Dozey Pedestrians !

dirk_van_gently

Peds get some bad press on this site, and something happened to me this morning that kind of opened my eyes.
I was walking a route that I do everyday, roads are not very busy, but I am always aware of traffic, or so I thought. About to step off kerb, and stopped myself just as a bicycle was approaching. All well that ends well, however I was not aware how much I depend upon hearing when crossing the road, and the reason I was almost under the wheels of this poor guys bicycle was simply that I had not heard him approaching.

Info suitably deposited in databanks for future ref.

unclemalc

Dirk Van Gently wrote:

Peds get some bad press on this site, and something happened to me this morning that kind of opened my eyes.
I was walking a route that I do everyday, roads are not very busy, but I am always aware of traffic, or so I thought. About to step off kerb, and stopped myself just as a bicycle was approaching. All well that ends well, however I was not aware how much I depend upon hearing when crossing the road, and the reason I was almost under the wheels of this poor guys bicycle was simply that I had not heard him approaching.

Info suitably deposited in databanks for future ref.

I mentioned this on a ranting thread in 'Road' a while back: remember the bell on the handlebars - a thing of the past. However my son found he had one fitted on a new Trek during the summer and it works wonders when on the local canal path for getting past pedsetrians.
Perhaps we should re-discover the bell and ting-a-ling commute. (Mind you, as a kid, I had a hooter on my bars and that was bloody amazing at scaring pedestrians... :twisted: ).

Kieran_Burns

I know this might come across as a bit aggressive (it's not meant to)

What the hell happened to "look right, look left and look right again" ? :?

Why rely on your hearing when we were all taught to LOOK before crossing a road?

I clearly remember Darth Vader in spandex telling me how to cross a road when I was a kid - has all this been forgotten, do parents not teach this basic stuff anymore?

Jen J

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I know this might come across as a bit aggressive (it's not meant to)

What the hell happened to "look right, look left and look right again" ? :?

Why rely on your hearing when we were all taught to LOOK before crossing a road?

I clearly remember Darth Vader in spandex telling me how to cross a road when I was a kid - has all this been forgotten, do parents not teach this basic stuff anymore?

Yep. Remember the Green Cross Code boys and girls.

unclemalc

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I know this might come across as a bit aggressive (it's not meant to)

What the hell happened to "look right, look left and look right again" ? :?

Why rely on your hearing when we were all taught to LOOK before crossing a road?

I clearly remember Darth Vader in spandex telling me how to cross a road when I was a kid - has all this been forgotten, do parents not teach this basic stuff anymore?

In general - no! (I have taught mine...).
Most are too busy talking into a handset....
Some just walk in front of you with a 'Feck you' attitide.

iainmoss

Ding-ding bells are nice but Airzounds are great! I speak from personal experience.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/del ... n-ec009169

unclemalc

iainmoss wrote:

Ding-ding bells are nice but Airzounds are great! I speak from personal experience.

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/del ... n-ec009169

Hmmm.... :twisted:

cee

Power of the Bike Bell

Littigator

That's genius! I'm going to walk everywhere with a bell in future. I work on Oxford Street and trying to walk more than 2 yards without side-stepping is impossible!