Jay walkers

J

Johnny1

Guest
Do these people have a death wish? Drive through any town in Ireland today and some idiot will walk out in front of you, the worst one's are the people that walk across the road without even looking to see if there is a car comming and the idiot's that walk across the road at a 45 degree angle as slowly as possible. There is a one way system in my local town which means that people only have to check oncomming traffic in one direction but they only look in one direction straight ahead. Personally I would rather check for oncomming traffic first because it is better than spending the rest of your life in a wheelchair.
 
Imagine the "fun" one has watching for jaywalkers while motorcycling....with the possibility of coming off second-best if an accident happens (my father was knocked off his motorbike by a pedestrian who was running for the bus several years ago)
 
What about "Jay cyclists"? I was knocked to the ground by a cyclist who came whizzing along and wasn't able to stop even though the lights were red and other traffic was stopped. I could see him coming but he was so fast I couldn't do anything. Luckily no harm was done but cyclists don't seem to obey any/many rules of the road and (some) motor-cyclists behave as if they were on a race track.
 
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The most annoying thing I find these days are the teenagers hanging around in gangs who think its cool to stroll across in front of the car at a very leisurely pace especially when the pals are watching.
 
Cyclists have to watch out for the genius pedestrians who assume that because the cars are stopped in traffic, it must be safe to cross without looking, because there is no other traffic than cars - right? I find that roaring loudly and steering straight towards the pedestrian is fairly effective at preventing reoccurance.
 
When the 'genius' cyclist knocked me down I was on a pedestrian crossing and was walking across a busy city centre road with the green light in my favour. All other traffic had obeyed the rules of the road and stopped - with the exception of the road hog cyclist.

My companion helped me up as I was a bit shocked. Now that I think about it, the cyclist didn't hang about to see that I was OK.
 
Yep - I cringe when I see cyclists tearing or drifting through the traffic lights, but they ain't the only ones that show regular and blatant disregard of the laws.
 
sherib,
I had the pretty much the exact same incident happen me a few years ago except I was on a bike crossing at a pedestrian crossing, lights were red for the cars etc. and a car sailed straight through the lights and hit me. My point I guess is that some of all the categories of road users break the rules of the road, cyclists, drivers and pedestrians.
 
RainyDay said:
I find that roaring loudly and steering straight towards the pedestrian is fairly effective at preventing reoccurance.
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One great advantage of cycling is that it's far easier to mount the footpath in cautionary pursuit, if you spot one of them with that 'will I, won't I?' look in their eye.

Is there a specific term for that class of jaywalker that, when you've pulled over to the side of the road and are trying to reverse into a parking space, suddenly feels impelled to step off into your path at the last moment? They had no intention of crossing the street a few seconds before; it's as though some instinct kicks in and a voice tells them 'Oh, look, there's someone trying to park. Quick, jump in their way...'. They seem to abound in Limerick, for some reason.
 
cars who block predestrian crossings at footpaths just so they can get half their car through the red light. My sister is in a wheelchair and the amount of time she has ended up stuck as there is no room for her to cross the road without going out in front of oncoming traffic is staggering. You point it out to drivers and all they do is shrug like there is nothing they can do. :mad:
 
We have a quite number of "zebra crossings" in my home town and as someone who regularly walks to work I am constantly irked by the bad manners of many motorists who ignore these simple crossings. Quite often I have been crossing when a motorist (often times on their mobile phone) fails to stop or to do so safely. When I drive I like to believe that I practice what I preach and I am always on the lookout for pedestrians at crossings.
 

That really annoys me. What is the point? It's so short sighted of these motorists - ooh, if I block the pedestrian crossing I'll be home a minute earlier.
 
Originally posted by Dowee
My point I guess is that some of all the categories of road users break the rules of the road, cyclists, drivers and pedestrians
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Couldn't agree more. I've had a number of frights while driving due to careless pedestrians ignoring stop signs while walking across the road; and only avoided serious accidents by jumping on the brakes.

As far as I know pedestrians always have the right of way irrespective of the lights? But that's not much good if you're dead or maimed. Except for very busy pedestrian crossings it can be quite a scary experience crossing a busy thoroughfare even when the lights are green. IMO cars that block pedestrian crossings should be given points for the reasons already mentioned. Couldn't this be a role for the new community police force? Laws are pretty well useless without enforcement and there's virtually none on the roads apart from a few speed cameras.

I also think that there's a palpable level of aggression on the part of a lot of motorists that wasn't so obvious in the past.
 
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