This is one of the important things to know when driving: If you're driving and the car on the other lane stops before a crossing, STOP. You might not realize it because you can't see it yourself, but that car is peobably stopping for a pedestrian that will be in your path in just a second.
That's the way you should go because it's spelled right out in any traffic law I know. You are not allowed to pass a car stopped before pedestrian crossing.
These kinds of crosswalks shouldn't exist IMO. They're death traps for pedestrians. If a crosswalk crosses a road with more than one lane in each direction, there should be a traffic light.
@@NewBuildmini No they should have cameras. Every driver who passes a stopped car in front of pedestrian crossing should get their driver's licence revoked for at leat a year. If they don't have one then automatic jail sentnce for a year. Drivers should learn to respect traffic laws.
Let me rephrase this statement. When you approach a crossing, you should drive at such a speed that you could brake before hitting anyone who could possibly appear in front of you. Whether they are hidden behind parked cars or suddenly run into the street at a weird angle, you must be able to stop in time. You can only proceed if you are sure that there is no danger to pedestrians. A car stopping in the lane next to you is just a strong indication that there is such a danger.
My driving instructor told me "Two good drivers will not crash. One bad driver and one good driver will not crash. It takes two bad drivers to have a crash". If you're a good driver, then you are aware of your surroundings and ready to react to them to prevent a collision.
Interesting discussion. I was stationed in Alaska years ago. Upon arrival, we all received a briefing about the base. One thing they pointed out on slides was some crosswalks. Then the instructor asked what those were. People naturally said things like "crosswalks" and "places where it's safe to cross." The instructor said, "Sure, but you need to remember that those crosswalk lines are NOT force fields or metal barriers. There will be snow or ice on the road for several months a year. If the road is icy and you step out in front of a moving car without warning, it will not stop, it can not stop, and the crosswalk won't magically make it stop."
if you are too fast to stop, when driving to a crossroad then you are a moron. It's still not the pedestrians fault but the drivers. (and yes, the pedestrian is the one going to get hurt)
@@DresdenFPV if there's ice on the road then it doesn't matter how fast or slow you're going. Also walking onto a crosswalk without checking whether any approaching cars are actually stopping is just plain negligent. I was, however, always taught that cars HAVE to stop if someone's waiting at the crosswalk, but I'm also neither from the US nor the UK so maybe the traffic laws vary here.
@@Phelie315 of course it matters. Yes you have way less friction, but saying "speed doesn't matter" is ridiculous. If you're going 100km/h when you know there might be frost around, then you are an idiot. If you are going 10km/h and still hit someone, then they might break some bone, but they probably won't die. And if you are going 10km/h you have more time to react, so you might have longer to come to a standstill. SPEED IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING when it comes to such situations. I hope you are not allowed to control a car.
I was told as a kid you had right of way at a zebra crossing. Ive since been told thats not true. Terrible advice either way, always assume the driver wont slow and wait till they have seen you.
+xisumavoid In Serbia you have absolute right of way on zebras (we call them like that as well) and everywhere else if there is no crossing 100 metres left or right. Of course, it would be crazy to just cross the street without looking because drivers perhaps don't pay enough attention, speak on their phones or something similar. We have a proverb (kind of): don't end up in a grave with the inscription "he had the right of way". So, yeah, always looking both ways is probably a better advice for kids (and everyone else).
+xisumavoid Pedestrians have right of way only on the marked crossings in America. It's illegal for the vehicle not to stop, even if it's a bicycle, at least where I live.
+xisumavoid This really depends on what country you are in. In Norway, pedestrians allways have right of way, even where there isn't a crosswalk/zebra crossing. If a driver isn't paying attention, he will be charged, not the pedestrian
In the UK, drivers must give way to pedestrians waiting to cross at zebra crossings. Failing to do so is illegal, so if you step out on to one and get hit by a car, the driver's at fault. Of course most people will wait for the cars to stop before crossing as getting run over, even if you're in the right, is extremely painful. :-)
Yeah I always wait for cars to stop. I look silly in front of friends who dart out but I couldn't give a crap. It's saved my life on crossings so many times
Marc - incorrect. If you read the Highway Code, Rule 19 cars DO NOT have to stop for someone waiting. They must stop for people ON the crossing, but that’s not to say you should just step out
Another interpretation of the Netherlands study might be that simply slowing down cars is the most important factor in improving pedestrian safety. Great video!
My personal safety rule for using a crosswalk is to treat it like you're a jaywalker (who is not fast but wants to keep living) - wait until traffic is slowed, stopped, or far away from the crosswalk before starting off. Where I live, a good amount of caution is important due to ice on the roads.
The interesting thing that I've found is that I feel like crossing a road maybe 100ft down from an intersection is sometimes less dangerous simply because the intersection is far more busy. There's an intersection near me that I noticed this at. I don't fully trust any driver at the intersection until they stop, and even then I have to double check everyone to make sure they're not going to turn into me, even if they have no signals on because dumbasses around here don't use signals, which means that even when everyone is stopped I am exceedingly jumpy about whether or not I am about to get hit. If I cross about 100ft down, I only have to pay attention to one direction of traffic, then I get to the median, and I only have to pay attention to one other direction of traffic, and I know they aren't looking out for me, so I don't cross until they have about 2-3x as much distance as I might give if I were making a left/right in a car.
@@theajayyy It's the opposite here in England. You can step onto the crossing with a car just a few seconds away and it'll stop for you without any problems.
@@ajs41 unless it's an idiot playing on his/her phone while driving, or some idiot parked their car too close so you can't see anything. I'm quite cautious even on a crossing.
I swear, you must be the most considerate able-bodied youtuber or even *communicator* that I know of. You rarely, if ever, fail to bring up disability issues where they are relevant, while most who haven't experienced them just... don't think about it. Maybe it's just your attention to detail, but I'm sure that you've actively made the decision to include these things in your scripts, and it's really, really nice that you do that. Plus, you practice accessibility, which is hecka sweet.
My driving instructor told me that the habit of naming crossings after animals came from the Pelican crossing. Originally, it was an abbreviation, PeLiCon, or PEdestrian LIght-CONtrolled. Then came the zebra, which had black-and-white stripes, and from then on, all crossings were just named after animals.Also, I would suggest that this thing about more people being killed or injured on crossings is largely just due to the fact that more people cross at a crossing than a given place where there isn't one.
I was just reading about this a few weeks ago. Sometimes renovating a road to make it safer actually increases the accident rate, because people drive less cautiously now that they don't have to worry about potholes and debris. Sometimes adding signage to a dangerous stretch of road just pushes the problem area forward - accident rates go down in that area, but once people have passed that section, they feel like they're out of danger, get a false sense of security, and drive even less cautiously than they were before, increasing accident rates in the _next_ stretch of road.
while those markings dont make pedestrians safer it does improve the speed at which you can cross the road ...maybe not at abbey road but drivers stop much more frequently at a crossing than when there is just a pedestrian trying to cross at an unmarked point in the road
I'm a Canadian who went to Argentina twice (2014, 2018) to study in Buenos Aires, and then to travel. I spent many weeks there, and a few days in other cities and towns (Córdoba, Salta, Mendoza). Argentinians roads, and especially Buenos Aires, are not safe compared to North America and Europe. Taxi drivers go in opposite directions to traffic, seat belts seems to be optional, as well as speed limits. People are driving like maniacs, yelling "¡Boludo!" to everyone they think are stupid. Argentina is not a reference. Ha ha!
As an Imperial College student I regularly use exhibition road and I'm very surprised there aren't more accidents, especially given the number of toursists in that area who would probably be looking out for road signs!
They have started to roll out "count down" crossing signs at major intersections in Pittsburgh. Its the first thing I have ever seen that has actually reduced jaywalking, especially on multilane streets. Before this, you would see crossings that went walk for about 2 seconds before going don't walk. So everyone simply ignored them and crossed whenever they felt like. Now that you know you have 8 or so seconds to go, you can judge if you are walking fast enough. Even better, people that are crossing as it ticks down towards the end, actually move faster, due to a sort of "hurry up the clock is running out!" psychology.
FWIW, I am partially sighted, due to extreme light sensitivity. I generally don't go outside without my walking stick (marked with white and red reflective tape) and guide cane (ditto). The cues blind people use for street crossing are usually not the ones that you do. In London, many crosswalks have indicators (some with the little spinning tactile nubs), but many don't, or they're broken. Or I can't tell exactly which way it goes. (It's hardly ever exactly perpendicular, and the paint is often too worn to feel by cane.) Rather, there are a lot of audio and vibration / wind related cues. Car idling sounds (at least, if they're not electric); echolocation against the other side (if there are buildings); aligning with the sound of traffic; other pedestrians (though that's not very reliable, since people often cross with not much margin and faster than I can); etc. On the plus side, a white cane tends to get you *waaaay* more berth than you might think. On the down side, random people suddenly grabbing you by the arm is an actual danger. I think you might find it interesting to learn - particularly the echolocation, which is something you already have access to and just aren't processing. Can show you sometime if you want (I'm in London).
+Farmeryeti I have driven down Abbey rd hundreds of times and you really have to look out. If you stop for people to cross then you have to wait sometimes 20-30 seconds before their photographer has the right frame and they are ready to go so you just wind up sitting around getting frustrated, if you decide to go anyway then they will begin to cross. I really hate it when they stop to pose in the middle of the road.I am surprised that their aren't many injuries, in fact I wonder how many there are every year?
