Am I going mad or are zebra crossings getting more dangerous?
I’m really noticing more close shaves at zebra crossings in the last year or so. I have no data to back this up, except my own anecdotal evidence. Anyone else notice a trend?It’s not just those on the High Road, but these ones feature heavily. I’ll say at the outset that I’m a cyclist, not a driver, or rather, I ride a bike, don’t drive a car. Taking the bike lane first, bikes haven’t stopped for me, more times than is excusable to be honest. I’m not totally innocent on this front - there has been the very odd occasion when I’ve kept going through a zebra crossing, though this is rare. I now really check both sides of the road for pedestrians about to cross. I think you can also tell as well, when someone has a momentary lapse in awareness, versus people who never intended to stop (rarer) or are cycling at a much lower level of awareness in general (more common). There’s just too many occasions of bikes not stopping, in my view, for these to be explained by momentary lapses. I think it’s rather the case that there are more unaware people on bikes, which I’d put down to the increase in bike sharing programmes, in particular e-bikes like Lime. I’d love for ever increasing numbers of bikes, but I really think people need to have their own bikes, which are suited to their height and weight etc. Most people cannot control Lime bikes sufficiently. Bikes aren’t even the most worrying flouters of the rules at zebra crossings, that’s cars (and motorbikes). Obviously this is much more dangerous and also much more inexcusable. If bikes aren’t stopping at crossings as much as they used to because of more unfamiliar cyclists on the road, there’s no excuse for cars not stopping. It’s hardly the case that there are more inexperienced drivers on the road. I simply think it’s that people don’t care anymore in cars. They just cruise on through crossings. Just now I was a quarter of the way across CHR and one car just cruises through - something that no longer surprises me. Then, however as I got to half way across, straddling both lanes the car behind it also fails to stop. Again, these are anecdotes, with no basis in data, but I’d wager heavily that I’m not the only one seeing things getting worse. Also I make it very clear I’m about to cross the road. I never dart out at an angle or approach the road looking down at my phone. I turn 90 degrees to the crossing and look right, left and right again. Pedestrians are king. Then bikes. Then cars. Rant over. Just getting really tired of this.
Edward Kent ● 90d106 Comments ● 64d