How do you cross the road?

supernova84

So if the lights are green for pedestrians do you still look left and right or just take it for granted that the coast is clear? If it's orange do you make a mad dash like me to get across before it goes red again? How do you go about getting to the other side?

**Timbuk2**

Still look left and right - it'd be mad to assume that all Irish drivers obey traffic lights.

Casillas

Look both ways if only to ensure a flippin' bike doesn't hit me..

woof im a dog

like a chicken

Dave0301

I still cross just like I was thought from my Tara and Ben reading book in national school!

johnayo

When I am stopped at the lights in the car, I hate when someone presses the pedestrian light button and then crosses the road without waiting for the green light.
They are long gone, and I am waiting for the green man to go off.
Rant over.

I sing this, every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEssgMQ1O_k

The_Kew_Tour

Legs and feet.

Shryke

Like a crab.

admiralofthefleet

like a boss

crazy cabbage

i jail walk. No point in having cars putting more sh1t into athmospere than needed. :rolleyes:

WumBuster

The other day i watched in horror as two drunks staggered out of an off license straight onto a busy street with loads of cars which had to hit their brakes and horns to prevent injury and death and the two men just keep walking/staggering oblivious to it all. Gotta love this country but its not good for your heart sometimes.

Lando Griffin

I drive cross the road.Why waste precious time parking away from your destination when you can simply pull up outside it and dash in.

FatherLen

i am a stupid scumbag so i just strut out in front of cars and then get pissed off when they beep at me cause i am deadly.

iwasonbwh

By crawling

supernova84

I hate when your starting to cross when some scumbag/scumbagess starts revving his/her car trying to be funny

Pensivepuca

I jay walk, but always look right and left to be safe.

Colmustard

I drive across the road.

languagenerd

It depends on the road :P
If it's a busy road or a junction that I don't know well (i.e. I don't know what sequence the lights go in), I'll wait for the green light, even if nothing appears to be coming my way.

If it's a road/junction I know well and/or a straight road (no turns/crossroads) so I can see that nothing's coming, then I'll cross away.



I also occasionally hop across roads with my ankles tied together, but I'll keep that in the "What's the most retarded thing you've ever done?" thread :P

randylonghorn

To get to the other side.

Oh, wait, thought there was a chicken in there somewhere ...

Zab

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Still look left and right - it'd be mad to assume that all Irish drivers obey traffic lights.

Do you stop at every crossroads when you're driving too?

Papa_Bear

well Sir. I step in front of cars and sue the drivers!

Avox

I feel a chicken joke coming on

1ZRed

Like a fox

**Timbuk2**

Zab wrote: »

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Still look left and right - it'd be mad to assume that all Irish drivers obey traffic lights.

Do you stop at every crossroads when you're driving too?

Not if I have right away, but obviously you would still look left and right to see if anyone is breaking the right of way, or if there are emergency vehicles approaching.

gimli2112

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Still look left and right - it'd be mad to assume that all Irish drivers obey traffic lights.

I look left and right crossing one way streets.

Chuck Stone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVJ80MQLEuk

CardBordWindow

Sometimes, as I'm crossing the road, I'll bend down, and make a cross on the middle of the road with my finger.

Archeron

I find a conga line works well, preferably to the tune of "you dont win friends with salad"

holystungun9

Cartwheeling whilst sh1ting and pissing (mouth closed of course, anything else would be just foolish).

PizzamanIRL

I sometimes rely solely on my ears to cross the road. No problems so far.

mikemac1

FatherLen wrote: »

i am a stupid scumbag so i just strut out in front of cars and then get pissed off when they beep at me cause i am deadly.

I push a childs buggy onto the road to "test" the traffic, the drivers slap on the breaks and I stroll across

I see it everyday :mad:

tmc86

I run across as fast as I can, waving my arms in the air and wailing. then as soon as I reach the other side I casually saunter along at a normal pace again

later12

I used to live with a South African (white) guy who was a terrible racist; it never ceased to impress & entertain me how he would bring his racism into everything. He used to assure me that black people cross the road differently to white people. White people walk straight across, he said, and blacks sort of traverse across diagonally (at this point would come his impression of a gorilla shifting across a road).