I often avoid crosswalks unless they're directly on my path. Most crosswalks are near intersections, where you have to watch for cars in two directions instead of just two.
+Shawn Ravenfire Yeah, I hate it when I have to "watch for cars in two directions instead of just two." ;-) BTW, I actually know what you meant, and agree.
I'm partially sighted. It's shared space in Preston and I can't tell if a car is going to go or wait for me (I can't see the person in the car never mind their hand signals). So I don't like it.
My experience of that shared purpose section in South Kensington is that most pedestrians have no idea it is anything other than a footpath. First time I walked there I got honked at for that very reason, I had no inkling that it was for cars too!
the editing on this one is quite good. i.e. the bus suddenly appearing out of the right when talking about people stepping out into dangerous traffic :)
And then there are traffic lights on crosswalks. I live near a spot where there has been a crosswalk for decades, across a simple 4-lane road, with 2 lanes occupied by tram tracks. It's not a particularly traffic-heavy street, and traffic ceases entirely about every minute or half because of intersections with traffic lights nearby. It was usually safe to cross and cars even stopped for pedestrians surprisingly often. Until recently... Some idiot decided to install traffic lights. Not even lights that are synchronized with other intersections, but lights that trigger a cycle when pedestrians press a button. So now, if you want to obey the law, you have to press the button, wait about 1.5 a minute until the car lights turn red, and when you're finally crossing on a green light that lasts 10 seconds, you're blocking a tram, which is now another minute past schedule. But what do I know... "Traffic engineers", they deem themselves... (sorry for the rant)
IME, it does do something - it turns on the beeping sound and the little rotating doodah under the box for the sight impaired to know when to cross. The beeping is often turned off by default so that it's not bugging the nearby residents at 2am.
Rand Knight That is a neat thing, but we were talking about buttons that _trigger_ the traffic lights cycle, and here where I live, those buttons don't have such fancy features. They're just tiny yellow boxes that want to tell you how much car drivers are superior to pedestrians.
And in Dutch, Zebrastreifen. I don't know why Tom panders to the Americans audience, when the things were invented in Britain. At the very least, call them pedestrian crossings. The word "crosswalk" is virtually unused outside North America.
@@SeverityOne I'm willing to bet Americans constitute the largest demographic of his viewers. And like it or not, American English is more widely understood by most non-native speakers nowadays due to the prevalence of American pop culture in media/entertainment.
That's a fascinating and counterintuitive result. I have some follow-up questions: 1. How does the presence of a crosswalk affect average time to cross the road (including waiting time) for pedestrians? 2. How is the number of crossings per day affected? Does the presence/absence of a crosswalk discourage or encourage people to cross or not cross at all? 3. Does the risk of a crosswalk accident depend on the density of crosswalks? Are cars better or worse at handling crosswalks when they encounter them all the time vs. only rarely?
+Joseph Schmitz That's the majority of crossings here in the UK but we do have a high number of either unmarked crossings or Zebra crossings like you saw in the video.
+Joseph Schmitz Same in France, most crosswalks are at intersections and guarded by stop lights, but not all of them. Besides, when you’re crossing at an intersection, the lights are green for the road parallel to where you’re crossing, so you still have to watch out for vehicles coming from there.
Those become less viable in urban areas where pedestrians can outnumber drivers. Also, a walk sign doesn't necessarily mean it's safe to walk. Often drivers will see the right-turn arrow turn green and just peel out. All of the times I've thought I was about to get hit by a car, I was using a crosswalk when it told me to go.
+JoeJoeTater The right-turn thing is something to be careful with, especially in states where you can turn right even on red (unless otherwise indicated).
+JoeJoeTater In the UK there's no implicit turn left through a red light (unless there's a dedicated green lit filter). Also even when there is a filter, it won't be green at the same time as the right turn's pedestrian light. That's something that I found really crazy in Rome; they have right turn filters, but they aren't exclusive, so pedestrians will quite frequently find cars filtering through them as they cross. It's terrifyingly disorganised and dangerous. Also if you wait for even a single Roman driver to give way to a waiting pedestrian, you'll be there all day long.
"We can work it out." OMG Tom! You had to say that with the most famous crosswalk in the entire world as your background. It must be fun to walk across where the Beatles were.
A schoolmate got ran over and killed today while crossing a crosswalk literally in front of our school. I didn't really know her, but it still bums you out when everyone around you is bummed out. Crosswalks don't seem to do much for me, here in the states they're mostly at intersections, and it seems like half the time drivers don't pay attention to the crosswalks and the other half of the time pedestrians just go without even clicking the button. It's sad, it's so much safer to just do it in the middle of a straight two lane road (which we have a lot of) and make sure for yourself there's no cars coming.
Well it does have to be specifically inside the bar walls as well. I was always told as a kid as well that it had to be at night and with a bow yourself from the bar walls, but I assume that was just embellishment as the story gets passed around.
I almost want to play this video for a Strong Towns crowd or pedestrian advisory committee mostly to see how many arguments would start over this. On a more serious note, I think this video actually misses a key point in this debate: road width. That isn't mentioned in the US DOT study, and it's something to consider with regard to pedestrians being able to cross roads safely (especially multilane roads). I feel like if this video were ever to be remade this should be mentioned.
Zebra crossings are definitely not the safest way to cross a road. Particularly in the area I live. The people behind the planning of the local roads in their infinite wisdom have decided there needs to be a Zebra crossing within ten feet of the exit of every roundabout. For the most part these crossings aren't visible until you exit from the roundabout. Causing plenty of people to have to slam on the brakes. The amount of accidents this causes is crazy. We need something safer like stilts big enough to step over the road in a single stride.
Off course the alternative is putting it further from the roundabout, whicg wpuld mean drivers were already accelerating away from it and thus pose greater danger to pedestrians.
+magaz As someone who has to walk a lot I absolutely hate those kinds of crossings. Roundabouts are good for road traffic but as a pedestrian there can often be too much going on to figure out when it's safe to cross or not. It doesn't help with the number of drivers around here who don't bother indicating when they turn.
JimJamtheSailor Oh my glob, YES! And every now and then there’s a driver frantically waving you on but they’re NOT INDICATING. If everyone paid a little attention together, some of us wouldn’t have to pay all of the attention alone.
A well designed roundabout is actually very safe for pedestrians as traffic is slowed down significantly and cars leaving it approach you at a right angle, not from behind you. Badly designed ones are lethal.
Hey Mr. Scott! This showed up on my paid-for driving class a-alert to educate me on crosswalk courtesy, so bv thanks for helping me and many others get a license!
The use for crosswalks is to give you priority over cars, so that they have to stop for you on a busy day. That shared space road looks terrifying, you have to be scared of being run over and watch out for cars all the time...
In Edinburgh 90% of cyclists don't know what a red light is so even at a pelican crossing they just shoot through. I'm pretty sure they think it's red for MOAR SPEED. It's one of the reasons I never drive here. I'd be terrified of taking one out. In either case I'm always very cautious crossing the road. The green cross code was drilled into me as a kid.
Was alway pretty careful cycling in the burg as a kid. At the very least I'd get off my bike and cross as a pedestrian at the red. Once I did almost get run over by a van speeding through the red light while I was crossing on foot with my bike right enough.
Edinburgh cyclists might be bad but Aberdeen drivers are every bit their equal. Must take a fair bit of courage to cycle on the roads of the granite city.
Nearly got run over the other day on Gorgie Road because a cyclist didn't stop at the crossing outside Scotmid. Whenever we talk about cyclists and cars we rightly think of cyclists as the at-risk road user and we design policy around them. This is a good thing. But at crossings the pedestrian is the at-risk user. A cyclist going at a fair clip could easily kill a pedestrian crossing the road.
Mark Pentler I have a couple cyclist friends. One is super responsible, another I'm not sure about and one is one of the irresponsible ones that I see so often.
Yes, we do have those shared spaces, and they're pretty comfortable to walk! Nice open space, and when a car passes by, you just get out of the way for a bit. And the driver isn't annoyed because they already know pedestrians will be everywhere. Similarly we have something that best translates as "cycle lanes" in addition to regular cycle paths. Cycles lanes are lanes that are shared between cyclists and cars, and the car is supposed to be the "guest", where normally it'd be the other way around. They're pretty rare and not always well marked as such, so I'm not too sure about the safety. But it's a thing nonetheless and for now, it seems to hold up.
Thank you for measuring the problem with shared spaces and visual impairment. I am severely visually impaired and they change some local streets where are used to live to share spaces and I was terrified.
Here in germany zebra strips are usually accompanied by signs so drivers can see from afar that they are approaching one, and they have to watch for pedestrians that want to cross, and pedestrians must unambiguously sign that they want to cross and wait for a clear sign that the driver will stop before crossing. You can often see kids standing at the side of the road, holding out their arms as if they want to block traffic to indicate that they want to cross. I think with that scheme adding a zebra strip to a point where its unsafe to otherwise cross the street is going to help in adding safety. But when the municipalities have the money, the add pedestrian operated traffic lights anywhere they can anyways (with integrated zebra, just in case the traffic light fails which then means it falls back to zebra rules).
In many US states it's illegal to drive over a marked crosswalk when there's a pedestrian on any part of it, which leads people in all lanes to stop if anyone in any lane is stopped at the crosswalk.
