Zebra 'Death' Crossings in Canberra

Ahh, I meant no excuse for them not stopping for me.

I’ve crossed roads in many countries, cities and villages and have to say Canberra isn’t that bad. In Rome I used to collect pine cone for road crossings. I used to wait for a gap in the traffic at the crossing, start to cross, and hurl the pine cone at anything that looked like it wasn’t going to stop. It was so effective the locals started doing it as well.
In Paris cars stop for red lights. I used those crossings with red lights.
In Vietnam cars didn’t bother to stop for anything and red lights were routinely ignored. It was small wonder I saw three accidents there, two of them badly fatal to the point I still can picture them today.
So far I’ve not been hit by a car at a crossing. I had one very close call once in Sydney. I made the point of punching the car’s side window as hard as I could as they went over one of my shoes, just missing my toes. They had plenty of vision, I wasn’t moving fast. There was no excuse for them not stopping me.
I do avoid those Canberra Centre pedestrian crossings when driving though. You can be there for many minutes. I’m patient though, and wait till there really is a good gap before crossing. I’m literally never in a hurry to get anywhere.
To the OP, my suggestion is to carry an open coffee or milk with you as you cross. Pour it over the windscreen as they shoot past. It’ll end up in the air con and stink the car up. If there’s no close call you can then drink it and be on your merry way.

Grail said :

In France: avoid eye contact, dash out onto road. Driver, being competent and alert for threats will stop to let you cross without getting any scratches on their paintwork.

That’s so far from my experience in Paris it’s not funny!

In Paris, don’t even think of walking out onto a crossing. You first need to stop and let the foot traffic start to number up. Then wait for a gap in traffic before cautiously stepping out. At this point some cars will still continue through the crossing without a thought, but hopefully the large number of people will cause them to stop. Crossings there are merely a suggestion.

I would never drive in that city. Absoloutely insane.

Kalfour said :

Bosworth said :

This is almost certainly the fault of cyclists.

Um… what is? You might want to be more specific.

Everything! It’s always their fault.

Jivrashia said :

Dangers around zebra crossing aren’t easy to police, because road rules related to it are vague (don’t think it even comes under negligent driving).

Incorrect. There are 21 offences relating to pedestrian crossings which can be issued via a traffic infringement, such as:
– approach pedestrian crossing too quickly to stop safely $273/3 points
– not give way to pedestrian on pedestrian crossing $273/3 points

Some of them are also offences for the pedestrian, eg:
– stay on crossing longer than necessary $67

TAMS should use the speed humps such as those on Macpherson St O’Connor near pedestrian crossings to slow traffic down.

Bosworth said :

This is almost certainly the fault of cyclists.

Um… what is? You might want to be more specific.

Maybe a combined speed hump/pedestrian crossing is what’s needed?

The ones on Kosciuszco Ave where it intersects with Gungahlin Dr at Palmerson is bad. Lot’s of drivers turning left into Kosciuszco Ave from Gungahlin Dr don’t look for pedestrians they instead look for other cars instead. I’ve had several near misses as well as witnessed a number of others. The other pedestrian crossing down the road at Gundaroo Dr/Gungahlin Dr is nearly as bad.

I agree there are too many of drivers who don’t give way to pedestrians, in a hurry, arrogant, talking on the phone or to passengers, texting, playing with stereo, or eating.

One the other hand I have witnessed a lot of pedestrians walk straight out onto a zebra crossing without even glancing up to see if there are any cars are heading towards them.

More care and less haste from both is needed.

It’s not a zebra crossing, but I’ve had one accident and some near misses on the slip lane from Ellenborough onto Ginninderra in Lyneham.

Dear motorists: the red light means you must stop your f@#$ing car! And for those of you who are mentally deficient (most), only having two wheels in the bike lane does not make your Falcon a bicycle. That corner is wide, use your own damned lane.

When at the mall I always take a shopping trolley with me across the pedestrian crossings. That makes cars stop.

The 4 crossings outside Belconnen mall are shockers. I nearly got hit by person in a hummer there who decided to take off when I was a quarter of a way across. I sure would have sure loved to have dented that bonnet.

A few years back picking a friend up I too had a near miss with my at the time 8 year old daughter at the airport and we waited, looked and then started to cross with several others, then out of nowhere at taxi comes screaming through at speed a lady walking behind us yelled stop and at the last second I grabbed my daughter’s hood to pull her clear from the taxi which clipped the bag I was carrying causing me to stumble as it was on my back, If the lady haven’t of yelled my daughter would of been collected along with others more than likely, From that day she is still very cautious well using zebra crossing….