So just to prove him wrong, I still walk diagonally across the road. It's actually a much more efficient way of crossing anyway.

Diapason

PizzamanIRL wrote: »

I sometimes rely solely on my ears to cross the road. No problems so far.

How do your legs feel about this?

Sunnyisland

I look for a safe place,
no hurry stop & wait, look all around & listen before I cross the road remember.................................

Bad Panda

I meander clumsily to the other side...often stopping in the middle for a quick look around.

Vohnsom Hofmee

johnayo wrote: »

When I am stopped at the lights in the car, I hate when someone presses the pedestrian light button and then crosses the road without waiting for the green light.
They are long gone, and I am waiting for the green man to go off.
Rant over.

I press those buttons for fun. Even when I don't have to cross. For fun.

fishy fishy

press the button, wait for lights to turn green so I can walk. USED TO just walk straight across, until one day this idiot on a bike decides to cycle into me, while ignoring that they had a red light. I went crazy and so did the people in cars - cyclists are so dangerous - they believe they don't have any rules of the road to follow.

Now I am constantly looking out for idiot cyclists.

fishy fishy

Bad Panda wrote: »

I meander clumsily to the other side...often stopping in the middle for a quick look around.

when the bells of the angelus comes on, if you are in the middle of the road, do you stop everything and look skyward. :D

o1s1n

I walk from Stephens green across to Abbey street every day at rush hour. The amount of people I see on a regular basis almost run over by cars or swept under busses is insane.

I judge whether or not to cross by what's happening with the traffic. The green man is just a guide.

Cyclists are the worst for it. What I do now is if there's a green man and a cyclist is approaching without stopping, I just walk out in front of them.

I also don't move when they cycle towards me on the path. I've seen cyclists hit pedestrians before, and in all cases, the pedestrian just felt a little jolt while the cycling went flying through the air.

rubadub

supernova84 wrote: »

I hate when your starting to cross when some scumbag/scumbagess starts revving his/her car trying to be funny

You should pretend to throw something at them, when they recoil and cover their face just smirk or point and laugh. Or else point with a concerned look on your face, pointing under their bonnet or at a wheel like something is wrong, make them get out & waste their time, calling them a kunt is optional.

fishy fishy wrote: »

cyclists are so dangerous - they believe they don't have any rules of the road to follow.

o1s1n wrote: »

Cyclists are the worst for it.

Worst for what? breaking the law? From what I see pedestrians are hands down the worst for breaking the law. And it makes perfect sense why this is by the way, just like it makes sense cyclists are next likely to break the law. Many are unaware we even have "jaywalking" type laws here.

I still love this article.

Why I hate pedestrians

You know what I hate? Pedestrians. That self-satisfied, striding, boot-bedecked bunch of scum. Is it just me, or does the country suddenly seem to be full of them? I've never tried walking anywhere myself -- why would I? I'm a successful adult -- but it seems I can hardly travel down the street these days without one of them stepping off the pavement in front of me without looking, their face set in a holier-than-thou expression as they jump out of the way of my car in a burst of expletives. Something clearly needs to be done, and it's good that the government are starting to realise this.

The thing is, it's not just that pedestrians are all smug and annoying when they bang on about "health" and "pollution". That's sickening enough, but if their smugness was the only problem I could just ignore them - after all, they and their silly 'shoes' flash past quick enough when I get going, and their smugness can't penetrate my car's tinted windows. But the thing is there's more to it than that, because have you noticed that even though pedestrians walk millions of miles on our road system every single day, they contribute nothing at all to the cost of that road system? They have thousands and thousands of miles of dedicated pedestrian-only travel routes -- pavements, they're called, or sidewalks if you're that way inclined -- which they don't pay a penny for! Whilst honest motorists are taxed left, right and centre, they don't pay anything at all for all these facilities they enjoy. It beggars belief.