Simple facts: A pedestrian hit by a car often dies or suffers grave injuries. A driver hitting a pedestrian almost always emerges unscathed from the accident. Simple conclusion: No matter what the road signs, traffic lights etc. say, the pedestrian must ascertain that he can cross safely.
+NewFormofSilence Simple facts: A careless driver can very easily kill others (and themselves). A careless pedestrian is only really a danger to themselves. Simple conclusion: Even though it is sensible for pedestrians to look after their own safety - it is much more important that drivers are doing their due diligence.
Most do, safe is relative. Something that looks safe to a pedestrian on one side can look unsafe to a pedestrian on the other side. Also dont think the driver is scratchless, train drivers where people jump in front off would disagree.
+NewFormofSilence Obviously pedestrians should avoid death at all costs but the attitude that pedestrians need to be more cautious than cars is just the completely wrong attitude to breed in drivers. As a pedestrian I have a good idea of where cars are coming from and I'm not going to walk into one. Yet many drivers seem to think "I don't need even basic concern for pedestrians because they shouldn't force me to kill them." Then you see then zooming down a residential area or not indicating because pedestrians should apparently never leave their homes without a thick sheet of steel all around them.
+Para199x Agreed. Cars are deadly weapons with 6K odd people killed or maimed in accidents every DAY. In any other walk of life we would not stand for those sorts of numbers. If you take one out on the road, the responsibility to not kill or injure others with it, including the occupants, rests on you. It will be interesting to see how self-driving cars with their potential for "perfect diligence" affect things.
here in singapore people when using zebra crossing do look, nowdays in school we even have talks to how to cross it left, right, left or right, left, rights (even until the age of 12) and drivers are also generally nice(all drivers i seen always slow down a few meters ahead)
I had this issue just this morning, actually. I am legally blind, and I was crossing a multi-lane road when an ambulance (with the siren off because it was early in the morning, I suppose) sped through the intersection even though I had the correct signal. Luckily I saw them at the last minute...but still, I just keep an unhealthy distrust of any car or bicycle on the road. :)
Spanish roads have many crossings like this, where the pedestrians get priority to just walk out into the road. It works fine because they're so prevalent I guess, plus cars drive slower in order to be able to stop. Back in my home town in the UK, I can only think of one zebra crossing and many incidents where I've almost been run over using it, because they're so rare.
I used to have a problem where marked crosswalks in my neighborhood. Cars would drive through red light, just as the green crosswalk light would come on. I called the cops to complain about it. Then I said, "next week I'll take a metal shopping card and load it full of dogfood cans. Then I'll cross back and forth a few dozen times. The green pedestrian light comes on? Wham goes the shopping cart, full force, with me a bit behind it. " Police was not amused. They muttered something about me creating dangerous situations, but they knew I had them bend over the hood. A few days later the street was narrowed and they conducted a month of speeding violations. Problem evaporated really quickly.
Here in Canada (or at least Ontario) all crosswalks have big yellow light bars with an X on them that drape across the road. The bottom of these light bars is open so that the light can spill down and illuminate the walkway. Additionally, when a pedestrian presses the cross button, a second set of traffic-style lights starts flashing to get drivers' attention. Because of its height, other vehicles are less likely to block them and the flashing lights are in the middle of the road, not off to the side.
We do have quite a lot of shared space here (the Netherlands). I think that whether it will work or not depends on how it is done. They had shared space in our town, but placed some zebras there as well...
That's kind of a dumb comparison. I'm sure there was some more science to the whole thing but obviously crossing where cars won't stop is going to be, in a way, safer. Then you'll only cross when you know you can get across safely. I'm sure the study accounted for it as well, but you've also got to take into account drunk and vulnerable people who will use a crossing. I don't think the point of Zebra crossing is that they're safe anyway. It's more so you can cross the damn road. The pedestrianized-car hybrid thing seems like kind of shitty design to me. It's impractical in many places where cars don't want to go at walking pace and it would be better to just force cars to park before going into the town center rather than letting them drive around it.
I never really thought of them as being about safety but as being about having a place on the road where the pedestrian has right of way, something which is otherwise pretty situational.
at least in Britain drivers are good enough to stop for anyone waiting to cross at a zebra crossing. Pedestrians understand this and stand looking at oncoming traffic to make eye contact with drivers, watch them slow down and stop, and then know it's safe to cross. Abroad, drivers are not very likely to stop and so pedestrians just have to wait until there is a gap in the road traffic, as if there were no crossing markings at all.
Crosswalk. Grr, come on Tom, we’re British. This is in Britain. I get languages evolve but there’s no need to pander to the US audience. Down with this sort of thing! Zebra crossing. Always was and always will be.
In Florida they have crosswalks in the middle of multi lane roads and to avoid accidents there are flashing lights that pedestrians activate when they want to cross. Drivers can see them over a block away so it gives enough time for them to slow down and be prepared to stop for pedestrians. There are also signs all over telling people this so if someone is new to the area there is no excuse not to stop.
Or you could use traffic lights on multilayer roads ... Seems kind of an obvious solution. On ones with light foot traffic, you could even make them always green except when you push the button. I know those buttons usually do nothing, but there's no reason they can't be connected.
+Adam Safford they do that in a lot of places. most of those buttons aren't connected because they are usually in places where it makes more sense to just have regularly timed lights, but sometimes they are connected and if there are problems with crosswalks in some circumstances, this is a solution already in very widespread use.
This old video assumes that the intended purpose of a crosswalk is pedestrian safety. It's not. Crosswalks are there to limit how much pedestrians disrupt vehicle traffic. It's all about automobiles, no matter whether or not it makes sense, no matter whether or not anyone will admit it.
I always jay-walk as an act of rebellion against car dominance in our cities. It's ridiculous to think so much of our public space goes towards cars. I hope more people join in my little rebellion and jay-walk more often, cross roads slowly, and disrupt and hold up cars for longer, we can get people to seriously start reconsidering huge amounts of road space and make better quality pedestrian and public space.
As a bicyclist, I actually found crosswalks that supposedly give bicycles crossing the street - for example along bike paths - are actually more trouble than good. Sometimes cars will stop for me, other times they won't. I cannot cross until I am certain they are stopping. It would be easier if they weren't expected to stop, and nobody ever did, because that would be predictable, I'd always know what they're going to do, and could maneuver around such. Adjust my speed to not have to stop at all. Likewise it always drives me crazy when cars yield to me when they have right of way, again makes them unpredictable versus what I anticipate them doing. One not yielding when they don't have right of way is of course worse, but when they yield despite having right of way it causes more confusion. Likewise I can't trust cars to do what they're supposed to even when I have right of way, I must treat them as though they won't yield, so I'd honestly never have right of way and never have cars yield to me, except maybe when I have a green light - then things are always predictable.
Sorry if this offends anyone (to be fair it is the Internet, so it will) but if any pedestrian walks on a road regardless of crossing or not. It is their own life at risk. If people are not aware of their surroundings, it will be their fault. I know drivers have to be careful too. But they will not die. Always be aware of the bigger heavier thing that can potentially kill you.
Id agree if all the drivers actualy respected speed limits and all other traffic regulations, which they dont. They wont die, but the way you are typing this, while saying they need to be carefull to, soulds like they can be less carefull because they wont die if they hit someone else. Additionally in most countries, it is common etiquette to stop in front of a pedestrian crossing and let the people walking cross the road, if there is a lot of traffic and there are no stop lights. That also almost never happens.
+Joshua Hillerup There's a whole science of traffic management -- working out which type of crossing is best to use for each situation, based on use patterns, cost, and disruption. So I don't know why -- but given its history, this crossing won't be changing any time soon!
+Joshua Hillerup i think its because drivers will pay more attention to the stop lights than to the people in the cross walk. I drive for a living and I notice a lot of other drivers will see green or red and that is the only thing they need to make their decisions. But intersections are inherently dangerous places for both vehicles and pedestrian and we should always look for who is most vulnerable before we make a move. It almost comes down to an ego thing: I have the right of way so you get out of my way. By using ambiguous signals there is more uncertainty which could make people more cautious.
+Joshua Hillerup In Edinburgh the cyclists just ignore reds. I've almost been hit 3 times in the 6 months I've been here. Traffic seems more civilised in the West of Scotland.
+Joshua Hillerup Stop lights cause congestion in traffic and longer traffic jams. There's prolly, as Tom said, shitton of science on this topic.. But for very easy simulation, you can play games like Cities Skylines and see how cars behave on even small crossings with traffic lights.
Crosswalks at intersections makes sense for the sake of a pedestrian walking down one road, but it's almost a bad idea if you think about it this way: Most parts of a road are straight with no cross traffic of any type, cars or peds. An intersection with a crosswalk adds a lot of variables to the road that drivers suddenly have to focus on all at once. I often see that cars trying to turn will check for other cars, but not check in the crosswalk that they're about to drive through. You have to check for cars from one direction, and pedestrians from the other. I work right next to a busy intersection where pedestrians are hit by cars several times each year, usually because a turning car didn't see the person walking. If the crosswalks were several meters down the road, this wouldn't happen nearly as often.
It's also a good idea to assume that someone stopping ahead in the next lane is doing so for a good reason and therefore to stop beside them and evaluate the situation before proceeding.
