My rights as a pedestrian
When I’m out walking, I actively (but not foolishly, I hope) defend my rights as a pedestrian. If I have an opportunity to walk safely and legally before a car goes, I will take it.
The main rules are not difficult to comprehend, but some motorists just don’t seem to understand them.
[Page references are those in the Vicroads PDF summary of the road rules.]
Red means stop. It doesn’t mean drivers can zoom through at the last minute. Given that Yellow actually means “stop if it is safe to do so” [p27], there’s no reason why drivers should still be travelling through the intersection after I’ve got a (conflicting) green man. Not that there’s much I can do about this but glare.
Drivers are meant to stop behind the stop line, not halfway across it blocking the pedestrian crossing. If blocked by the cars ahead, that’s the driver’s fault for not looking ahead to make sure it was clear. [p27]
The zebra crossing means vehicles have to give way for me to cross. If a motorist was driving so fast they had to brake sharply, that’s their fault [p58]. (I view extended periods of delays to motorists at busy zebra crossings, such as in Flinders Lane, with some glee. If they were stupid enough to bring their car into the middle of a big busy city, they’re going to face some delays in their quest to get to the next red light.)
Flagged Children’s Crossings are more strict. Vehicles have to stop if someone is waiting to cross, and not drive through until the last person is completely off the crossing. [p57] (I also recommend not trying to run down crossing supervisors at lighted intersections, such as some right-turners at McKinnon and Jasper Roads seem to do.)
Vehicles are not allowed to park on a footpath.[p78] Foot. Path. It’s really not that hard.
If a driver is turning across my path, they have to give way to me [p29] — unless it’s a roundabout.
Many motorists, myself included, give way when coming out of side-streets to crossing pedestrians. Strictly speaking vehicles don’t have to do this, but personally I consider it polite. Update: Commenter Andrew notes elsewhere the rules say: “At Stop or Give Way signs [...] you must not only give way to vehicles, but also to any pedestrians at or near the sign [...]”
If a vehicle is going into or coming out of a driveway or carpark or whatever, they have to give way to me. [p60]
Drivers have to stop for tram passengers unless there’s a safety zone/platform stop. [p60] The tram is a big thing on wheels that’s 3-5 times as big as a car; there’s no excuse for not seeing it.
I don’t have to cross at the lights if they’re more than 20 metres away (but I’ll certainly do so if it’s safer to do so).
The above rules are, I think, pretty logical.
But there are some others I learnt about while reading up on it, which I suspect not so many people are aware of.
- Motorists have to give way to peds when turning in a slip lane (including separated from the other lanes by just a painted island) [p30]
- Motorists have to give way to all peds (and everyone else for that matter) when making a U-turn [p31]
- Giving way to peds when turning includes instances such as turning into a main road that the pedestrian is crossing. [figure 24, p35]
Footnote: Why have VicRoads published the road rules in a PDF that doesn’t allow you to copy text out of it?
Dream machine
The other week, in one night, I had a trio of ridiculous dreams. So ridiculous that you half know it’s a dream, and it’s a ridiculous situation, but you keep on dreaming it anyway.
I’ve forgotten the first.
In the second, someone was knocking at my front door and trying to look through the frosted glass while waiting to be let-in, and I, then undressed and taking cover at the corner, kept calling out “Who is it?”, but they wouldn’t answer. You can’t actually see anything more than abstract shapes through my front door anyway. Ridiculous.
And in the third dream, my car (which has worked perfectly in the almost-year I’ve had it except for an electric window going kaputsky — ch-ching!) was behaving really sluggishly, and accelerating ludicrously slowly, especially up hills. Ridiculous.
Then last week in real life it started happening. On cold days, 5 degrees and below. Stalling. Shuddering. Sluggish. Blah.
See, life is full of gambles. I gambled my money away when I bought the car. I’ve gambled that it’s worth trekking across town to the dealer I bought it from every six months to keep the warranty up-to-date. Even though it seems like the warranty is worded in such a way that there are so many exceptions that they might never be liable for any repair costs.
So yesterday morning I woke at sparrow’s fart and headed out the door just after 7am, which is normally about the time I’m getting up, in a failed attempt to beat the traffic. At least I may have beat some of it; it took about 45 minutes to get to the dealer. I’m glad I normally avoid driving in rush hour.
Dropped it off for the six month checkup and so they could look at the stalling/shuddering.
The verdict? A bill of $245, of course — and that included no charge for the fault. On the one hand, just part of the exorbitant cost of personal motorised transport; on the other, quite low for a visit to the car dealer for a service.
