Peds!

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  • ^ Oh yes.

  • Timely thread resurrection.

    Wondering if anyone else has noticed that peds have got far more jittery at pedestrian crossings (both Zebra and light-controlled) in the last year or so? Way more hesitant to step out into the road.

    My guess is that they just don't trust that every vehicle is actually going to stop which is a sad indictment of vehicular behaviour.

  • Thought it's always the case, they assumed that motorised vehicles always have right of way.

  • I think a lot of them know perfectly well that vehicles don't have right of way at a zebra or at a signalled crossing, but they've been buzzed by selfish, impatient twats too many times to feel confident in their priority. They're often very puzzled when I give them the nod to cross as I approach.

  • My point/question was more about it having got a lot worse specifically in the last year.

  • Wondering if anyone else has noticed that peds have got far more jittery at pedestrian crossings (both Zebra and light-controlled) in the last year or so? Way more hesitant to step out into the road.

    My guess is that they just don't trust that every vehicle is actually going to stop which is a sad indictment of vehicular behaviour.

    That is a good thing!

    They shouldn't just wander into the road thinking their fucking iCunt is a force-field.

  • I guess I'm not describing it well enough.

    No iCunts involved.

    This isn't people being a little bit sceptical (which is good). I'm not advocating people just launch themselves out into the road (although there should be enough anticipation by the road users for this to be possible), this is people genuinely feeling afraid to cross despite having a green man at a light controlled crossing. Fear of the all too frequent RLJers (or the ELF) - motons and bikes.

  • I've noticed it over the last couple of years, yeah. But longer ago I was generally safe nodding them across the road without some tosser speeding past me and taking them out. I've noticed a lot more of that kind of behaviour recently.

  • Easily the worse place is where my commute in takes me over Lambeth Bridge, left onto Fulham Palace Road and past St Thomas's.

    If I was quicker off the lights at the end of Lambeth Bridge I could be taken out by RLJing cars/lorries a good 2/5 times.

    I've often seen peds miss the entire green man crossing signal at the lights outside Lambeth Palace as they're watching lorries, cars and bikes RLJ a good 5-10 seconds after it's gone red.

    Separate to this; no-one seems to use either of the two light-controlled crossings outside St Thomas's on LPR. It's a free for all on where to cross anywhere along that section.

    The other crossing with (quite rightly) scared peds is in Parson's Green right by the junction of NKR and Peterborough Road. I've seen people be 3/4 of the way across and having to jump back for some twat (both cars and bikes) not stopping.

  • 20k of my commute is basically people stepping onto the road or cars left hooking me, every fucking day.

    And it's still better than the Tube. Ha!

  • As much as I'd like to be part of this 'peds / buses / take your pick are wankers' brigade, I can't do it. Maybe the commute route I'm on happens to be a particularly good one...although given that it's right through the middle of Kings Cross and down Farringdon Rd, I don't think that's it. It's so rare that I come across the 'others' being fools...in fact, I typically get so much more angry at my fellow cycling folk.

    The chronic splurge of frustration I see against non-cyclists here makes me think either i) maybe I've just been lucky so far and my time will surely come, or ii) maybe there are some really bad cyclists posting who just lack basic perception skills.

    Cue assault.

  • As much as I'd like to be part of this 'peds / buses / take your pick are wankers' brigade, I can't do it. Maybe the commute route I'm on happens to be a particularly good one...although given that it's right through the middle of Kings Cross and down Farringdon Rd, I don't think that's it. It's so rare that I come across the 'others' being fools...in fact, I typically get so much more angry at my fellow cycling folk.

    The chronic splurge of frustration I see against non-cyclists here makes me think either i) maybe I've just been lucky so far and my time will surely come, or ii) maybe there are some really bad cyclists posting who just lack basic perception skills.

    Cue assault.

    I will go with time will come. For me the most dangerous thing for buses is them pulling out from bus stops as I pass on the right without them indicating, have seen a number of crashes with cars from this so it's not just me. With peds it's usually the opinion that I'm not a car so not traffic so just step out, bike lanes are narrow so just go around the random peds ect. The other is that the advanced stop box is an extension of the crossing for peds as cars aren't in it so you go to use the filler to pass the stopped car and bam someone who is in a hurry has decided to walk along the cars bumper. Lastly obligatory mention of car doors.

  • As much as I'd like to be part of this 'peds / buses / take your pick are wankers' brigade, I can't do it. Maybe the commute route I'm on happens to be a particularly good one...although given that it's right through the middle of Kings Cross and down Farringdon Rd, I don't think that's it. It's so rare that I come across the 'others' being fools...in fact, I typically get so much more angry at my fellow cycling folk.

    The chronic splurge of frustration I see against non-cyclists here makes me think either i) maybe I've just been lucky so far and my time will surely come, or ii) maybe there are some really bad cyclists posting who just lack basic perception skills.

    Cue assault.