One of the things that I had to learn and hammer it into my routine is whenever a car slows down or stops at a crosswalk on a multi-lane street, you should *break* and slow/stop likewise NO MATTER WHAT. If this was enforced as a rule by the police themselves we'd have made our roads a lot safer for pedestrians.
Some places have the same behaviour (like Japan, Australia, Mozambique...) but yes, you did remembered me THAT joke: "Storm on the Channel, Continent is isolated"
+Grizzly (IBearAVlog) It's true, to an extent. I visited Geneva with friends, and lost all ability to cross roads well, just because of the different traffic light system and the driving on the right.
+Grizzly (IBearAVlog) It's true, to an extent. I visited Geneva with friends, and lost all ability to cross roads well, just because of the different traffic light system and the driving on the right.
I love your videos, but please stop this American homogenised version of English. You are British, and not one British person would say crosswalk. Zebra crossing, yes. Pedestrian crossing, OK. Crosswalk, no, not in the uk.
+Elrarion2 I know - but he is British. Don't allow the standardiastion of English to US English. I have no problem with Americans calling it a crosswalk. But Tom is British, so stick with British English.
+jca111 How often do you hear an Aussie or a Kiwi using their colloquialisms on UA-cam? You really don't because they know that 90% their audience (American and otherwise) won't understand them and will just think, "Heh, he's talking like an Aussie. Funny." And they won't get anything from what they said. If you want to send a message to a large audience you make it easy for them to understand, especially on the internet where there is a majority of people using English as their second language and already don't understand anything.
Here in Boston it seems pedestrians have a different attitude towards traffic then other cities in the US. All crossing rules and postings are ignored. Its common to see people on the road vs other US cities. Drivers must be a little more cautious or at minimum aware of the surroundings. I remember they did a study a few years back and found the streets a little safer then other major cities because of this.
most zebra crossings in victoria australia have been replaced with a traffic light and a button for pedestrians to press, so the cars get a red light and the peds get a green person light, there are still zebra crossings in small towns and not so busy places, but more and more being replaced everyday, the ones we have now go red then flash amber meaning give way to peds still crossing, or if its clear you can go, so your not sitting waiting 3 min for someone fast, i think its far better than the zebs
In my town we have those fancy rather good crossing lights which have sensors to detect when people are waiting to cross and only have the lights change as long as necessary, and we have nothing at all in places where you need to look in three directions at once. Technology is key IMO
I'm sure there's a technical term for it but the reason why that statistic exists is because that is what you would expect to see. Most pedestrians cross the streets at crosswalks, ergo, most accidents involving cars and pedestrians will occur there. Same way with accidents near home. Most accidents occur less than 20 miles from home because that is where we spend most of our time and the 20 mile radius generally encompasses most of our regular destinations as well. Ergo, most accidents will occur within that given area.
About those multi line crossroads. I though it's a common law that if one car stops at a marked crossroad the cars next to it has to stop too. In Finland that law is very much not effective (as people often choose to not stop), but it is there expecially because otherwise you'd be run over. I do so hope that people would stop more often when there is a stopped car at the marked crossroad.
Here in Germany, there are rules about where a zebra crossing can be placed. On Multilane roads it has to be a pelican crossing with a traffic light, because, as you said, the traffic in the middle lanes can’t see if there is someone crossing. Also zebra crossings not allowed too close to corners and on curved roads. There has to be a straight stretch of road on both sides of the crossing to allow drivers enough time to see the pedestrian and stop in time. Also there has to be a clear view, (from the drivers point of view) of the pavement/sidewalk adjacent to the crossing. And so on. I hope that the British law makers have a similar set of rules for the UK. It would be madness to allow zebra crossings to be put just anywhere!
I like the idea of areas, where cars, bikes and pedestrians are equal. Experienced it once and it was amazing, how everyone watched out for each other. Also: In Germany, we have harder laws for crosswalks. Cars may only approach slower and pedestrians on crosswalks are *always* first. Ignoring the lawful priority of a pedastrian, not approaching slowly or even overtaking another car costs you 80 € and a traffic violation point(8 points and you lose your drivers licence).
Depending on the area, I'd say the ones linked up with traffic lights are much safer than just lines in the road. Most of the crosswalks in my part of America are tied to traffic lights. The ones that aren't are not as traveled by cars, but that doesn't mean they're safe, certainly, people love to go as fast as they can on roads all the time in the states. As far as I can tell, Japan usually has people obeying traffic laws and I've only ever seen a few people run a stop light, but I remember one morning around 3 or 4 I saw a guy who didn't even think about stopping when he came flying past a red light. Larger areas tend to have more people crossing and cars go fairly slow in those areas so they're much safer, but I usually use ones attached to side walks, granted I don't walk a lot in America I've walked and biked fairly often in Japan.
Or another alternative would be to have lights that indicate that the pedestrian is safe to use the crosswalk. In Canada, the crosswalks have flashing lights in the direction of the the vehicles that indicate that the cars should slow down. After a couple seconds, a secondary light flashes in the direction of the pedestrian to indicate that it now safe to cross. This allows any speeding cars (especially in -40 weather) to manage to go past without hopefully causing accidents.
This is one of the important things to know when driving:
If you're driving and the car on the other lane stops before a crossing, STOP. You might not realize it because you can't see it yourself, but that car is peobably stopping for a pedestrian that will be in your path in just a second.
That's the way you should go because it's spelled right out in any traffic law I know. You are not allowed to pass a car stopped before pedestrian crossing.
These kinds of crosswalks shouldn't exist IMO.
They're death traps for pedestrians.
If a crosswalk crosses a road with more than one lane in each direction, there should be a traffic light.
@@NewBuildmini No they should have cameras. Every driver who passes a stopped car in front of pedestrian crossing should get their driver's licence revoked for at leat a year. If they don't have one then automatic jail sentnce for a year. Drivers should learn to respect traffic laws.
Let me rephrase this statement. When you approach a crossing, you should drive at such a speed that you could brake before hitting anyone who could possibly appear in front of you. Whether they are hidden behind parked cars or suddenly run into the street at a weird angle, you must be able to stop in time. You can only proceed if you are sure that there is no danger to pedestrians. A car stopping in the lane next to you is just a strong indication that there is such a danger.
Best tip I got when I got my drivers license: assume everybody is a complete idiot.
My driving instructor told me "Two good drivers will not crash. One bad driver and one good driver will not crash. It takes two bad drivers to have a crash". If you're a good driver, then you are aware of your surroundings and ready to react to them to prevent a collision.
I assume you then chased him down in your car shouting "This is your fault too!"
well they are, why assume?
That’s what my mother told me
Also holds true for pedestrians.
Interesting discussion.
I was stationed in Alaska years ago. Upon arrival, we all received a briefing about the base.
One thing they pointed out on slides was some crosswalks. Then the instructor asked what those were.
People naturally said things like "crosswalks" and "places where it's safe to cross."
The instructor said, "Sure, but you need to remember that those crosswalk lines are NOT force fields or metal barriers. There will be snow or ice on the road for several months a year. If the road is icy and you step out in front of a moving car without warning, it will not stop, it can not stop, and the crosswalk won't magically make it stop."
if you are too fast to stop, when driving to a crossroad then you are a moron. It's still not the pedestrians fault but the drivers. (and yes, the pedestrian is the one going to get hurt)
@@DresdenFPV if there's ice on the road then it doesn't matter how fast or slow you're going. Also walking onto a crosswalk without checking whether any approaching cars are actually stopping is just plain negligent. I was, however, always taught that cars HAVE to stop if someone's waiting at the crosswalk, but I'm also neither from the US nor the UK so maybe the traffic laws vary here.
@@Phelie315 of course it matters. Yes you have way less friction, but saying "speed doesn't matter" is ridiculous. If you're going 100km/h when you know there might be frost around, then you are an idiot. If you are going 10km/h and still hit someone, then they might break some bone, but they probably won't die. And if you are going 10km/h you have more time to react, so you might have longer to come to a standstill. SPEED IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING when it comes to such situations.
I hope you are not allowed to control a car.
Best I was told by a homeless dude in New York: "ain't nobody ever got hit by the light". The moral? Watch the traffic, not the lights!
Homeless dudes give the best life advice.
i dont get it
or to an extent, watching the lights gives you an indication of what traffic is about to do
@@bluedogtransportwa yes but actually watching the traffic gives you a clearer indication
One time I didn't watch the light. Guess what? I hit the light.
0:00 "Abbey Road"
0:21 "Day trippers"
1:27 "We can work it out"
I thought I was the only one to realise it...
quietthomas gamingjoins
Did you guys watch the video again to make sure you didn't miss any, like I did? ;)
I dont get it
They are all Beatles song titles
Abbey Road isn't a song but an album. Still funny, I was hoping for a few more sneaky puns ;)
I was told as a kid you had right of way at a zebra crossing. Ive since been told thats not true. Terrible advice either way, always assume the driver wont slow and wait till they have seen you.
+xisumavoid i was told that as well
+xisumavoid I still think that drivers must stop if you are waiting and they have room/time to do so (on specifically a zebra crossing).
+xisumavoid In Serbia you have absolute right of way on zebras (we call them like that as well) and everywhere else if there is no crossing 100 metres left or right. Of course, it would be crazy to just cross the street without looking because drivers perhaps don't pay enough attention, speak on their phones or something similar. We have a proverb (kind of): don't end up in a grave with the inscription "he had the right of way". So, yeah, always looking both ways is probably a better advice for kids (and everyone else).
