Pedestrians are Fearless?
When it comes to pedestrians there are also rules as to what they may and may not do. The fearless pedestrians, if they don’t get killed in the process of doing as they please, are the ones normally shouting the loudest and flinging insults the furthest. You also find that?
Now let’s see what the South African National Road Traffic Act says, the National Road Traffic Regulations Chapter 10, in specific…
Duties of Pedestrians
(1) Whenever a sidewalk or footpath abuts on the roadway of a public road, a pedestrian shall not walk on such roadway except for the purpose of crossing from one side of such roadway to the other or for some other sufficient reason.
(2) A pedestrian on a public road which has no sidewalk or footpath abutting on the roadway, shall walk as near as is practicable to the edge of the roadway on his or her right-hand side so as to face oncoming traffic on such roadway, except where the presence of pedestrians on the roadway is prohibited by a prescribed road traffic sign.
(3) No pedestrian shall cross a public road without satisfying himself or herself that the roadway is sufficiently free from oncoming traffic to permit him or her to cross the road in safety.
(4) A pedestrian, when crossing a public road by means of a pedestrian crossing or in any other manner, shall not linger on such road but shall proceed with due despatch.
(5) No pedestrian on a public road shall conduct himself or herself in such a manner as to or as is likely to constitute a source of danger to himself or herself or to other traffic which is or may be on such road.
(6) A pedestrian may cross a public road only at a pedestrian crossing or an intersection or at a distance further than 50 metres from such pedestrian crossing or intersection.
You know, when they say it’s a jungle out there, it can’t be further from the truth. It’s actually MUCH worse than that! Lions don’t get Road Rage; they don’t act in an unjustified fit of anger; they’re not depressed because they lost their job; they don’t rush anywhere unless they’re after the next meal; they don’t have psychological conditions that may influence their behaviour; they are just lions…and that makes them pretty much predictable on the danger scale.
Humans, on the other hand, have all of the above, and worse!
Humans, as pedestrians, are the most vulnerable and daily I observe some of them also being the most stupid. No really, it seems intellect doesn’t do much for them, and their claim to fame seems to be limited to the impression of being at the top of the Food Chain. Yeah, I guess chances are reasonably slim that a motorist will eat a pedestrian, but when anger meets impatience or spite, you’re looking at a Pedestrian Fest, for sure!
Being on the road most of the day, either on a driving lesson or travelling between lessons, I see many silly and sometimes downright stupid things pedestrians do.
One interesting thing I have noted in Joburg specifically, seemingly a culture, is that some pedestrians take their good, sweet time crossing intersections. No, I don’t mean that I’m impatient or don’t grant them the opportunity to do so. I mean you should just see the provocation, deliberately provoking the motorists as if they are made from armour plate and have a guaranteed ticket to Heaven booked. You know, like the security guards with the same “God Complex”, keeping residential booms down till the very last milli-split second, as if to break your speed on purpose, just because they thrive on the little power trips they derive from that.
At informal settlements, it’s even worse. I have one of those down the road and I drive by every day astounded by the pedestrians and their cheating-death-antics, for lack of a more creative description. When I take into consideration that a pedestrian bridge was specially built to separate pedestrians from traffic, it becomes more and more patent that those using the bridge actually are the only ones valuing their lives. Traffic, specially around this area has become so unpredictable and drivers being who they are, just spells disaster.
This brings me to joggers in suburban areas…
People are impatient, no matter where I take my learner drivers to get to grips with the basics of driving. Whether I take them into quiet residential areas or whether I take them on reasonably quiet roads, it remains a problem. Three joggers in a particular neighbourhood, some time ago, were running side-by-side and whilst they were running into oncoming traffic as they should do, and SAW us approaching, they didn’t have the courtesy of even trying to single-file…or make an attempt. They just stuck to their space and we had to negotiate our path around them.
In a certain sense, this makes for good training because I have the opportunity to teach the learner about Target Fixation, its effects and how to overcome that overwhelming and mysterious urge to veer towards what they so intently stare at. Pedestrians never become “target practice”, but their irresponsibility may make it feel like it.
So….
These joggers are running towards us, we are stationery at a stop sign wanting to turn left…and the joggers get closer and closer, with the learner getting more and more apprehensive. We pull off without incident, the learner given a specific target to train his eye on, so we pass the joggers with ease. They must have been so irritated with us – you could see the “looks” we were getting. No, it wasn’t the average I-see-you-and-take-cognisance-of-your-presence-look…it was a plain dirty look. So, we keep driving, negotiating bends, turns, stops and such. Sooner than later we cross paths wit the same joggers.
One of the ladies looked visibly angry and not being able to contain herself any longer, I guess, shouted out: “GET OFF THE FUCKING ROAD!!!!!”
Now my professional vocabulary wouldn’t allow me to answer, but believe me, I was taking deep breaths and knowing how such insults affect learner drivers (whom I take particular care in calming and reassuring to cope), I ignored this blatant and ignorant insult and continued to ignore her every time we passed them after that. What this lady didn’t realise was that her words and actions had a deep psychological effect on the learner driver. She wouldn’t be aware how difficult the lesson went after that. She wouldn’t know how much more of my skill I had to use to prevent the learner from specifically fixating on her as a target after that (not that the learner could help himself, his mind just wanted to miss her so badly that he stared more intently, making the target fixation a hundred times worse).
All is well that ends well, they say…
We encountered another jogger that was seriously friendly and he waved at us as we drove by…even jokingly jumping out of the way as we approached. Some others were just getting along with their business and ignored us while taking care while we drove by.
To the angry lady I just want to say…
I don’t particularly care that you were angry. I will not compromise the safety of my learner drivers by taking them into traffic when they are not ready to do so. It is my responsibility to keep both the learner driver, pedestrians, and other motorists safe. Please understand that impatience rubs off on your kids, from the second bottle you give them as a baby and even had it been your son with plenty latent impatience inherited from you, I would take exactly the same care. That is what I do.
Please people, whether you walk, run, jog or do any movement while not in a vehicle – PLEASE take care out there. Cars really ARE harder than you think,;they really do drive faster than you think, and a little bump at 5km/h will leave you more sore than you think.
BE RESPONSIBLE for your own actions!
