I dread driving down Mosside Road in Shawlands: 2 sets of lights and kamikaze pedestrians who don't look but just launch themselves across the road between the lights. Happened again today. Then I had to come to a complete halt in Elderpark Street in Govan as a woman walked very slowly across the road in front of me. She never even looked round. Langlands Road is just as bad in term time: 2 schools with manned crossings which are ignored as parents and grandparents run the kids across the road between the crossings.
I'm not a fan of the German approach to jay-walking or the French approach to on-the-spot fines but just occasionally I wish we could try these out. Maybe taking a tenner or 20 quid off people for suicidal crossing might improve behaviour. What's the point in schools doing their bits teaching kids to look both ways before crossing etc if their parents and grandparents ignore the rules - which only exist for their own safety?
I once stopped to help when a pedestrian walked out in front of a van in Paisley Road West just at the Halfway. The pedestrian was bruised but ok. The van driver was distraught, physically sick in fact - and was facing a long evening at the nearby police station giving a statement and then more time explaining to his boss, not to mention his family. I'm sure the shock stayed with him - it did with me.
Drivers...aarrgghh!!
ReplyDeleteThe other side of the coin is of course how selfish drivers are.
There are those who appear to decide to put their foot down when they see pedestrians about to take their first step onto a level crossing, in order not to have to stop for the minute or so it takes for us to cross; those who speed along Braidholm Road early in the morning or at weekends because the road is empty and why should they go at a speed limit when there's no-one there? Unless some poor sod decides to cross over to the postbox of course.
Worst of all are those drivers who go through red lights because their need to get wherever they're going is so much more important than the pedestrian who is about to cross legally with the 'green man'. A notorious example of this is on our own beloved Fenwick Road, when we're crossing from our side to the Wholefoods side. How many times have drivers nipped round from Braidholm AFTER the lights have changed - I've certainly witnessed it numerous times and once even brought my brolly down on a car in true old lady mode!
I agree entirely: motorists are equally guilty of crazy behaviour. I have occasionally wondered if the people using the carparks at Whole Foods or the station would actually run me down if they could. I would like these motorists to be pursued as hard and fast as crazy pedestrians.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working, the people who worried me most were mothers on their way to drop the kids off or pick them up - always late, often distracted by the kids in the car and driving vehicles too big for them.
The answer I suppose is to have police or traffic wardens everywhere but that's not going to happen so maybe what we're left with - my other gripe of the day: I counted 16 police officers today standing about in wee groups in various parts of the southside not obviously doing anything - is to police wisely.
I completely agree with the point about mothers dropping off their kids. I'm sure that the vast majority break the law by regularly sitting on zig-zag lines and double yellows. These people think themselves to be above the law. At my posh school in Ayr the parents arrive to collect their cherubic little boys and girls sometimes 45 minutes before the bell rings 'to get a decent space' as one parent told me. This generally culminates in a massive traffic jam at the nearby junction as hoards of Mercedes and BMW vehicles jostle for position. The other kids who do that now unthinkable task of walking home are at greater risk of suffering an accident.
ReplyDeleteI think Jean's point was that drivers breaking the law can be fined/charged etc and all the infringements mentioned in the comments are covered by laws and by-laws, but wandering, random pedestrians aren't and perhaps there should be some form of jay-walking fine in our country too.
ReplyDeleteNo group is blameless in the collision stakes but some groups take or are forced to bear more responsibility that others, and I won't comment on cyclists AT ALL!!