+xisumavoid Pedestrians have right of way only on the marked crossings in America. It's illegal for the vehicle not to stop, even if it's a bicycle, at least where I live.
+xisumavoid This really depends on what country you are in. In Norway, pedestrians allways have right of way, even where there isn't a crosswalk/zebra crossing. If a driver isn't paying attention, he will be charged, not the pedestrian
In the UK, drivers must give way to pedestrians waiting to cross at zebra crossings. Failing to do so is illegal, so if you step out on to one and get hit by a car, the driver's at fault. Of course most people will wait for the cars to stop before crossing as getting run over, even if you're in the right, is extremely painful. :-)
My dad always told me: "Right of way doesn't matter once you're dead on the pavement."
Yeah I always wait for cars to stop. I look silly in front of friends who dart out but I couldn't give a crap. It's saved my life on crossings so many times
Actually you only have to give way when the pedestrian actually steps onto the crossing.
Being technically right is the best kind of right.
Marc - incorrect. If you read the Highway Code, Rule 19 cars DO NOT have to stop for someone waiting. They must stop for people ON the crossing, but that’s not to say you should just step out
Another interpretation of the Netherlands study might be that simply slowing down cars is the most important factor in improving pedestrian safety. Great video!
My personal safety rule for using a crosswalk is to treat it like you're a jaywalker (who is not fast but wants to keep living) - wait until traffic is slowed, stopped, or far away from the crosswalk before starting off. Where I live, a good amount of caution is important due to ice on the roads.
I have never seen someone not be like this in Canada. Maybe this is a European thing?
The interesting thing that I've found is that I feel like crossing a road maybe 100ft down from an intersection is sometimes less dangerous simply because the intersection is far more busy.
There's an intersection near me that I noticed this at. I don't fully trust any driver at the intersection until they stop, and even then I have to double check everyone to make sure they're not going to turn into me, even if they have no signals on because dumbasses around here don't use signals, which means that even when everyone is stopped I am exceedingly jumpy about whether or not I am about to get hit.
If I cross about 100ft down, I only have to pay attention to one direction of traffic, then I get to the median, and I only have to pay attention to one other direction of traffic, and I know they aren't looking out for me, so I don't cross until they have about 2-3x as much distance as I might give if I were making a left/right in a car.
@@theajayyy It's the opposite here in England. You can step onto the crossing with a car just a few seconds away and it'll stop for you without any problems.
@@ajs41 unless it's an idiot playing on his/her phone while driving, or some idiot parked their car too close so you can't see anything. I'm quite cautious even on a crossing.
I swear, you must be the most considerate able-bodied youtuber or even *communicator* that I know of. You rarely, if ever, fail to bring up disability issues where they are relevant, while most who haven't experienced them just... don't think about it. Maybe it's just your attention to detail, but I'm sure that you've actively made the decision to include these things in your scripts, and it's really, really nice that you do that. Plus, you practice accessibility, which is hecka sweet.
Congratulations on 300k, well deserved
+Joseph X not yet
+cheytacsnipes Give it 15 minutes
+Joseph X it's been 15 minutes 23 left
+Joseph X www.livecounts.x10host.com/?channel=Tom%20Scott
one away now
+Benjamin Consterdine (Ben) aaaand we're there
"Shared spaces" is the standard for roads in Japan. For those moments where you get an honest-to-God sidewalk, you feel like a damned king!
My driving instructor told me that the habit of naming crossings after animals came from the Pelican crossing. Originally, it was an abbreviation, PeLiCon, or PEdestrian LIght-CONtrolled. Then came the zebra, which had black-and-white stripes, and from then on, all crossings were just named after animals.Also, I would suggest that this thing about more people being killed or injured on crossings is largely just due to the fact that more people cross at a crossing than a given place where there isn't one.
I was just reading about this a few weeks ago. Sometimes renovating a road to make it safer actually increases the accident rate, because people drive less cautiously now that they don't have to worry about potholes and debris. Sometimes adding signage to a dangerous stretch of road just pushes the problem area forward - accident rates go down in that area, but once people have passed that section, they feel like they're out of danger, get a false sense of security, and drive even less cautiously than they were before, increasing accident rates in the _next_ stretch of road.
Tom you don't deserve to have 300,000 subs. Your videos should be viewed by millions.
Agrees!
o.o he's 8 away from 300,000
+Nyan KitKat (abandoned quiche) 299.999 atm
+Unbound - CSGO nvm, refreshed and 7 people unsubbed XD
I agree, his videos are awesome!
while those markings dont make pedestrians safer it does improve the speed at which you can cross the road ...maybe not at abbey road but drivers stop much more frequently at a crossing than when there is just a pedestrian trying to cross at an unmarked point in the road
Here in Argentina we look both sides before crossing even in an one direction street
thats stuped
British drivers are getting a lot worse compared to 20 or 30 years ago. Theyre starting to drive like Italians and French people.
I'm a Canadian who went to Argentina twice (2014, 2018) to study in Buenos Aires, and then to travel. I spent many weeks there, and a few days in other cities and towns (Córdoba, Salta, Mendoza).
Argentinians roads, and especially Buenos Aires, are not safe compared to North America and Europe. Taxi drivers go in opposite directions to traffic, seat belts seems to be optional, as well as speed limits. People are driving like maniacs, yelling "¡Boludo!" to everyone they think are stupid.
Argentina is not a reference. Ha ha!
In Colombia too, in case any motorcycle is going the wrong way :v
As an Imperial College student I regularly use exhibition road and I'm very surprised there aren't more accidents, especially given the number of toursists in that area who would probably be looking out for road signs!
They have started to roll out "count down" crossing signs at major intersections in Pittsburgh. Its the first thing I have ever seen that has actually reduced jaywalking, especially on multilane streets.
Before this, you would see crossings that went walk for about 2 seconds before going don't walk. So everyone simply ignored them and crossed whenever they felt like. Now that you know you have 8 or so seconds to go, you can judge if you are walking fast enough.
Even better, people that are crossing as it ticks down towards the end, actually move faster, due to a sort of "hurry up the clock is running out!" psychology.
FWIW, I am partially sighted, due to extreme light sensitivity. I generally don't go outside without my walking stick (marked with white and red reflective tape) and guide cane (ditto).
The cues blind people use for street crossing are usually not the ones that you do. In London, many crosswalks have indicators (some with the little spinning tactile nubs), but many don't, or they're broken. Or I can't tell exactly which way it goes. (It's hardly ever exactly perpendicular, and the paint is often too worn to feel by cane.)
Rather, there are a lot of audio and vibration / wind related cues. Car idling sounds (at least, if they're not electric); echolocation against the other side (if there are buildings); aligning with the sound of traffic; other pedestrians (though that's not very reliable, since people often cross with not much margin and faster than I can); etc.
On the plus side, a white cane tends to get you *waaaay* more berth than you might think. On the down side, random people suddenly grabbing you by the arm is an actual danger.
I think you might find it interesting to learn - particularly the echolocation, which is something you already have access to and just aren't processing. Can show you sometime if you want (I'm in London).
I'm sure people trying to do the Abbey Road cover themselves aren't helping matters.
I would be photobombing the hell out of them, just for spite.
+Farmeryeti I have driven down Abbey rd hundreds of times and you really have to look out. If you stop for people to cross then you have to wait sometimes 20-30 seconds before their photographer has the right frame and they are ready to go so you just wind up sitting around getting frustrated, if you decide to go anyway then they will begin to cross. I really hate it when they stop to pose in the middle of the road.I am surprised that their aren't many injuries, in fact I wonder how many there are every year?
It's a shame the Beatles didn't make an album cover of them jumping off Beachy Head.
@@thedave7760 That sounds like a problem that could easily be solved with a simple bobby. It would pay for itself in a matter of hours.
It has to be illegal right? It should be
I often avoid crosswalks unless they're directly on my path. Most crosswalks are near intersections, where you have to watch for cars in two directions instead of just two.
+Shawn Ravenfire Yeah, I hate it when I have to "watch for cars in two directions instead of just two." ;-)
BTW, I actually know what you meant, and agree.
rowhsv Ha! Good catch. I'm not even going to correct it. :)
I added Finnish subtitles to this video! UA-cam's systhem of creating them isn't as bad as you made it out to be, though. It was way worse a year ago.
I'm partially sighted. It's shared space in Preston and I can't tell if a car is going to go or wait for me (I can't see the person in the car never mind their hand signals). So I don't like it.
My experience of that shared purpose section in South Kensington is that most pedestrians have no idea it is anything other than a footpath. First time I walked there I got honked at for that very reason, I had no inkling that it was for cars too!
the editing on this one is quite good. i.e. the bus suddenly appearing out of the right when talking about people stepping out into dangerous traffic :)
And then there are traffic lights on crosswalks. I live near a spot where there has been a crosswalk for decades, across a simple 4-lane road, with 2 lanes occupied by tram tracks. It's not a particularly traffic-heavy street, and traffic ceases entirely about every minute or half because of intersections with traffic lights nearby. It was usually safe to cross and cars even stopped for pedestrians surprisingly often. Until recently... Some idiot decided to install traffic lights. Not even lights that are synchronized with other intersections, but lights that trigger a cycle when pedestrians press a button. So now, if you want to obey the law, you have to press the button, wait about 1.5 a minute until the car lights turn red, and when you're finally crossing on a green light that lasts 10 seconds, you're blocking a tram, which is now another minute past schedule.
