I'm just here to watch the flood of redditors blaming the guy on the bicycle for being hit......in a crosswalk.
Edit: And within moments I have numerous replies all telling me why the cyclist is at fault. Am I clairvoyant or are videos of cyclists/pedestrians being hit by cars just catnip for morons? Who knows.
Right, if the cyclist was actually riding and got hit like that he probably would’ve got smashed or run over. Instead he is able to “ole” the bike and swing it around.
He just had no intention of stopping at the crossing at all.
I'm in the UK and we do stop at crossings here if someone is waiting (well 99% of us do). But when I was in Portugal I stopped at a crossing to let a mother with a pushchair across and she just looked embarrassed and waved at me to carry on. I guess they just wait for a large enough gap there and run for it.
There's also some people that just get uncomfortable "making" people wait...
Or it's just having respect for your fellow humans you ALSO live around. If you are "making" someone else wait and you don't need to, the respectful ones of us notice such things.
I've noticed something very interesting about human behavior at crosswalks...specifically because our city is phenomenally stupid with "pedestrian safety," having attempted to put almost 100% of all safety responsibility on vehicle drivers and remove it from pedestrians.
Quick rundown of what they did so you can understand: STATE LAW for crosswalks is that you must stop if someone is waiting to cross at one....you know, how it is MOST of the places in the world for crosswalks. Know what OUR city did? Made the law state that if you SEE a person simply APPROACHING the crosswalk you need to stop for them. This literally told pedestrians "you don't need to look when crossing." To no one's surprise we literally had TWO pedestrian fatalities in the first year, both caused when someone charged out into the crosswalk during traffic without even looking. You can look at pedestrian fatalities overtime going back decades here....you can clearly see an increase in fatalities when the new law took effect, and it continued to rise.
So yeah....back to what I've noticed about human behavior at crosswalks because we have A LOT of them and they are used. Some people will speed up their gait and walk a little faster if they are causing you to stop for them. OTHER people will slowdown as they cross so as to make you wait. Most people don't do either and are oblivious. I feel it is another social litmus test for folks, like putting your cart back at the market.
Just try to be the person that walks a little faster....cause you'll also be the person that sees and stops for the person waiting to use the crosswalk.
It's also possible she was intending to cross, hence being at a crosswalk, but then something happened and decided not to at that specific moment, so she waved to have you not wait for her.
Same as I noticed in France people overall drive pretty je m’en fou there but at a crossing they definitely stop and wait for you to cross the road even if it doesn’t seem like it
You can guarantee that if there is ever a video of a cyclist being hit, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the laws, people will blame the cyclist.
You could have someone with a bicycle sitting on a park bench and a drunk driver who is texting with both hands off the wheel could blast over the sidewalk and through a fence to hit the cyclist and people will still say “Guy should’ve seen that coming and dodged, I don’t care about the laws, cyclists should be more aware.”
Which I find funny because if you took 90% of “cyclist getting hit and the driver is at fault” clips on the internet and just took away the bicycle, people would agree the driver is at fault. But nah since this guy owns a bike he deserves it.
This isn't really about cycling, though. He was just walking the bike across, so the same as being a pedestrian. I assume he had the right of way, so legally the cyclist is in the right, the driver's in the wrong. But it's incredibly stupid not to at least look both ways before crossing.
It's a crosswalk, but even 5-year-olds know that you look both ways before crossing, especially for a fast street like that one. The bicyclist didn't look at all.
EDIT: Legally, the biker (or really, pedestrian) has the right of way. I'm saying it's stupid to assume people will yield for you just because it's the law. There are a lot of idiot drivers out there. In that situation I would assume anyone driving up to that intersection is one of those idiots, and take the necessary precautions. Namely, stopping and waiting.
EDIT2: I guess I am victim-blaming in a way. But would you tell your child "you have the right of way, so just go. Don't bother looking left or right."? I would guess no on that one.
Well, I wasn't gonna say anything, but since you brought it up:
If you're gonna cross the street, LOOK BOTH WAYS AND WAIT FOR TRAFFIC TO STOP!!! I don't give a rat's ass if you have right of way, if the law sides with you, or if an angel tells you it's safe to cross! Sometimes drivers don't pay attention, and between a 70kg sack of meat and 2 tons of metal, you'll be the one who'll die! Ans at that point, only Saint Peter will give a fuck about who's in the right!
Do you stop your car and make sure one of those inattentive drivers aren't coming to t-bone you at every intersection as well or does that rule only apply to pedestrians? What about highways, do you stop and check every time there's a merging lane?
Not remotely what I said. I still follow the rules. I look for pedestrians. I let them pass if needed. I know the law and I respect it.
Doesn't change the fact that THE PEDESTRIAN should CHECK THE ROAD and not cross the damn walk like it's got some magical force field that makes them indestructible! It's in their best interest to be cautious. Why is that so hard to comprehend?
Some people don't want to live in fear. You can reasonably expect that cars don't want to hit you, so they slow down if they see you even if they didn't want to yield. And yes, it's risky, but who cares in certain situations? It's not black and white, some ppl won't always be afraid of cars.
What fear? This about fear, this is about common sense! Cars are a potential hazard when crossing the street, so look for them. It's like tripping on a log while hiking because you couldn't be bothered to check your surroundings.
Cars are operated by humans unlike a log in the forest. I expect drivers to have common sense and check their surroundings as well. I expect not to get hit.
If your foolproof plan is for the fool to not be fooling around, you're the biggest fool around. You can expect people to not want to hit you all you want, it only needs for one of them to not meet your expectations (not on purpose, and through no fault of your own) for your life to end. Safe tavels.
Sometimes there are lights that you have to wait to turn red or green. And some other times there aren't traffic lights but yellow flashing lights that will start flashing when someone at the crosswalk hits a button indicating that it should be safe for them to walk and cars should be yielding. Sure, were not all from America but how do people not know about this?
I guess you can read properly. Do you know what to do when you encounter an unprotected pedestrian crossing? In US and Canada, those are crossings painted yellow. In Europe the crossing sign has a yellow border.
Where I’m from, it would actually be considered his fault. You can’t bike on a crosswalk. They’re not intended for fast traffic on wheels suddenly crossing the road.
in my country if you are on a bicycle you don’t have the right to go first on a crosswalk, but the one driving the more dangerous vehicle is still liable for the damages. In some cases this can be so stupid.
A cross walk is for pedestrians - at least in my country. And that for a good reason as we can see here. The car driver is supposed to slow down though. Both are reckless. The guy on the bicycle is suicidal on top.
You're still a pedestrian even if you are walking with a bicycle. I'm not aware of any country that has a rule that says you can't walk a bike across a crosswalk because that would be insane.
Cyclists regularly get hit on cross walks because they go too fast on them. You can't see and stop for a pedestrian in time if they are going faster than walking pace. There are reasons why cyclists aren't allowed on cross walks.
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u/mathisfakenews 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'm just here to watch the flood of redditors blaming the guy on the bicycle for being hit......in a crosswalk.
Edit: And within moments I have numerous replies all telling me why the cyclist is at fault. Am I clairvoyant or are videos of cyclists/pedestrians being hit by cars just catnip for morons? Who knows.