A few years ago there was some publicity about the Highway Code and various changes related to its hierarchy of road users. One change was Rule H2, giving way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross at a road junction
Rule H2 - Rule for drivers, motorcyclists, horse drawn vehicles, horse riders and cyclists
At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning.
Mrs H and I reckon the situation is now worse than it was before the change. Vehicles turning into a junction like this virtually never give way to waiting pedestrians. It would be suicidal for pedestrians to assume otherwise.
We encountered yet another example this morning while walking back from town. A chap driving with his mouth open didn't appear to see us at all. I'm not sure why it is necessary for pedestrians to be wary of people who drive with their mouths open, but it is.
16 comments:
"I'm not sure why it is necessary for pedestrians to be wary of people who drive with their mouths open". Probably because you can't easily check whether they are knuckle-draggers.
"Walking back" from town! Ah, there's your error you see ... you should have been using your jet packs.
My driving instructor (mid 1950s) gave me the warning, "Beware of drivers who wear a Trilby hat".
...and you cannot see if they are drooling or not.
I am normally more cautious of those who are alone in their car and yet drive with a face mask. These types make me notice their standard of driving, and assume the ****** mask is over their eyes.
dearieme - yes, knuckle-dragger is the safest assumption for pedestrians. And for other motorists.
Chis - driving alone in a face mask is weird, I've seen it a few times and it's still not clear to me what they think they are doing.
James - unfortunately we have diesel jet packs and running them has become expensive even for short journeys.
DAD - good advice - flat caps too.
Driving alone wearing a face mask is why there are instructions on shampoo bottles.
Was he driving a dilapidated van with the fatuous hand-painted/daubed sign, 'Ferrous and non-ferrous metals'?
Peter - ha ha, beginning with "Do Not Drink".
Scrobs - not this one, but I encountered something similar a few weeks ago. He wouldn't have been able to stop anyway.
The new rule is reminiscent of the sailing principle beautifully illustrated by an old Giles cartoon; a vast ocean-going ship is bearing down on a tiny dinghy while the man at the tiller - a portly type in a yachting cap - admonishes his wife, “Remember, Daphne, steam gives way to sail.”
All the new rule has done - assuming anyone is aware of it - is make it more likely that pedestrians will step off the kerb without looking first. (We call those who do so ‘muntjacs’ for obvious reasons.)
“Remember, Daphne, steam gives way to sail.” As my father used to say:
He was right, dead right, as he sailed along
But he's just as dead as if he were wrong.
Macheath - I must remember ‘muntjacs’ as we regularly see pedestrians stroll across the junction at the end of our road without looking. When driving we stop and wait but I don't know what happens when the majority of drivers don't do that. Lots of near misses presumably.
dearieme - that's a thought, I wonder if some pedestrians think there is no need to look?
This is the story of Emily Wright,
Who put out her left hand
and turned to the right.
As I wrote above I took my test in the 1950s. The Highway Code in those days had the present rule for vehicles turning left. My Instructess (yes I had a Woman Rally Driver)teach me. She was a friend of Sheila van Damm.
pointed-out this rule to me as one of her pupils faied the Driving Test. If I remember correctly it was then Rule 128.
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.obituaries/c/WUWTMOE5eoQ?pli=1
There should be a legal definition of a "Junction".
I am thinking of a Y junction. How many junctions are on a roundabout?
The rule must apply if a car, in UK, is making a right turn across multiple lanes. Vehicle cannot stop on yellow cross-hatched junction. Eh?
And of course the rule applies to emergency services. Try that in front of a Plod -Squad on its way to apprehend a Naughty Tweeter.
DAD - your left hand? I don't remember that.
Doonhamer - our sat-nav knows how many junctions there are on a roundabout but it can be confusing when one of them is a tiny junction which goes to a depot and isn't one I'd ever count as a junction.
I tend to ignore this rule when there's a bit of traffic about, as I've noticed pedestrians tend to ignore it too, and wait at the side of the road.
I let people go when it seems more practical to do it, but often people will stand there and look at me uncertainly if I'm trying to give way to them. I don't think everyone is used to this yet
Bucko - from what we see round here, alert pedestrians will always wait uncertainly because the rule is ignored so often. It's one of those things where there was no point trying to dictate a rule anyway, it was never going to have the intended effect. Pedestrians and drivers have to be cautious, rule or no rule.
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