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When The Tram Stops, You Stop! | Taitset (www.youtube.com)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/melbourne@aussie.zone
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[–] 3 points 9 months ago* (4 children)

I wait for a full stop. Even when the light goes green for pedestrians I wait and check the cars have stopped on both sides. I'm always amazed how confident people are that a tonne or two of flying metal they haven't checked to make sure isn't there wont flatten them. As if a red light means anything to physics.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 9 months ago (3 children)

    My problem is that by doing that, you reward those drivers who deliberately try to take advantage and ignore the law.

    Because they'll speed around the corner and go on with their day, probably not even realising they did anything wrong. What I do is still safe: I know I won't be in the way if they do keep speeding through. But it means if they try to speed through, they're gonna get one hell of a fright in the process.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago (2 children)

    Nope. Even when a car stops at a pedestrian crossing that doesn't have pedestrian lights or a zebra crossing (like a roundabout for example), if I cannot see the driver through the windshield and make eye contact then I will wave them through and try to signal that I cannot see them and sometimes will even mouth out, say or even shout 'I cannot see you'. Even when I know they are sitting there waving me on, if I cannot see them I won't budge.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    then I will wave them through

    As both a driver and a pedestrian I absolutely hate when people do this. As a driver, I'm trying to do the right thing. People need to follow the law and give way when they're required to give way. That keeps everything predictable, and predictable is safe. (There are certainly times when it's appropriate to break the letter of the law, especially as a pedestrian or cyclist. But those times are basically "when there's nothing a driver has to do to avoid even coming close to you.")

    As a pedestrian, I hate it because it just reinforces motornormacy and car supremacy, as though there isn't already enough in our society that does that. In the long run, all it does is make things less safe for pedestrians, because it increases the chances that the next driver will just go through without even trying to give way.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    Most of the time I can make eye contact with drivers, I see the hand wave or whatever and everything works out. But for the small number of times I can't then I'm not going to step out in front of a machine that can seriously injure me or worse from a stand still.

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