But what do I know... "Traffic engineers", they deem themselves... (sorry for the rant)
+turbo pascal I'd personally be more worried about the trams, as their stopping distance is much longer and obviously they can't swerve to avoid you.
Ralphie Raccoon No, that's not an issue there. They do have plenty of time to stop before pedestrians are shown a green.
+turbo pascal A lot of times in crosswalks near where I live, the button does not even do anything. It's just there for show, I guess.
IME, it does do something - it turns on the beeping sound and the little rotating doodah under the box for the sight impaired to know when to cross. The beeping is often turned off by default so that it's not bugging the nearby residents at 2am.
Rand Knight That is a neat thing, but we were talking about buttons that _trigger_ the traffic lights cycle, and here where I live, those buttons don't have such fancy features. They're just tiny yellow boxes that want to tell you how much car drivers are superior to pedestrians.
One great tip I got when I started driving: “Right of way never changed the laws of physics”
Here in Spain we also call them "Paso de cebra", zebra crossing.
Same in Dutch, "zebrapad" or zebra path.
And in Dutch, Zebrastreifen. I don't know why Tom panders to the Americans audience, when the things were invented in Britain. At the very least, call them pedestrian crossings. The word "crosswalk" is virtually unused outside North America.
@@SeverityOne I'm willing to bet Americans constitute the largest demographic of his viewers. And like it or not, American English is more widely understood by most non-native speakers nowadays due to the prevalence of American pop culture in media/entertainment.
@@lmesen1873 Doesn't make it any less silly, though.
That's a fascinating and counterintuitive result. I have some follow-up questions:
1. How does the presence of a crosswalk affect average time to cross the road (including waiting time) for pedestrians?
2. How is the number of crossings per day affected? Does the presence/absence of a crosswalk discourage or encourage people to cross or not cross at all?
3. Does the risk of a crosswalk accident depend on the density of crosswalks? Are cars better or worse at handling crosswalks when they encounter them all the time vs. only rarely?
In my town (in the US), most of the crosswalks are at stop lights and have indicators that tell you when to cross and not
+Joseph Schmitz That's the majority of crossings here in the UK but we do have a high number of either unmarked crossings or Zebra crossings like you saw in the video.
+Joseph Schmitz Same in France, most crosswalks are at intersections and guarded by stop lights, but not all of them. Besides, when you’re crossing at an intersection, the lights are green for the road parallel to where you’re crossing, so you still have to watch out for vehicles coming from there.
Those become less viable in urban areas where pedestrians can outnumber drivers. Also, a walk sign doesn't necessarily mean it's safe to walk. Often drivers will see the right-turn arrow turn green and just peel out. All of the times I've thought I was about to get hit by a car, I was using a crosswalk when it told me to go.
+JoeJoeTater The right-turn thing is something to be careful with, especially in states where you can turn right even on red (unless otherwise indicated).
+JoeJoeTater In the UK there's no implicit turn left through a red light (unless there's a dedicated green lit filter). Also even when there is a filter, it won't be green at the same time as the right turn's pedestrian light. That's something that I found really crazy in Rome; they have right turn filters, but they aren't exclusive, so pedestrians will quite frequently find cars filtering through them as they cross. It's terrifyingly disorganised and dangerous. Also if you wait for even a single Roman driver to give way to a waiting pedestrian, you'll be there all day long.
"We can work it out." OMG Tom! You had to say that with the most famous crosswalk in the entire world as your background. It must be fun to walk across where the Beatles were.
A schoolmate got ran over and killed today while crossing a crosswalk literally in front of our school. I didn't really know her, but it still bums you out when everyone around you is bummed out.
Crosswalks don't seem to do much for me, here in the states they're mostly at intersections, and it seems like half the time drivers don't pay attention to the crosswalks and the other half of the time pedestrians just go without even clicking the button. It's sad, it's so much safer to just do it in the middle of a straight two lane road (which we have a lot of) and make sure for yourself there's no cars coming.
Where on Earth do you live? That sounds like New York or Florida or something. Lemme tell you, where I'm from, people bother to obey road laws.
@@minimalgrammar1276 as a Floridian, can confirm, this is exactly how it goes (not being sarcastic)
@@Egerit100
Florida will forever fascinate us all.
“We can work it out.” Well played, sir. Well played indeed.
1:57 that driver's supposed to stop...
The pedestrians weren't in the crosswalk yet, and at the time drivers weren't required to stop for waiting pedestrians.
We should be allowed to plow through anyone holding up traffic by recreating the Beatles Album Cover
You are, as long as the tourists are bow-wielding Scotsmen and are trying to make some crosswalk in York appear to be the one on Abbey Road.
Well it does have to be specifically inside the bar walls as well. I was always told as a kid as well that it had to be at night and with a bow yourself from the bar walls, but I assume that was just embellishment as the story gets passed around.
in fact, it should be encouraged
Its only one crossroad. If anyone tries it anywhere other than that exact crossroad, then yes, but let the tourists have their fun there
“Given how often day trippers recreating that album cover hold up traffic..” I see what you did there Tom.
I almost want to play this video for a Strong Towns crowd or pedestrian advisory committee mostly to see how many arguments would start over this.
On a more serious note, I think this video actually misses a key point in this debate: road width. That isn't mentioned in the US DOT study, and it's something to consider with regard to pedestrians being able to cross roads safely (especially multilane roads). I feel like if this video were ever to be remade this should be mentioned.
Zebra crossings are definitely not the safest way to cross a road. Particularly in the area I live. The people behind the planning of the local roads in their infinite wisdom have decided there needs to be a Zebra crossing within ten feet of the exit of every roundabout. For the most part these crossings aren't visible until you exit from the roundabout. Causing plenty of people to have to slam on the brakes. The amount of accidents this causes is crazy. We need something safer like stilts big enough to step over the road in a single stride.
Off course the alternative is putting it further from the roundabout, whicg wpuld mean drivers were already accelerating away from it and thus pose greater danger to pedestrians.
+magaz As someone who has to walk a lot I absolutely hate those kinds of crossings. Roundabouts are good for road traffic but as a pedestrian there can often be too much going on to figure out when it's safe to cross or not. It doesn't help with the number of drivers around here who don't bother indicating when they turn.
JimJamtheSailor Oh my glob, YES! And every now and then there’s a driver frantically waving you on but they’re NOT INDICATING. If everyone paid a little attention together, some of us wouldn’t have to pay all of the attention alone.
Most stilts don't help much with lift; you're higher up, but the stilt feet aren't. So I guess ziplines it is.
A well designed roundabout is actually very safe for pedestrians as traffic is slowed down significantly and cars leaving it approach you at a right angle, not from behind you.
Badly designed ones are lethal.
Hey Mr. Scott! This showed up on my paid-for driving class a-alert to educate me on crosswalk courtesy, so bv thanks for helping me and many others get a license!
The use for crosswalks is to give you priority over cars, so that they have to stop for you on a busy day.
That shared space road looks terrifying, you have to be scared of being run over and watch out for cars all the time...
Here in Czech Republic you are actually required to slow down and be ready to stop if you see that someone might be crossing.
In Edinburgh 90% of cyclists don't know what a red light is so even at a pelican crossing they just shoot through. I'm pretty sure they think it's red for MOAR SPEED. It's one of the reasons I never drive here. I'd be terrified of taking one out. In either case I'm always very cautious crossing the road. The green cross code was drilled into me as a kid.
Was alway pretty careful cycling in the burg as a kid. At the very least I'd get off my bike and cross as a pedestrian at the red. Once I did almost get run over by a van speeding through the red light while I was crossing on foot with my bike right enough.
Edinburgh cyclists might be bad but Aberdeen drivers are every bit their equal. Must take a fair bit of courage to cycle on the roads of the granite city.
Nearly got run over the other day on Gorgie Road because a cyclist didn't stop at the crossing outside Scotmid. Whenever we talk about cyclists and cars we rightly think of cyclists as the at-risk road user and we design policy around them. This is a good thing. But at crossings the pedestrian is the at-risk user. A cyclist going at a fair clip could easily kill a pedestrian crossing the road.
Mark Pentler I have a couple cyclist friends. One is super responsible, another I'm not sure about and one is one of the irresponsible ones that I see so often.
Yes, we do have those shared spaces, and they're pretty comfortable to walk! Nice open space, and when a car passes by, you just get out of the way for a bit. And the driver isn't annoyed because they already know pedestrians will be everywhere.
Similarly we have something that best translates as "cycle lanes" in addition to regular cycle paths. Cycles lanes are lanes that are shared between cyclists and cars, and the car is supposed to be the "guest", where normally it'd be the other way around. They're pretty rare and not always well marked as such, so I'm not too sure about the safety. But it's a thing nonetheless and for now, it seems to hold up.
In Chinese, we call them Zebra Crossing/Zebra Line as well. Prob, a paraphrase.
Same in German.
Thank you for measuring the problem with shared spaces and visual impairment. I am severely visually impaired and they change some local streets where are used to live to share spaces and I was terrified.
My general assumption as a driver is that all pedestrians are insane. My general assumption as a pedestrian is that all drivers are insane.
