Knocked down a pedestrian today.

[Origamist]

It isn't exactly true that peds have right of way at a junction if you are turning into their steet. What the Highway Code actually says is:

'watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way'.

Thus it is only if they have started to cross. This means is that if they look and see you coming they should not start to go. Clearly you have got to give way once they step without looking, but the key point is that they shouldn't be there if they are a competent road user & bothered to look.

If you ride a bike or drive a car you should anticipate pedestrians crossing side roads (whether they've looked or not) as they have priority when they start to cross - therefore, ride/drive defensively and give way if they are about to cross the road.

 

[hackbike 6]

If you ride a bike or drive a car you should anticipate pedestrians crossing side roads (whether they've looked or not) as they have priority when they start to cross - therefore, ride/drive defensively and give way if they are about to cross the road.

Yes as I have to take responsibility (because they won't) I will go with this statement.

 

[ferret fur]

Er.. I'm not arguing that you don't have to anticipate a pedestrian wandering into the road at a junction. All I'm saying is that they do not actually have the right to step into the road to stop you. They should, according to the Highway Code, check to see if there is any traffic approaching before diving off the pavement. You don't need to give way: You are at perfectly at liberty to warn them of your presence so that they don't step out. If you collide with them, it's your fault in the sense you didn't anticipate their behavoiur, pretty much as it is in any incident when you could have anticipated a problem.

 

[hackbike 6]

Hmmmmm I wasn't arguing but I see there is a *big* problem here and I don't particularly want another incident whether the ped was in the wrong or not.

 

[alicat]

One way to avoid another incident might have been to use observation skills and treat the ped as if she were a small child or dog liable to do something erratic. If you had been further away from the pavement it wouldn't have mattered if she had stepped off the pavement.

 

[swee'pea99]

One way to avoid another incident might have been to use observation skills and treat the ped as if she were a small child or dog liable to do something erratic.

Good general tip, methinks: Don't think ped, think pet! Ie, treat everyone as tho' they had the brains of a domestic animal and were just as likely to do something totally unpredictable and....wait for it, wait for it....barking.

 

[hackbike 6]

Yeah I think I know that by now.

Sometimes it's dodgy especially when they are sneaking through traffic.

 

[dondare]

pedestrians nearly have right of way when you're turning into a side road, you're certainly supposed to make sure it's clear before turning in

Nearly?

 

[skwerl]

One way to avoid another incident might have been to use observation skills and treat the ped as if she were a small child or dog liable to do something erratic. If you had been further away from the pavement it wouldn't have mattered if she had stepped off the pavement.

No matter what, you can't be prepared for every eventuality, especially if you're in a busy town.
Back in the summer I was riding down a traffic-free strech of Charing Cross road when a woman stepped out to cross the road ahead of me. She didn't look, just stepped into the road. Worst thing is she pushed her daughter out in front of her as a kind of human lollipop. Her head was exactly the height of my bars. If I'd hit her it could well have killed her. I could have been on a motorbike or in a car. She had no clue what was coming.
Needless to say, as I started to point out what a muppet she'd been I got told to "f**k off"

 

[swee'pea99]

Natural selection just isn't working hard enough for my liking...

 

[hackbike 6]

Needless to say, as I started to point out what a muppet she'd been I got told to "f**k off"

I had a girl run in front of my train once at St Margarets near Twickenham,when I told her how stupid she was I got told the exact same thing.

 

[dondare]

Guess who wrote this:

"Yesterday, while driving into my local town, a mother was walking down the pavement with a little girl of three or four. Normally I’d have slowed and covered the brake in case the toddler leapt into the road, but after my South African experience, I damn nearly stopped.

And I can’t tell you how that felt when, moments later, the little girl did indeed run into the road. That dead biker, then, 6,000 miles away in Johannesburg, had unwittingly saved the life of a little girl in England. "

 

[hackbike 6]

Bent Mikey?

 

[dondare]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article1461588.ece

If Clarkson in a car can slow to a crawl on the offchance that a ped might run into the road, then I reckon that I can on my bike; and so can anyone else.

 

[dondare]

Having said that I've been hit broadside a couple of times by peds running into me in the road, and once (long time ago) I knocked a little old lady over outside the Houses of Parliament. I was filtering, she was crossing, I braked sharply, went over the handlebars and damn' nearly over her, but just clipped her in mid-flight and she toppled. These days I filter much more slowly.