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The law in the UK has just changed to explicitly give priority to pedestrians already crossing the road, particularly in the context of a car turning off a main

by dm319 3y ago

The law in the UK has just changed to explicitly give priority to pedestrians already crossing the road, particularly in the context of a car turning off a main road and finding pedestrians crossing the road.

wongarsu 3y ago
In Germany pedestrians also always have priority over turning cars when crossing at an intersection, no matter if there is a pedestrian crossing or not.
- aidenn0 3y ago
  This is also true in many parts of the US, including California.
  - nthngtshr 3y ago
    Genuinely curious — is there some jurisdiction where the law is "if the pedestrian is in the wrong it's fine to go over them"?
    - aidenn0 3y ago
      I was interpreting GP as talking about "who is supposed to go first" not "Can I run them over intentionally." The latter is not allowed anywhere in the US. However, I have seen cops giving a pedestrian a ticket for crossing right next to a giant "No Crossing" sign as they were being loaded into an ambulance. At that particular section of the street the assumption was that the driver did not intentionally hit the pedestrian as there was a blind corner. Also, I don't know if you saw the footage from a few years back of the self-driving-car hitting the pedestrian in Arizona while the safety driver was on their phone? Without the dash-cam, the driver likely would not have been found at fault, as the cops are likely to believe a driver that says they didn't see a pedestrian crossing in the dark at night until too late.
      - nthngtshr 3y ago
        ah, fair point
    - brewdad 3y ago
      I really wanted to test this idea last weekend at a crowded festival in a town center. I had been waiting for a spot since parking was basically impossible to find. As I was halfway into the spot, a woman ran up and placed herself an inch from my front bumper while calling her friend four blocks away to tell them she had a spot. I was still blocking the travel lane partially and she refused to move even when I closed that inch down to mere millimeters. I may have even tapped her slightly. If I hadn't been 1500 miles from home I would have gladly continued moving forward at idle speed or just left my car where it was and gone on my way but any legal hassles would have been extra painful having to travel back and fight it. As it was after about 5 minutes of this, a spot opened up two spaces over and I was able to slide over and grab it.
      - aidenn0 3y ago
        Crosswalks near High Schools tend to be rather bad as well; the other day I saw a teenager start crossing (walking, not running) when there were 3 seconds left on the countdown. Then one of her friends called out to her from behind while she was in the middle of a travel lane that, by this point, has a green light. She stops, turns, and has a good 15s of back-and-forth conversation before completing walking across the street.
scoot 3y ago
Good luck finding a UK driver that knows this, or even a pedestrian! I've had people shout at me for legally crossing a junction while the driver of a vehicle decided I was at fault, because... vehicular mass?
- ultrarunner 3y ago
  I had a woman literally skid to a stop in front of me to tell me I was running on the “wrong” side of the road. I was running against traffic, and she came from behind, which means that yes, she was actually on the wrong side of the road while delivering her belligerent explanation. Doesn’t have to make sense, I guess.
Eavolution 3y ago
Pedantic but thats GB, not the UK. NI's highway code is slightly different and didn't introduce that.
julian_t 3y ago
I'm regularly finding that people don't seem to understand the "already crossing the road" part. On several occasions I've had people start to cross a few feet in front of me when I'm indicating and have already started turning, causing me to stand on the brakes and risk a shunt from the car behind.
- gilbertbw 3y ago
  The Highway code states that those waiting to cross also have right of way > At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/introduction#ruleh2 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/introduction#ru...
tremon 3y ago
In NL (IIRC, it's been twenty years since I've had to learn the laws of the road): crossing pedestrians on city streets have priority over cars, except within 30 meters of a crosswalk. The rationale being, if a crosswalk is that close a pedestrian can reasonably be expected to detour and take the official path. However, elderly people/people with disabilities have priority everywhere. In the case you're describing, a car turning off a main road encountering crossing pedestrians, isn't considered a special case in NL: straight traffic always has priority over turning traffic, and if a car encounters pedestrians while turning that implies the pedestrians were going straight ahead so they already had priority by default.

