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

[aczlan]

Not just senior citizens. Rearward visibility on many modern vehicles is terrible. Certain compact cars and CUVs are some of the worst.

Yep, that's why so many are adding backup cameras. My next car will probably need one, my current one (1997 Volvo V90) doesn't need one but the next one (some medium SUV, perhaps a Volvo XC90, Ford Taurus X, GMC Acadia, Hyundai Santa Fe or Hyundai Veracruz).

Aaron Z

 

[k0ua]

Yep, that's why so many are adding backup cameras. My next car will probably need one, my current one (1997 Volvo V90) doesn't need one but the next one (some medium SUV, perhaps a Volvo XC90, Ford Taurus X, GMC Acadia, Hyundai Santa Fe or Hyundai Veracruz).

Aaron Z

All new vehicles will soon have backup cameras. By May of 2018.

New Backup Camera Rule: Cameras Will Be Mandatory by 218 - Autotrader

 

[aczlan]

All new vehicles will soon have backup cameras. By May of 2018.

New Backup Camera Rule: Cameras Will Be Mandatory by 218 - Autotrader

Yeah, but my budget won't stretch that far (I choose to only pay cash for cars).
Looking at 2004-2009 cars currently.

Aaron Z

 

[Redneck in training]

Not just senior citizens. Rearward visibility on many modern vehicles is terrible. Certain compact cars and CUVs are some of the worst.

The old recommendation about being around machinery was Don't Move into the path, until you make eye-contact with the driver/operator. Many folks today prefer to look at screens instead of making eye contact. That issue is what scares me.... properly maintained, modern brakes and tires perform very well under most conditions - but there is an absolute limit to how fast you can stop. When someone steps off a curb when they shouldn't, bad things can happen.

Rgds, D.

Yes that is good rule. I was working at a steel mill last year. Before you start work you have to attend "orientation" and safety training. There are many large (and I mean large) vehicles moving in the plant. The trainer told us that one of the 100 ton truck reversed over passenger car squishing it killing the driver. Simulation and analysis revealed that the driver of the truck couldn't see the car behind even if he would try. They also determined that the driver of the truck would drive over the passenger car without feeling doing so. The rule resulting from the accident was stop 50 ft or more behind large vehicles and/or if possible make sure that the driver see you.

 

[Wagtail]

When we were in Dublin we noticed people drive on the wrong side of the road. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing: Enough people from countries where cars are driven on the correct side of the road visit Dublin to warrant signs painted in the cross walks telling people which direction to look for on coming traffic. :shocked: We found this MOST helpful! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Later,
Dan

I've seen "LOOK RIGHT >", painted in bright yellow on road surface at cross-walks & zebra-crossings, in the 'Big Smokes'. (Sydney, Melbourne, etc...)

People are creatures of habit.

As an aside; if those of you who drive on the right where to visit, and rent a vehicle, in a country where they drive on the left... I guarantee that the first time you go to indicate a turn you will turn your windscreen wipers on. This will also happen several more times during your visit with said vehicle.

 

[Wagtail]

All new vehicles will soon have backup cameras. By May of 2018.

New Backup Camera Rule: Cameras Will Be Mandatory by 218 - Autotrader

Ooooh, bugger. That means that people will become more reliant on those cameras instead of 'looking around' behind them when backing. They'll become less spatially aware... expect more parking-lot scrapes.

 

[k0ua]

Ooooh, bugger. That means that people will become more reliant on those cameras instead of 'looking around' behind them when backing. They'll become less spatially aware... expect more parking-lot scrapes.

I am not so sure.. At least for me.. I still use my mirrors to watch my fenders, but keep looking in each mirror and also the backup camera as my head swivels left to right. One time at a grocery store an inattentive mother let her small child wander directly to my vehicles rear bumper as I started to back out.. She was close in to the vehicle, and only the backup camera saved her. I always go slow coming out of the angled parking lines and that helps, no head was sticking up in the rear hatch window (she was way too short), and nothing showing to the sides in the mirrors. Backup cameras I think in general are a good thing. I wish my pickup truck had one.

 

[Wagtail]

I am not so sure.. At least for me.. I still use my mirrors to watch my fenders, but keep looking in each mirror and also the backup camera as my head swivels left to right. One time at a grocery store an inattentive mother let her small child wander directly to my vehicles rear bumper as I started to back out.. She was close in to the vehicle, and only the backup camera saved her. I always go slow coming out of the angled parking lines and that helps, no head was sticking up in the rear hatch window (she was way too short), and nothing showing to the sides in the mirrors. Backup cameras I think in general are a good thing. I wish my pickup truck had one.

Oh I agree that they're a good thing, especially for those of us who never had them before and will add them to our driving/backing skills. But the new generation will come to rely on their 'screens' more... that's what I was referring to.

 

[RickB]

Anyone doubting the value of a rear facing camera is welcome to drive my wife's 2013 Eascpe which does not have one. It also only has 1/4 of a rear window. Rear visibility is pathetic.

 

[zzvyb6]

The simple answer to the original question is "so that there iPhone won't get cracked when they get wacked". Ain't that smack, Jack ? They get no flak.