Try riding a bicycle. You have to assume everyone's insane, including you.
Here in germany zebra strips are usually accompanied by signs so drivers can see from afar that they are approaching one, and they have to watch for pedestrians that want to cross, and pedestrians must unambiguously sign that they want to cross and wait for a clear sign that the driver will stop before crossing. You can often see kids standing at the side of the road, holding out their arms as if they want to block traffic to indicate that they want to cross. I think with that scheme adding a zebra strip to a point where its unsafe to otherwise cross the street is going to help in adding safety. But when the municipalities have the money, the add pedestrian operated traffic lights anywhere they can anyways (with integrated zebra, just in case the traffic light fails which then means it falls back to zebra rules).
what is that orange car at 0:07?
+Interceptor810 Bond Bug
Interceptor810 bond bug. It is the thing that the Star Wars episode IV X-34 landspeeder was based off.
A *Bond* Bug at 007? Nice one, Tom.
Came to the comments just for that info... bravo!
In many US states it's illegal to drive over a marked crosswalk when there's a pedestrian on any part of it, which leads people in all lanes to stop if anyone in any lane is stopped at the crosswalk.
Simple facts: A pedestrian hit by a car often dies or suffers grave injuries. A driver hitting a pedestrian almost always emerges unscathed from the accident.
Simple conclusion: No matter what the road signs, traffic lights etc. say, the pedestrian must ascertain that he can cross safely.
+NewFormofSilence Simple facts: A careless driver can very easily kill others (and themselves). A careless pedestrian is only really a danger to themselves.
Simple conclusion: Even though it is sensible for pedestrians to look after their own safety - it is much more important that drivers are doing their due diligence.
Most do, safe is relative. Something that looks safe to a pedestrian on one side can look unsafe to a pedestrian on the other side. Also dont think the driver is scratchless, train drivers where people jump in front off would disagree.
+NewFormofSilence Obviously pedestrians should avoid death at all costs but the attitude that pedestrians need to be more cautious than cars is just the completely wrong attitude to breed in drivers.
As a pedestrian I have a good idea of where cars are coming from and I'm not going to walk into one. Yet many drivers seem to think "I don't need even basic concern for pedestrians because they shouldn't force me to kill them." Then you see then zooming down a residential area or not indicating because pedestrians should apparently never leave their homes without a thick sheet of steel all around them.
+Para199x Agreed. Cars are deadly weapons with 6K odd people killed or maimed in accidents every DAY. In any other walk of life we would not stand for those sorts of numbers.
If you take one out on the road, the responsibility to not kill or injure others with it, including the occupants, rests on you. It will be interesting to see how self-driving cars with their potential for "perfect diligence" affect things.
here in singapore people when using zebra crossing do look, nowdays in school we even have talks to how to cross it left, right, left or right, left, rights (even until the age of 12)
and drivers are also generally nice(all drivers i seen always slow down a few meters ahead)
0:03 What kind of car is that?
+Nathan A RF That is a Bond Bug, a type of microcar
Its a pt cruiser dude
I had this issue just this morning, actually. I am legally blind, and I was crossing a multi-lane road when an ambulance (with the siren off because it was early in the morning, I suppose) sped through the intersection even though I had the correct signal. Luckily I saw them at the last minute...but still, I just keep an unhealthy distrust of any car or bicycle on the road. :)
0:21 “day trippers re-creating the album cover” I see what you did there
1:27 We Can Work It Out as well hahaha
Spanish roads have many crossings like this, where the pedestrians get priority to just walk out into the road. It works fine because they're so prevalent I guess, plus cars drive slower in order to be able to stop. Back in my home town in the UK, I can only think of one zebra crossing and many incidents where I've almost been run over using it, because they're so rare.
I used to have a problem where marked crosswalks in my neighborhood. Cars would drive through red light, just as the green crosswalk light would come on. I called the cops to complain about it. Then I said, "next week I'll take a metal shopping card and load it full of dogfood cans. Then I'll cross back and forth a few dozen times. The green pedestrian light comes on? Wham goes the shopping cart, full force, with me a bit behind it. "
Police was not amused. They muttered something about me creating dangerous situations, but they knew I had them bend over the hood. A few days later the street was narrowed and they conducted a month of speeding violations. Problem evaporated really quickly.
Here in Canada (or at least Ontario) all crosswalks have big yellow light bars with an X on them that drape across the road. The bottom of these light bars is open so that the light can spill down and illuminate the walkway. Additionally, when a pedestrian presses the cross button, a second set of traffic-style lights starts flashing to get drivers' attention. Because of its height, other vehicles are less likely to block them and the flashing lights are in the middle of the road, not off to the side.
299,999 subs, nice.
Love that you added the “We can work it out” Beatles reference.
What's happening with Citation Needed? I thought you said a while ago you guys had recorded a new series and it just needed editing?
+room120times First episode comes out this Thursday!
+Tom Scott Yay! Never really checked before, but is there an option to listen to episodes without the bleeping bleeps? :D
+Tom Scott Marvelous!
I agree; it makes no sense for a web series to censor swears. Or at least have censoring off by default, and use timestamps to add bleeps.
@@CJT3X Demonitisation
We do have quite a lot of shared space here (the Netherlands). I think that whether it will work or not depends on how it is done. They had shared space in our town, but placed some zebras there as well...
That's kind of a dumb comparison. I'm sure there was some more science to the whole thing but obviously crossing where cars won't stop is going to be, in a way, safer. Then you'll only cross when you know you can get across safely. I'm sure the study accounted for it as well, but you've also got to take into account drunk and vulnerable people who will use a crossing.
I don't think the point of Zebra crossing is that they're safe anyway. It's more so you can cross the damn road. The pedestrianized-car hybrid thing seems like kind of shitty design to me. It's impractical in many places where cars don't want to go at walking pace and it would be better to just force cars to park before going into the town center rather than letting them drive around it.
I never really thought of them as being about safety but as being about having a place on the road where the pedestrian has right of way, something which is otherwise pretty situational.
Abbey road is the only zebra you don’t give way to pedestrians, you will never get moving again once you stop for someone
at least in Britain drivers are good enough to stop for anyone waiting to cross at a zebra crossing. Pedestrians understand this and stand looking at oncoming traffic to make eye contact with drivers, watch them slow down and stop, and then know it's safe to cross. Abroad, drivers are not very likely to stop and so pedestrians just have to wait until there is a gap in the road traffic, as if there were no crossing markings at all.
Crosswalk. Grr, come on Tom, we’re British. This is in Britain. I get languages evolve but there’s no need to pander to the US audience. Down with this sort of thing! Zebra crossing. Always was and always will be.
In Florida they have crosswalks in the middle of multi lane roads and to avoid accidents there are flashing lights that pedestrians activate when they want to cross. Drivers can see them over a block away so it gives enough time for them to slow down and be prepared to stop for pedestrians. There are also signs all over telling people this so if someone is new to the area there is no excuse not to stop.
Or you could use traffic lights on multilayer roads ... Seems kind of an obvious solution. On ones with light foot traffic, you could even make them always green except when you push the button. I know those buttons usually do nothing, but there's no reason they can't be connected.
+Adam Safford they do that in a lot of places. most of those buttons aren't connected because they are usually in places where it makes more sense to just have regularly timed lights, but sometimes they are connected and if there are problems with crosswalks in some circumstances, this is a solution already in very widespread use.
+Adam Safford Not that rare, but there will usually be an island too.
+Sam Yes, the one near my auntie's house in southwest London is connected. I press the button and the cars stop. I feel so powerful. :)
This old video assumes that the intended purpose of a crosswalk is pedestrian safety. It's not. Crosswalks are there to limit how much pedestrians disrupt vehicle traffic. It's all about automobiles, no matter whether or not it makes sense, no matter whether or not anyone will admit it.
I always jay-walk as an act of rebellion against car dominance in our cities. It's ridiculous to think so much of our public space goes towards cars. I hope more people join in my little rebellion and jay-walk more often, cross roads slowly, and disrupt and hold up cars for longer, we can get people to seriously start reconsidering huge amounts of road space and make better quality pedestrian and public space.
You consider jaywalking an act of rebellion?
You are the kind of people I dislike.
As a bicyclist, I actually found crosswalks that supposedly give bicycles crossing the street - for example along bike paths - are actually more trouble than good. Sometimes cars will stop for me, other times they won't. I cannot cross until I am certain they are stopping. It would be easier if they weren't expected to stop, and nobody ever did, because that would be predictable, I'd always know what they're going to do, and could maneuver around such. Adjust my speed to not have to stop at all. Likewise it always drives me crazy when cars yield to me when they have right of way, again makes them unpredictable versus what I anticipate them doing. One not yielding when they don't have right of way is of course worse, but when they yield despite having right of way it causes more confusion. Likewise I can't trust cars to do what they're supposed to even when I have right of way, I must treat them as though they won't yield, so I'd honestly never have right of way and never have cars yield to me, except maybe when I have a green light - then things are always predictable.
Sorry if this offends anyone (to be fair it is the Internet, so it will) but if any pedestrian walks on a road regardless of crossing or not. It is their own life at risk.
If people are not aware of their surroundings, it will be their fault.
I know drivers have to be careful too. But they will not die.
Always be aware of the bigger heavier thing that can potentially kill you.
+Kira Alteric your mother was a mini bus!
