French zebra crossings

[NickM]

I refer you to John the Monkey's excellent byeline:

"This is the basis of car culture, the idea that the world and all of the world's people are merely in its way."
-- Travis Hugh Culley

There are obviously about as many self-important, impatient, selfish twats of drivers on the Continent as there are here.

 

[mr_cellophane]

I confused a Frenchman once.  I was driving and stuck in a slow moving queue, so I waved him out from a side road.  It took a lot of waving before he moved.  He must have known I was English as I was sitting on the right side.

 

[Crackle]

It used to be optional, but the law changed a few years ago to make it mandatory to stop for pedestrians on crossings.

Nobody pays any attention to that law, as you found out.

Yep! In fact you are better off J-walking, it's much safer. My French colleagues were most amused to see me trying to use one outside their office once. I thought someone was stopping for me but instead they parked right in front of me and across the crossing. I figured then they didn't carry much weight.

 

[yello]

I honestly can't say I'd noticed zebra crossings being treated any differently to the UK... but having just asked my wife, she says she never knows if the car's going to stop! I guess, in my ignorance, I've just been assertive and stepped out - blissfully ignorant to the fact I've been p*ssing drivers off!

 

[slugonabike]

I had problems when I was in Italy with my grandparents (many moons ago). They confidently stepped out into traffic expecting them to cross 'because we're on the crossing', I was 19 at the time and felt very relived to get them home in 1 piece.

Conversely, Mr Slug and I were in Jasper, in Canada, a few years ago. We wanted to cross the road and waited until the solitary vehicle had passed. We couldn't understand why it had stopped and took us a while to realise it was so that we could cross. The poor driver must have been cursing these stooopid tourists .