Pedestrian Plonker

[GrasB]

The greatest responsibility lies with person controling the greatest danger.
Pedestrians, in themselves, pose little danger and therefore have little responsibility. When pedestrians appear to be a danger it can usually be seen that it is in fact the speed and power of the vehicles that also use the road that are the real cause.

Yes, that is stating the obvious, but the way that cyclists on this forum will refer to peds as plonkers, muppets &c. shows what they really believe.

There are certain things that can be done to limit the problems but if the pedestrian puts someone in an impossible situation then they have to hold responsibility for their actions. There's no point in saying the car driver/cyclist should take complete responsibility for hitting the pedestrian if they step out infront of a vehicle when it's <2m away.

 

[dondare]

This is a bit of rather poor "logic" one sees regularly on forums. A well set up horn won't prevent you from steering and braking and beeping all at the same time. A horn used properly can easily change a certain collision into nothing more than a miss.

So can a well timed "Mind out!"

 

[BentMikey]

Nothing like the sound of a beep can, and a shout works in far fewer instances. People aren't trained to respond to shouts the way they respond to the horn. Let's hope you won't further spread the fallacy of not being able to beep, brake, and steer at the same time.

 

[dondare]

There are certain things that can be done to limit the problems but if the pedestrian puts someone in an impossible situation then they have to hold responsibility for their actions. There's no point in saying the car driver/cyclist should take complete responsibility for hitting the pedestrian if they step out infront of a vehicle when it's <2m away.

Top 20 cycling skills No. 8:- Watch out for pedestrians, they don't just "come from nowhere"

THe ped that steps out in front of you was teetering on the kerb a second before.
This is not always the case; they can emerge like a jack-in-a-box from behind a parked van; so keep well out from the van as you pass by. If there might be peds where you can't see then don't assume that there are none. Or that they will look before leaping.

In "Richard's Bicycle Book" which is a bit like the Old Testament to Franklin's Cyclecraft, Richard Ballantine makes a similar point: "You can't see what's behind the stationary bus? Assume it's a pregnant woman who's about to step out" (from memory, but it was something like that).
And finally, from the patron saint of petrolheads:

"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. "

That's from here http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/jeremy_clarkson/article1461588.ece

took me a while to find it.

 

[dondare]

Nothing like the sound of a beep can, and a shout works in far fewer instances. People aren't trained to respond to shouts the way they respond to the horn. Let's hope you won't further spread the fallacy of not being able to beep, brake, and steer at the same time.

It's probably easier to find somewhere for a horn on your hpv.

 

[dondare]

Nothing like the sound of a beep can, and a shout works in far fewer instances. People aren't trained to respond to shouts the way they respond to the horn. Let's hope you won't further spread the fallacy of not being able to beep, brake, and steer at the same time.

Probably down to practice.

 

[hackbike 666]

It's probably easier to find somewhere for a horn on your hpv.

found it difficult to fix on the fixie.It is on,debut run today.Also when you see a risk the horn can come into play unless it's a sudden tight situation.

 

[Jezston]

Had a girl walk out on me on Friday (haha just realised what that sounded like, it's ok I was already very alone) ... standing at the edge of the kerb, looking the wrong way down the road, I slow down, she steps out in front of me, I shout "careful!", she turns and looks right at me (I'm about 2.5m from her at this point) and keeps walking. She just kept walking straight into a collision. Fortunately I was going slow and managed to get around her with a sharp blast of the airzound. What the ****?

 

[hackbike 666]

Horn was good today...warned a ped at London Bridge in heavy built up traffic and bendy bus...Least she realised I was there after that...It's only a motorbike horn this time on the fixie but good enough so far.Didn't think it was working properly earlier but it was fine today...Also blew it at a fox and he scarpered.Think the push button box needs modifying.

 

[Jaguar]

I'm always getting moaned at for not ringing my bell on the towpath to get around people.

I get abuse for tooting my horn (I took the bell off, nobody could hear it)

 

[Jaguar]

Had a girl walk out on me on Friday ... she steps out in front of me,... just kept walking straight into a collision

That's where your squirty bottle of water comes in handy

 

[py6km]

More natural selection required.

 

[dondare]

More natural selection required.

This is precisely what I'm arguing against. The roads are not a jungle and should be safe enough for fools to use (so long as they aren't the ones piloting the vehicles).

Deaf, blind, inattentive, feeble of mind or body, off with the fairies or just momentarily distracted, all should be able to go about their business without becoming roadkill.

 

[BentMikey]

This is precisely what I'm arguing against. The roads are not a jungle and should be safe enough for fools to use (so long as they aren't the ones piloting the vehicles).

Deaf, blind, inattentive, feeble of mind or body, off with the fairies or just momentarily distracted, all should be able to go about their business without becoming roadkill.

This is very good sense. People, listen to dondare and be more careful around those who are more vulnerable than us.

It's easy to avoid pedestrians - they are predictably unpredictable. Leave more space between you and the kerb, slow down, and lose the impatience. (That last I have difficulty with, btw!)

 

[GrasB]

dondare, yes there is an onus on the road user to look out for the more vulnerable road users. However there is also a responsibility on every road user to them selves & others to act in a reasonable manner on the roads. The responsibility for the vulnerable road users safety certainly shouldn't lay entirely on the shoulders of those who are using a higher risk form of transport.