😱
If you live in the uk, perhaps you should reaquaint yourself with the highway code.
Id agree if all the drivers actualy respected speed limits and all other traffic regulations, which they dont. They wont die, but the way you are typing this, while saying they need to be carefull to, soulds like they can be less carefull because they wont die if they hit someone else.
Additionally in most countries, it is common etiquette to stop in front of a pedestrian crossing and let the people walking cross the road, if there is a lot of traffic and there are no stop lights. That also almost never happens.
I had to keep rewinding the part with the parents swinging the kid because I completely zoned out remembering how fun that was.
Why not just use stop lights?
+Joshua Hillerup There's a whole science of traffic management -- working out which type of crossing is best to use for each situation, based on use patterns, cost, and disruption. So I don't know why -- but given its history, this crossing won't be changing any time soon!
+Joshua Hillerup i think its because drivers will pay more attention to the stop lights than to the people in the cross walk. I drive for a living and I notice a lot of other drivers will see green or red and that is the only thing they need to make their decisions. But intersections are inherently dangerous places for both vehicles and pedestrian and we should always look for who is most vulnerable before we make a move. It almost comes down to an ego thing: I have the right of way so you get out of my way. By using ambiguous signals there is more uncertainty which could make people more cautious.
+Joshua Hillerup In Edinburgh the cyclists just ignore reds. I've almost been hit 3 times in the 6 months I've been here. Traffic seems more civilised in the West of Scotland.
+Joshua Hillerup Stop lights cause congestion in traffic and longer traffic jams. There's prolly, as Tom said, shitton of science on this topic.. But for very easy simulation, you can play games like Cities Skylines and see how cars behave on even small crossings with traffic lights.
+Joshua Hillerup Also a bridge would be an option BUT who pays for it?
Crosswalks at intersections makes sense for the sake of a pedestrian walking down one road, but it's almost a bad idea if you think about it this way: Most parts of a road are straight with no cross traffic of any type, cars or peds. An intersection with a crosswalk adds a lot of variables to the road that drivers suddenly have to focus on all at once. I often see that cars trying to turn will check for other cars, but not check in the crosswalk that they're about to drive through. You have to check for cars from one direction, and pedestrians from the other. I work right next to a busy intersection where pedestrians are hit by cars several times each year, usually because a turning car didn't see the person walking. If the crosswalks were several meters down the road, this wouldn't happen nearly as often.
It's simple, don't walk out in front of German cars, the drivers are too important to stop.
Except in Germany. Crossing the street is very safe there, as long as you obey the traffic rules strictly yourself.
Don't walk out in front of American drivers either. They're too full of themselves to stop. - Signed - An American pedestrian.
It's also a good idea to assume that someone stopping ahead in the next lane is doing so for a good reason and therefore to stop beside them and evaluate the situation before proceeding.
Pedestrian bridges are another solution.
TheGregory Colin Elevators and Escalators, too. Duh.
not a waste of money at all
One of the things that I had to learn and hammer it into my routine is whenever a car slows down or stops at a crosswalk on a multi-lane street, you should *break* and slow/stop likewise NO MATTER WHAT.
If this was enforced as a rule by the police themselves we'd have made our roads a lot safer for pedestrians.
Let also add, in Brittain, the trouble of watching different side of the road than the rest of Europe, indeed ^_^
anyway we somehow (and sometime) refer to them with "zebra crossing" even here in Italy
+Grizzly (IBearAVlog) No, there's no problem in Britain. There's only a problem in the rest of the world. :)
Some places have the same behaviour (like Japan, Australia, Mozambique...) but yes, you did remembered me THAT joke: "Storm on the Channel, Continent is isolated"
+Grizzly (IBearAVlog) It's true, to an extent. I visited Geneva with friends, and lost all ability to cross roads well, just because of the different traffic light system and the driving on the right.
+Grizzly (IBearAVlog) It's true, to an extent. I visited Geneva with friends, and lost all ability to cross roads well, just because of the different traffic light system and the driving on the right.
I'm not sure how it is in the UK, but in north America the vast majority of road intersections are considered crosswalks even if they are unmarked.
I love your videos, but please stop this American homogenised version of English. You are British, and not one British person would say crosswalk. Zebra crossing, yes. Pedestrian crossing, OK. Crosswalk, no, not in the uk.
+Elrarion2 I know - but he is British. Don't allow the standardiastion of English to US English. I have no problem with Americans calling it a crosswalk. But Tom is British, so stick with British English.
+jca111 How often do you hear an Aussie or a Kiwi using their colloquialisms on UA-cam? You really don't because they know that 90% their audience (American and otherwise) won't understand them and will just think, "Heh, he's talking like an Aussie. Funny." And they won't get anything from what they said. If you want to send a message to a large audience you make it easy for them to understand, especially on the internet where there is a majority of people using English as their second language and already don't understand anything.
+baums547 I suppose fair enough, but I didn't personally sail the seas and impose our standards!
*in youtube headquarters*
2017 - nah
2018 - no
2019 - still no
2020 - not yet
2021 - NOW, RECCOMEND AWAY
Well most pedestrians don't understand that zebra crossings don't require the car to stop by law, its just a courtesy
Depends on your country. In mine you definitely have to stop for pedestrians wanting to cross. So please don't phrase it this broadly.
Here in Boston it seems pedestrians have a different attitude towards traffic then other cities in the US. All crossing rules and postings are ignored. Its common to see people on the road vs other US cities. Drivers must be a little more cautious or at minimum aware of the surroundings. I remember they did a study a few years back and found the streets a little safer then other major cities because of this.
I'm sure the belisha beacons we have with our zebra crossing make them safer, as it makes them far more visible to drivers, especially at night
most zebra crossings in victoria australia have been replaced with a traffic light and a button for pedestrians to press, so the cars get a red light and the peds get a green person light, there are still zebra crossings in small towns and not so busy places, but more and more being replaced everyday, the ones we have now go red then flash amber meaning give way to peds still crossing, or if its clear you can go, so your not sitting waiting 3 min for someone fast, i think its far better than the zebs
In my town we have those fancy rather good crossing lights which have sensors to detect when people are waiting to cross and only have the lights change as long as necessary, and we have nothing at all in places where you need to look in three directions at once. Technology is key IMO
congrats on 300k. You deserve more.
I'm sure there's a technical term for it but the reason why that statistic exists is because that is what you would expect to see. Most pedestrians cross the streets at crosswalks, ergo, most accidents involving cars and pedestrians will occur there. Same way with accidents near home. Most accidents occur less than 20 miles from home because that is where we spend most of our time and the 20 mile radius generally encompasses most of our regular destinations as well. Ergo, most accidents will occur within that given area.
About those multi line crossroads. I though it's a common law that if one car stops at a marked crossroad the cars next to it has to stop too. In Finland that law is very much not effective (as people often choose to not stop), but it is there expecially because otherwise you'd be run over. I do so hope that people would stop more often when there is a stopped car at the marked crossroad.
Tom, you should have mentioned to look up the late Hans Monderman as a big proponent of the shared space idea. Brilliant guy
Here in Germany, there are rules about where a zebra crossing can be placed. On Multilane roads it has to be a pelican crossing with a traffic light, because, as you said, the traffic in the middle lanes can’t see if there is someone crossing. Also zebra crossings not allowed too close to corners and on curved roads. There has to be a straight stretch of road on both sides of the crossing to allow drivers enough time to see the pedestrian and stop in time. Also there has to be a clear view, (from the drivers point of view) of the pavement/sidewalk adjacent to the crossing. And so on. I hope that the British law makers have a similar set of rules for the UK. It would be madness to allow zebra crossings to be put just anywhere!
Crosswalk? *It’s a bloody ZEBRA CROSSING*
i like all your videos tom scott and matt gray
I like the idea of areas, where cars, bikes and pedestrians are equal. Experienced it once and it was amazing, how everyone watched out for each other.
Also: In Germany, we have harder laws for crosswalks. Cars may only approach slower and pedestrians on crosswalks are *always* first. Ignoring the lawful priority of a pedastrian, not approaching slowly or even overtaking another car costs you 80 € and a traffic violation point(8 points and you lose your drivers licence).
Oh yes. Overtaking at a crosswalks is extremely dangerous as the pedestrian can't see the other car. Both can't see each other.
Depending on the area, I'd say the ones linked up with traffic lights are much safer than just lines in the road. Most of the crosswalks in my part of America are tied to traffic lights. The ones that aren't are not as traveled by cars, but that doesn't mean they're safe, certainly, people love to go as fast as they can on roads all the time in the states.
As far as I can tell, Japan usually has people obeying traffic laws and I've only ever seen a few people run a stop light, but I remember one morning around 3 or 4 I saw a guy who didn't even think about stopping when he came flying past a red light. Larger areas tend to have more people crossing and cars go fairly slow in those areas so they're much safer, but I usually use ones attached to side walks, granted I don't walk a lot in America I've walked and biked fairly often in Japan.
Or another alternative would be to have lights that indicate that the pedestrian is safe to use the crosswalk. In Canada, the crosswalks have flashing lights in the direction of the the vehicles that indicate that the cars should slow down. After a couple seconds, a secondary light flashes in the direction of the pedestrian to indicate that it now safe to cross. This allows any speeding cars (especially in -40 weather) to manage to go past without hopefully causing accidents.
"We can work it out" Oh, you cheeky Tom!