My experience in Europe was as follows:

In the UK: establish eye contact with driver, move towards road. Driver, being a polite and civil person, will stop to let you cross.

If you fail to establish eye contact, the driver has no indication that you are about to cross and an accident is likely to happen, which will of course lead to a lot of, “Terribly sorry old chap” and “these things happen to the best of us”

In France: avoid eye contact, dash out onto road. Driver, being competent and alert for threats will stop to let you cross without getting any scratches on their paintwork.

If you establish eye contact, you have indicated to the driver that you have seen them and it is safe for the car to proceed through the crossing. Do not establish eye contact and the start to cross, unless you fancy having an argument in French about arrogant English bastards who don’t know how to use pedestrian crossings.

In Australia: establish eye contact, or don’t. Regardless, the driver will stop or they won’t. This is the price we pay for living in this multicultural society.

Classified said :

This is the sort of issue I’d love to see police targeting from time to time.

I’d think they are more interested in people going in contrary to the “No Left Turn” sign because every time someone does… *kching!*. Simple, and quick.

Dangers around zebra crossing aren’t easy to police, because road rules related to it are vague (don’t think it even comes under negligent driving).

If it’s that dangerous I’d suggest a petition to simply block off that part of the intersection and force cars through the traffic lights. And throw in a “Left turn permitted on red after stopping” to keep everyone happy.

And, the other dangerous zebra crossing in Inner North: corner of Ginninderra Drv and Mouat St. That thrill of hitting 80km causes lapse in better judgement in some drivers such that they ignore the red traffic light (almost got taken out once even though the lights where in my favour).

This is almost certainly the fault of cyclists.

INFP said :

its not a self righteous behaviour on our part. crossings have road rules. to avoid confusion and accidents, people need to mutually follow these rules. its not a matter of ego battle :\

accepted – but I have found those that give no indication of intent to use the crossing and step without looking, or taking any notice of the world around them. As a driver I prepare to stop on the assumption that Darwinian behaviour to improve the species may be imminent

as a cyclist I take the view the waiting cars would prefer me to get off the crossing faster.

but I sure as hell slow down and check the cars have seen me before crossing.

My pet hate when I’m driving is cyclists zooming out across pedestrian crossings without looking. I have nearly hit a couple over many years of driving (usually where there are bushes close to the road, at night with no lights).

I do not want to start a cyclist hate thread, as I approve of cyclists and know this is not all of them. But it’s the law to get off your bike and walk it across the pedestrian crossing. If there is no cars, then sure sneak across quickly. But check, and if there’s a car, hop off.

This all being said, Canberra drivers (probably me included) are impatient and have an inflated sense of entitlement. I have had a few friends hit by cars in Canberra while they were walking on zebra crossings.

I pretty much always check the cars are stopping before moving out. People make mistakes or bad judgements or are just d**kheads, and I would rather give way to a car and be “wrong” than be in the right, but dead.

To add to the list, the one near the Reserve Bank crossing London Cicuit is pretty bad.

grump said :

surprised no one else has said it but self preservation first – stop and have a good look before stepping out, marked crossing or not – don’t assume or adopt a self righteous “it’s a pedestrian crossing, I’m a pedestrian and I’m going to cross come hell or high water (or vehicle)”. Never assume you’ve been seen or the driver is going to stop….

Of course. I always stop at crossings just in case the drivers dont stop… but sometimes they look like theyre slowing but they carry on through even as you stand there waiting to cross before they got there.

its not a self righteous behaviour on our part. crossings have road rules. to avoid confusion and accidents, people need to mutually follow these rules. its not a matter of ego battle :\

Installing road spikes that shoot out from the ground when the pedestrian hits the button (yes install one at a zebra crossing too) would be cool lol.

Drivers would HAVE to stop… until the pedestrian hits the ‘deactivate button’ for the spikes at the end of the crossing… hmmm

is that even feasible? i also have had near misses with not just cars but BUSES not stopping.

motherf***ers. I WANT ROAD SPIKES!

on many occasions, Taxi was had clear vision and plenty of time, just gave a ‘sorry wave’ as flew by. Canberra Centre crossing, 4WD deliberately failed to stop for me, I would have been hit had I not stopped, then observed doing the same at next crossing, and finally the distracted mobile phone chatting driver who fails to see the crossing or people at all…

surprised no one else has said it but self preservation first – stop and have a good look before stepping out, marked crossing or not – don’t assume or adopt a self righteous “it’s a pedestrian crossing, I’m a pedestrian and I’m going to cross come hell or high water (or vehicle)”. Never assume you’ve been seen or the driver is going to stop….

