Rant: Why are so many people walking on the WRONG side of the road?

[Redneck in training]

Trouble is that in Europe they drive those damned bicycles where they are supposed to. They obey all the traffic laws too, all of them. They also know full well they probably won't last a month if they drive those things stupidly. Now come over here and watch bicycles. They wander all over the place often riding 2 abreast. Somehow few seem to get clobbered but they sure just do as they please for the most part. The surprising part is that the prime offenders aren't kids, rather it's the yuppy tourist types who think they own the road and have right of way over anything. Same thing goes for cross walks. They walk right out there without removing their head from their backside (where they view their smart phone). The idiots are like a flock of sheep the way they never even look. I guess the possibility of Tort laws impress them more than the laws of physics. Then there are the one who push the Darwin limit.......chasing Poki mon, now that is truly priceless:confused2:

I guess it depends on the EU country. Try former east block countries. To be undisciplined is the rule.

 

[2458n]

Here is a different reason for being on the wrong side of the road. Had a hip replacement and ended up with the new leg being 1 inch longer..... A shoe can be built up 9/16 of a inch with out effecting your gait to badly. On the rare walk I stay on the side of the road with the most guardrail on it. That way when I get tired I have someplace to sit.

 

[dragoneggs]

Because nobody taught them the correct way.

Yep... parents let them down.

I blame this on school buses!
If you watch kids getting off of school buses there are signs, flashing lights, mirrors and safety gates so there is no need to look danger.
They grow up thinking they have the right of way and the whole world will stop for them!

Well I won't blame the bus or the driver for that matter... out of their authority (hands tied)... maybe we need more regulation and laws. Personal responsibility... pfff!

Not sure about what side of the road to walk here, but I heard the reason for driving on the left side of a car goes back to the 1800s with stagecoach drivers.
The thing that makes me nervous are bicycles on the road, what we need is a bike lane on all roads and make Mexico pay for it, Ayuh....

ps. I love rants.........

Now that's funny. Reality is that if we had better trade deals, we would be able to pay for better infrastructure... not sure bike lanes would be high enough on the list though.

Well I am not worried about them, I just think they are dummies and adding risk to their lives, and the possibility of screwing up the life of some inattentive vehicle driver that squashes them.

Yeah and too bad the winners of 'survival of the fittest' end up paying the survivors of the dumbest thanks to our ever increasing litigious society.

Here is a different reason for being on the wrong side of the road. Had a hip replacement and ended up with the new leg being 1 inch longer..... A shoe can be built up 9/16 of a inch with out effecting your gait to badly. On the rare walk I stay on the side of the road with the most guardrail on it. That way when I get tired I have someplace to sit.

I'm a walker facing traffic... but I totally get where you are coming from... take it easy man.

 

[Oldpath05]

I got curious so I didn't a wee bit of Googling... apparently, in 1792, the US government passed a law mandating that all vehicular (horse & wagon) traffic would keep to the right when passing oncoming traffic. It wasn't until 1908 that Ford started building Left-Hand-Steering vehicles.

Steering from the Right-Hand-Side goes all the way back to ancient ships... before the invention of the rudder. Back then they used a specific Steering-Oar, which always was hug over the right hand side (side = border or board). This was for when they were in port to take on/off load cargo; the left hand side was put alongside the jetty/wharf, which kept the right side, with its steering oar, free to operate/manoeuvre.

Over time the words Steering-Oar & Border (side) 'slurred' into 'Starboard'. ath:

Thanks for the history lesson, always interesting to me for the reason today's humans doing something that can be traced back hundred,s years or century's.

Around here I don't here hear much complaining on what side road to walk on, partly because there's a lot of hiking trails, up the mountain, over the hill and towards the coast, over hill and over dale, more complaining of people not walking enough, like me, I let my finger's do the walking.......
I hope there's some more complaining to do.

 

[3930dave]

What get's my ire up here are several things - first the "ladies" (usually middle age or older) out in their "exercise wear" walking side-by-side in the street, often 3 abreast on a street that nominally has parking on each side and 2 very narrow lanes down the middle. Barely room to get around them.

Second - those in black clothing walking at night, in the road not on the sidewalk.

The explanation for the above, and other similar scenes is simple. Conservation of Energy.

When you are expending the energy necessary to be the Centre of the Universe, who has any ergs left for Situational Awareness ?

Many years ago, I was driving to work around 7:30am on a summer day. Perfect visibility. An elderly couple walked up to the cross walk I was approaching; they were holding hands and looking at each other while talking. One pushed the button to cross, and both stepped into my lane without looking.

I was doing the speed limit, but the problem was that I was well inside the X when they stepped out. I hammered my brakes and laid on my horn, all I could hear was my tires screeching, and those of the car directly behind me. I got my car stopped just short of the crosswalk line - good thing too, as one person went to cross into the empty lane while the other one went to move back to the sidewalk they just stepped off - problem was they kept holding hands, so they ended up fully blocking the lane I was in.

That near-miss happened a lot of years ago, but I can still see that scene in my mind clear as day. Back then, enough people knew why the X was placed where it was. Today, that placement distance would be considered arcane knowledge.

I'm surprised that pedestrian fatalities are as low as they are today, given how many behave.

Rgds, D.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

You did good. I have become aware of the dangers to pedestrians at crosswalks, and bicyclists also. I recall being stopped at a light, when a lady and a dog began to cross in front of me; she had the light in her favor...when some jerk came blaring through the red light, just missing her and the dog by inches. Another time, I was at a red light on a divided street with a median. It's legal to make a right turn here on red after stop, and I was beginning my turn when some idiot on a bike came from my right ON THE SIDEWALK; and we just barely missed each other.

 

[k0ua]

I'm surprised that pedestrian fatalities are as low as they are today, given how many behave.

I agree.

 

[Redneck in training]

I'm surprised that pedestrian fatalities are as low as they are today, given how many behave.

Fatality is low because only small number (relative to population density) of people walk in the USA.

 

[3930dave]

I'm surprised that pedestrian fatalities are as low as they are today, given how many behave.

Fatality is low because only small number (relative to population density) of people walk in the USA.

Understanding your point abt. overall #s. :thumbsup:

What I was thinking about is more localized. There are many areas in and around Toronto with high density combinations of pedestrians and traffic. Just watching phone-in-face pedestrians in those areas for a few minutes, I have to wonder how many will make it to their next birthday....

Rgds, D.

 

[Sodo]

Let nature sort them out. That's how evolution works, ya know.

Yeah sort of, but killing a pedestrian often ruins the driver's life too. That doesn't figure well in evolution theory.