According to the receipt (which is mostly made up of the usual mechanic gibberish) they checked the car’s computer history for misfires. Yes, apparently this humble 9-year-old Astra has a black box recorder. Apparently it gave them enough information to tweak things.
Just hope it worked. I hate those early mornings.
PS. Lunchtime: Rae has a rant about her drive to work.
Driving school FAIL
Dear “Number One Driving School”,
You may not be Number One for long if you keep teaching your learner drivers to park in bus zones, then sit there for 5+ minutes.
This pic was taken a couple of weeks ago, and was separate to another noted yesterday via Twitter: You parked in a bus zone then walked past three legal spots to where you were going? FAIL.
And if the Glen Eira parking inspectors want some easy prey, try the bus zone outside Flaked Out fish’n'chips in the evening.
Hey I was wondering — would they give me the power to issue traffic infringement fines? Preferably on commission, but heck, I’d do it for free, just to bring these morons down a rung or two.
Pretty please?
I don’t understand
This is the corner of Whitehall and Wingfield Streets in Footscray.
The traffic lights closest to the camera in these photos are basically for the pedestrian crossing, on the northern side of the intersection. But the southern side of the intersection includes a stop line, so that’s where the cars are meant to stop, well back from the traffic lights themselves. Potentially confusing, especially given the “Stop here on red signal” signs over on the lights.
But what’s really weird is that the lights for northbound traffic periodically switch to red, even when there are no pedestrians and no conflicting traffic around. I’ll be driving up there with M and a hatch full of fruit and vegetables from her weekly shop and we’ll have to stop, for no apparent reason.
This will be accompanied by mock cries of protest from me of “I don’t understand!” because I don’t.
It may be linked to cars turning right into Whitehall Street from Dynon Road, but that doesn’t really make any sense either, as there’s no reason to stop this traffic because of them.
Can anybody who’s seen this intersection explain how and why it works like this?
(If you’re wondering, I did enquire with VicRoads about the Bentleigh intersection that illogically starts the cars before the peds. At first they misinterpreted my email and thought I was referring to the right turn arrows. I clarified that, but haven’t heard back.)
A moron in Bourke Street
“No entry” signs? Lots of them? IT DOESN’T APPLY TO ME.
Congratulations NOH-500, you are moron of the week.
(Last Thursday, lunchtime)
Quick stuff
Vague news
Dear national news programme: Don’t just say something happened “in eastern Melbourne”. Use a couple more words and tell me what suburb. Do the same for other cities too.
Dream
I had a dream that I’d gone back to my old primary school, and was being shown around by a lady who said she’d taught me. But I couldn’t remember her name — maybe she had been one of the early year teachers that I don’t really remember very well.
Rather than embarrass myself, I looked for clues, and then I noticed a name tag which said she was Bronwyn Pike — who is in fact the Education Minister.
Doorstop
Is doorstop in the media sense only an Australian term? It’s not in Wiktionary or Wikipedia or other online references, and only seems to return Australian hits in Google.
In Australian English it means, strictly, an interview with the media held as the subject is entering or exitting a building, but it’s also come to mean generally a press conference held outside, often spontaneously.
Lexus
Lexus is introducing talking cars.
Gawd no. I can hear it now.
“You look like you’re driving somewhere, would you like some help?“
Morons
Don’t beep at me. I can see the green light. But I can also see the traffic banked up on the other side of the intersection.
I know it’s really hard because the switch is so awkwardly placed, such a long way from your hands on the steering wheel, but fer chrissake use your indicators!
Don’t tailgate me. I’m going at the speed limit. I’m not going to speed because you’re in a hurry.
Look, if you don’t know where you’re going, don’t keep driving slowly down the road while you try to look at the Melway. Pull over.
Get off the smegging phone, you moron.
Not surprised to read this: Hummer Drivers Get More Tickets. A Lot More., given I spotted one lady zooming down Kingsway recently, in a Hummer with personalised licence plates, happy jabbering away on the phone.
Snake tales
A story I heard a while back…
Friend of friend driving along an unsealed country road. As is common in dry weather, the car was causing the dirt and rocks to go flying around. Driver had his arm out the window.
Something hit his arm. At first he thought it was a stick. He glanced into his mirror and saw a snake flying through the air.
Stopped the car and looked at his arm. Two puncture marks in it.
Went to hospital. The verdict was that although the snake bit him, no venom made it into his arm, so he was okay.