Canberra drivers are terrible and impatient. They think a 30 minute car ride home is sssooo long. Try peak hour in one of the other capital cities where 3 hours is just as good. The one at Dickson between McDonald’s and KFC is a bad one. People just can’t wait to get in and out of Woolworths, it’s not like it’s not open until 12.

a taxi missed me by centimeters on the corner of cooyong and northborne.

Could be worse …
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/funny-videos/2011/07/20

Classified said :

This is the sort of issue I’d love to see police targeting from time to time.

+1

There are a couple of zebra crossings in my neighbourhood that have poor lighting. At night, a driver really can’t see if there are pedestrians at the side of the road.
But for everywhere else, there’s no such excuse.

I’ve been almost hit several times.

One time, a driver stopped ON the crossing because there was a car stopped in front of him. A bit rude, but the pedestrians just carried on walking around his car. Then, the stupid driver decided that he had to REVERSE off the crossing, despite the fact that there were several people walking BEHIND his car.

I hit his car with my umbrella.

Maybe we have so many street signs that drivers start to tune them out entirely.

Still, Canberra is not a big city. There isn’t (relative to other cities) THAT much traffic to deal with. You can easily get from one side of Canberra to the other in under an hour. Canberra drivers really have no excuse for being so stupid and inconsiderate.

I may be biased but having grown up in Europe I find that most drivers here are very good at stopping for people at crossings. I was so surprised when I first arrived to see people walking out on to crossings without throughly checking first and waiting to see the cars were actually going to stop. In my previous experience that behaviour would have been insane.

I think there are bad drivers everywhere. I am generally more worried about the ease with which the majority of Canberra drivers tailgate so closely and are unprepared for the cars they are tailgating having to slow down suddenly.

This is the sort of issue I’d love to see police targeting from time to time.

Have to agree with Hosinator…enough signs around now that are ignored…extra signs make no difference.

Having said that, the ‘turn left’ slip lanes on the Curtin overpass @ Yamba Drive are really dangerous. My solution is to wait until no cars about before using the Zebra Crossings…I won’t win in an encounter with a car

My standard practice is to hit or kick the car as it goes past after failing to yield. I was nearly run down by a red cross blood donor van on the crossing near the Uni pub last year..

Zebra crossings and red lights now seem to be optional places to stop these days.

Hosinator you’re right, unless there was a thousand LED’s lighting up the crossing, all signs would be ignored.

Speaking of lighting, I nearly did this once – I scared a kid on a bike. To my defence he was sort of behind a bush and it was nearly dark – could have been a bit better lit where he was. No excuse becasue I was going a bit too fast – but scared me and I have never done it again.

Yep. In 1977. Outside the Dickson Library. But it took a couple of us to bounce off the front of bonnets before the zebra crossing was replaced with lights.

Near where I work there’s a zebra crossing and cars park criminally (or rather, misdemeanourly) close to the crossing. This means that pedestrians are shielded from view of approaching cars. A couple of weeks ago I nearly had a second bonnet bounce when a car came ploughing through the crossing without slowing down. Luckily, my earlier accident means I’m a little wary around zebra crossings and gauge a car’s speed and its likelihood of stopping. (Without stopping altogether at the side of a zebra crossing, because that’s just bloody annoying.)

Seeing these cars get pinged for parking too close to a zebra crossing is one of the only times I’ll cheer for the brown bombers and their yellow envelopes.

Signing is not the issue. The issue are motorists not heeding the signs that are currently in place and attempting to save time by driving through as fast as they can after only a cursory glance to see if there is someone about to use the crossing, or using the crossing.

Better driver training, less cars on the road and a shift in driving attitudes in Canberra would go some way to solving the issue.

I was walking across the one under Canberra Centre (the one without the crossing lights) about two weeks ago and almost got cleaned up. A car waited for me, so I went, as did a lady coming from the other side towards me. Almost half way across the idiot in the car decided he wanted to go after all and floored it, he missed me and the other lady by an inch. I however, had been shopping at the Borders closing sale, and had a big bag full of books which I swung up as zoomed past, and bashed his door. I hope I dented it.

Yes this “happens” to me too, people in cars think they are ‘quick’ or ‘in a hurry’ so its ok to disregard that I am either nearly on or actually on the crossing.

Although I do have to say that some cars see you and give you plenty of space so thanks to those good folks.