:29 pm 23 Sep 05

The state “Motorists must give way to pedestrians on a marked pedestrian crossing, if there is a reasonable possibility of a collision.”

If you were past before said individual was on the medium strip, I’d say that you were in the right.

You should have jammed on the handbrake, slapped it into reverse and ran that individual over for the having audacity to call you an arsehole. then gone to to the pub and told your mates about it, thats the Australian way

This is actually just across the road from where you work bulldog. I try to time my walking across the road so that it doesn’t coincide with the drag race up from the traffic lights on King Edward Tce.

Ralph, natural selection at work; it’s survival of the fittest mate and you can use this to your advantage. I would start hanging around with unfit, older or disabled colleagues when crossing the street. Try and make sure it’s no-one you actually like though… Oh, and it’s a bonus if it creates employment oppurtunities for you.

This type of behaviour regularly happens at the crossing outside my work. There are two lanes on each side of the road, and people scream through whichever lane is empty while people are halfway across either side of the road. Somebody is going to get killed. Other people toot impatiently if the car in front of them doesn’t take off when the lane is completely clear.

Arsehole or not, I think the law is pretty clear that as soon as a pedestrian enters a crossing a vehicle has to give way. That is regardless of which lane the pedestrian enters.

That being said, if everyone waited the required time at a stop sign and parked up at every pedestrian crossing we wouldn’t get anywhere and would be forced to develop an alternative means of transport such as light rail or jet-packs.

Personally I think the latter is more likely to happen…

I am not sure what the rules are exactly, but I tend to stop as soon as they step on to the crossing, just to be safe. but that’s just me. And it stems more from my sister having been hit on a zebra crossing when we were kids than anything else, so it’s a personal thing for me.

he he, that’s funny bonfire. (what you said about me, not the abuse thing)

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