by dm319 3y ago

wongarsu 3y ago

In Germany pedestrians also always have priority over turning cars when crossing at an intersection, no matter if there is a pedestrian crossing or not.

aidenn0 3y ago
This is also true in many parts of the US, including California.
- nthngtshr 3y ago
  Genuinely curious — is there some jurisdiction where the law is "if the pedestrian is in the wrong it's fine to go over them"?
  - aidenn0 3y ago
    I was interpreting GP as talking about "who is supposed to go first" not "Can I run them over intentionally." The latter is not allowed anywhere in the US. However, I have seen cops giving a pedestrian a ticket for crossing right next to a giant "No Crossing" sign as they were being loaded into an ambulance. At that particular section of the street the assumption was that the driver did not intentionally hit the pedestrian as there was a blind corner. Also, I don't know if you saw the footage from a few years back of the self-driving-car hitting the pedestrian in Arizona while the safety driver was on their phone? Without the dash-cam, the driver likely would not have been found at fault, as the cops are likely to believe a driver that says they didn't see a pedestrian crossing in the dark at night until too late.
    - nthngtshr 3y ago
      ah, fair point
  - brewdad 3y ago
    I really wanted to test this idea last weekend at a crowded festival in a town center. I had been waiting for a spot since parking was basically impossible to find. As I was halfway into the spot, a woman ran up and placed herself an inch from my front bumper while calling her friend four blocks away to tell them she had a spot. I was still blocking the travel lane partially and she refused to move even when I closed that inch down to mere millimeters. I may have even tapped her slightly. If I hadn't been 1500 miles from home I would have gladly continued moving forward at idle speed or just left my car where it was and gone on my way but any legal hassles would have been extra painful having to travel back and fight it. As it was after about 5 minutes of this, a spot opened up two spaces over and I was able to slide over and grab it.
    - aidenn0 3y ago
      Crosswalks near High Schools tend to be rather bad as well; the other day I saw a teenager start crossing (walking, not running) when there were 3 seconds left on the countdown. Then one of her friends called out to her from behind while she was in the middle of a travel lane that, by this point, has a green light. She stops, turns, and has a good 15s of back-and-forth conversation before completing walking across the street.

scoot 3y ago

Good luck finding a UK driver that knows this, or even a pedestrian! I've had people shout at me for legally crossing a junction while the driver of a vehicle decided I was at fault, because... vehicular mass?

ultrarunner 3y ago
I had a woman literally skid to a stop in front of me to tell me I was running on the “wrong” side of the road. I was running against traffic, and she came from behind, which means that yes, she was actually on the wrong side of the road while delivering her belligerent explanation. Doesn’t have to make sense, I guess.

Eavolution 3y ago

Pedantic but thats GB, not the UK. NI's highway code is slightly different and didn't introduce that.

julian_t 3y ago

I'm regularly finding that people don't seem to understand the "already crossing the road" part. On several occasions I've had people start to cross a few feet in front of me when I'm indicating and have already started turning, causing me to stand on the brakes and risk a shunt from the car behind.

gilbertbw 3y ago
The Highway code states that those waiting to cross also have right of way > At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/introduction#ruleh2 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-highway-code/introduction#ru...

tremon 3y ago

In NL (IIRC, it's been twenty years since I've had to learn the laws of the road): crossing pedestrians on city streets have priority over cars, except within 30 meters of a crosswalk. The rationale being, if a crosswalk is that close a pedestrian can reasonably be expected to detour and take the official path. However, elderly people/people with disabilities have priority everywhere. In the case you're describing, a car turning off a main road encountering crossing pedestrians, isn't considered a special case in NL: straight traffic always has priority over turning traffic, and if a car encounters pedestrians while turning that implies the pedestrians were going straight ahead so they already had priority by default.