Practically Classics Forum

What is it about people these days I am used to people walking out in front of the bike, based on the assumption (People like that don't think), that because they can here nothing coming, nothing is coming (I have now got quite a loud electric horn on the bike, as if you ring a bell, people seem to assume you are doing about 5mph). I expect people, who are hard of hearing, make better use of their eyes. I am used to them walking down the middle of country lanes, oblivious to eveything (Some of them even have earphones in ). Today, whilst out in the car, I saw two older women (It seems to afflict all age groups), gassing and they just walked out in front of the car, without even looking (The MGB may not be noisy but it's more noisy than the bike) . It was said that trolley buses were called silent death, as people used to step out without looking and in my younger days, you had to watch people in the Welsh valleys, as cars weren't that common but surely people are used to cars now

Is this sort of thing common or is it a Welsh Valleys thing

It's common all over these days unfortunately. And pedestrians think that cars etc will
stop for them and that the pedestrian has the right of way nomatter what or where they
are!!

Yes I had a good one during the week a woman and her dog waked straight out infront
of me in busy traffic. And although she was in the wrong, the look she gave me was as
if she wanted to kill me! Somebody else yelled at her and said she should look where she
was going and she could get herself killed just walking out into traffic. The abuse she
hurled back at them would make a dock worker blush!! this was a
middle aged womanin fairly decent attire.

Mitsuru wrote:pedestrians think that cars etc will
stop for them and that the pedestrian has the right of way

Funny you should say that, because technically, unless they've managed to stray onto a motorway, then they do have right of way in England & Wales, where there's no such offence as jaywalking. However I can't help thinking that some pedestrians take the Michael. Especially the ones who lie down in the road and smear fake blood all over themselves before arranging their limbs into some form of random pattern around their torso. The smell of burning flesh is most unpleasant and it takes ages to scrape the skin off the various sharp edges under a car, but the way they paint those tyre tracks over their backs is quite clever.

Happens all the time out here in the Middle East - I'm amazed that there aren't more deaths. A combination of lunatic drivers and pedestrians who use the "Insh'allah" (it's as Allah will it) approach to road safety. They're all happy to walk behind a reversing vehicle safe int he knowledge that if they die it will a) be your fault and b) Allah will find them a nice cosy place in heaven. Not to mention the guys who ride push bikes the wrong way down the road at night, with no lights and whilst wearing dark clothing.

I saw a seated pedestrain style cyclist riding up my street last night, with neither a front nor a back light The trouble, with people like that, is that they don't see themselves as road users but worse still, when they are driving cars, they assume (People like that never think) everyone else on a bike is like them, when they are on a bike.

This morning, I saw another dozy prawn, this time in a Mercedes saloon. My street is quite long and I live at the end furthest from the main road (Which is an A road albeit with a 30mph limit). Whilst my plot is flat, the street dips towards the main road and then rises up to meet it. The main road is a hill, that climbs up and over to the next valley (My home is on a kind of very large ledge on the hillside). This dozy burke in the Merc pulled into my street and then reversed out, in order to turn round . It's not the best of turning, to negotiate when going forwards (There are houses up to and round the corner) and all the driver would have seen, through the back window (Do they have reversing cameras these days?), would have been the sky (At 7am it was also dark). If they had driven another fifty yards, they could have turned safely, in a layby, that was created when the council eased a bend in the road. Some of these prawns seem to assume they are the only beings on the planet

Oh and yesterday, there was a clown, turning right at the traffic lights in town, on his mobile. I hear that it is going to be made illegal to smoke in a car, that is carrying children. Do they really think that a law is going to dissuade people from doing so and given that they can't seem to stop people using mobile phones at the wheel, do they really think they can stop people smoking when they have children in the car. I would have thought a phone is easier to spot, than a fag.

I had a bit of "entertainment" earlier when a "seated pedestrian" cycled in to the rear quarter of my car (no damage other than to his pride) while i was stopped in a queue of traffic. His excuse was that he was on the phone so hadn't seen me!!

Richard Moss wrote:Happens all the time out here in the Middle East - I'm amazed that there aren't more deaths. A combination of lunatic drivers and pedestrians who use the "Insh'allah" (it's as Allah will it) approach to road safety. They're all happy to walk behind a reversing vehicle safe int he knowledge that if they die it will a) be your fault and b) Allah will find them a nice cosy place in heaven. Not to mention the guys who ride push bikes the wrong way down the road at night, with no lights and whilst wearing dark clothing.

Drive through central Birmingham along the A34, and you'll see much the same. When I used to work on the Alum Rock Road, we'd often hear the shriek of tyres and wait for the "Thud" which would occur in around 50% of cases. In the other 50% The braking sound would be followed by a barrage of abuse in a variety of languages