    I commute through Kings Cross and Farringdon Road every day and the peds there all wait patiently by the side of the roads and never leap out in front of traffic. Ever. The cyclists round there are also uncommonly well-behaved, probably because the complexity of the six lane one-way hellscape road layout discourages bad behaviour.

    Your time may never come, and you'll have to commute in some very different places to see it. I recommend Oxford Street or the City for you to perform your experiments.

  • The other problem is that the timing is far too short to cross the road, by the time you got halfway across the road, it turn red.

  • I commute through Kings Cross and Farringdon Road every day and the peds there all wait patiently by the side of the roads and never leap out in front of traffic. Ever.

    I'll assume that's some kind of sarcasm because the stream of peds ignoring the lights and running straight across Euston Rd towards Kings X station every night is not a figment of my imagination.

  • Time of day is an important variable.

    My commute home (SE1 to SW15 along Chelsea Embankment, New King's Road, Putney Bridge) is fine when I leave just before 5.30pm. It's hideous if I leave at 6.30pm. Different (more aggressive) mentality from bikes, motons and peds.

  • Yeah, I get up before 7am if I can help it to avoid the same shower of shit around Ealing and then in town. At 8, it's dodge the school run mums and tubengers with faces stuck in newspapers plowing through the cars.

  • I'll assume that's some kind of sarcasm because the stream of peds ignoring the lights and running straight across Euston Rd towards Kings X station every night is not a figment of my imagination.

    It's never happened to me*, ergo you must be a terrible cyclist.

    LOGIC!

    • I don't go along Euston Road which is the real reason
  • As much as I'd like to be part of this 'peds / buses / take your pick are wankers' brigade, I can't do it. Maybe the commute route I'm on happens to be a particularly good one...although given that it's right through the middle of Kings Cross and down Farringdon Rd, I don't think that's it. It's so rare that I come across the 'others' being fools...in fact, I typically get so much more angry at my fellow cycling folk.

    Come and experience South London, where ambling dazedly around in the middle of the road is one of our great traditions.

    A plumber nearly managed to impale me on some of his copper piping the other day.

  • Make your mind up, plumber or copper?

  • Come and experience South London, where ambling dazedly around in the middle of the road is one of our great traditions.

    A plumber nearly managed to impale me on some of his copper piping the other day.

    Damn, you got there first! Couldn't agree more - take a ride from Vauxhall, through to Camberwell, Peckham and onto New Cross and Deptford. If you dont end up with at least seven puzzled S/SE residents splayed over your handbars and a tangle of weave in your cog then you are a liar and will burn in hell.

  • This isn't people being a little bit sceptical (which is good). I'm not advocating people just launch themselves out into the road (although there should be enough anticipation by the road users for this to be possible), this is people genuinely feeling afraid to cross despite having a green man at a light controlled crossing. Fear of the all too frequent RLJers (or the ELF) - motons and bikes.

    I think the introduction of the countdown light has something to do with this - you get used to waiting to see if a driver's actually going to stop at the zebra crossing, but the countdown really brings home the GET OUT OF THE ROAD NOW thing, and you can see drivers getting twitchy to go, like it's an F1 countdown or something.

    On a happier note, I was stopped at a light, watching a mum cross with her kid. He only had little legs so the countdown started while they were still crossing. They both started counting down out loud and high-fived when they got to the other side before zero. Numeracy and road safety! You win, fun mum!

  • Don't forget that it's 6 second shorter to cross the road now.

    Thank Boris, smoothing the traffic flow indeed.

    Plans to tell pedestrians how much time they have to cross the road to encourage them to walk faster at crossings have been put forward to help ease traffic congestion.

    Under the new proposals, traffic lights would have a countdown system which tells walkers when the light will change and crossing time could be reduced by as much as six seconds.

    It is hoped that pedestrians will either speed up when they see that time is running out or wait at the kerb until the green man appears again.

    The changes are part of an attempt to reduce the amount of time traffic has to wait at red lights.

    The idea has been put forward for approval to the Department of Transport by Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, to increase the flow of traffic in the capital.

    That was in 2009, the elderly are already fucked.

  • It is hoped that pedestrians will either speed up when they see that time is running out or wait at the kerb until the green man appears again.

    The changes are part of an attempt to reduce the amount of time traffic has to wait at red lights.

    In the Netherlands there's a countdown timer at a lot of crossings, but it's counting down how much time you have left to wait until the pedestrian light goes green. You're less likely to try and cross in a gap between traffic if you can see that's it's about to be your turn. This is basically the opposite of that - and it's a ridiculously hostile way to treat people in a city.

  • Don't forget that it's 6 second shorter to cross the road now.

    Thank Boris, smoothing the traffic flow indeed.

    That was in 2009, the elderly are already fucked.

    There is no rush - wait until the next green man.

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Peds!

Posted by Avatar for socialamnesia @socialamnesia

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