And recently, of course, it's got worse. As I'm driving up the street I constantly come across pedestrians walking across my part of the road to get from one of these pavements to another. I mean, what the hell...? Do they want the shirt off my back as well? They've been given vast tracts of pedestrian-only routes, where I'm certainly not allowed to drive, but apparently this isn't enough for them. Oh no, they want to keep encroaching into my space as well. Sure, we've all heard these walking zealots who say that it's because the 'pavements' don't form a joined-up network, meaning they can't walk to where they want to go without having to step onto the road from time to time. Aw, bless their little hearts. To pedestrians I say this: get off my part of the road. If you walk there when I'm coming along then I'll happily run you down, that's all.

In the long term there's clearly only one solution to all this. If pedestrians want to walk on our streets, which we pay for with all our driving taxes, then they need to pay their share and take their part of the responsibility. Anybody who walks anywhere should undergo training, should have to pay an annual tax towards the facilities they enjoy, should display a license plate so they can be identified, and should each be made to carry insurance in case they are ever involved in any accidents. Until then, they can sod off back to Shoeville or wherever it is they go when they aren't freeloading off the rest of us.

fishy fishy

rubadub wrote: »

You should pretend to throw something at them, when they recoil and cover their face just smirk or point and laugh. Or else point with a concerned look on your face, pointing under their bonnet or at a wheel like something is wrong, make them get out & waste their time, calling them a kunt is optional.





Worst for what? breaking the law? From what I see pedestrians are hands down the worst for breaking the law. And it makes perfect sense why this is by the way, just like it makes sense cyclists are next likely to break the law. Many are unaware we even have "jaywalking" type laws here.

I still love this article.

nah, cyclists are the worst offenders by far. they don't know what traffic lights are, they think everyone can seem them on their unlit bikes with their dark clothes on a windswept dark night - they can cycle up on a pedestrian footpath whenever they want and expect YOU to move out of the way for them. They think they own the road AND the footpaths. They should be made get a road license, do a test before they are even given a bike.

rubadub

fishy fishy wrote: »

nah, cyclists are the worst offenders by far.

Not from what I see, by a long shot, maybe you do not know the laws and so do not think anything law is bring broken? Many turn a blind eye to pedestrians since they are one, and break these laws themselves, the gardai are also far more tolerant of pedestrians breaking the law, (and with good reason, just like they usually tolerate cyclists breaking the law more than motorists.). People like to pick on a minority they are not part of. If the numbers on cyclist/pedestrians were flipped (almost everybody cycling if not in a car) then pedestrians would be the the minority and I have no doubt you would see far more complaints about them.

fishy fishy wrote: »

they think everyone can seem them on their unlit bikes with their dark clothes on a windswept dark night

They should be made get a road license, do a test before they are even given a bike.

Pedestrians could do with taking a test too. People go on & on about the rules of the road. It very common to see pedestrians breaking the rules of the road which apply to them, or not taking advice in the rules, e.g. you mention unlit bikes, in the rules of the road pedestrians are advised to take a torch with them at night -very rare to see done.

thunderdog

I often find it amusing when standing at a pedestrian light that some people will vigorously press the button....again and again...faster and faster....as if the more they press it, the quicker the green man will show

One push of the button is as good as 20. Save your energy for crossing the road

Jester252

I rave across the road

rubadub

thunderdog wrote: »

I often find it amusing when standing at a pedestrian light that some people will vigorously press the button....again and again...faster and faster....as if the more they press it, the quicker the green man will show

Some people do this as they are guessing the software might recognize multiple presses as being a build up of pedestrians and so change quicker. Others will do it if they question if the switch is working properly and detected the first press (not all traffic lights have indications that it was pressed.)

If the pedestrian lights have been green at one stop near me you have to wait ages for them to turn on another press as they wait for a build up of pedestrians behind you. So it is not too unreasonable to think similar software logic might make lights change faster if a build up of pedestrians has happened.

it seems it may have been in place in someplaces

In the UK, there used to be a system that counted the number of times that a pedestrian pushes the button. It used this information to regulate pedestrian waiting time. But it was discontinued.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/05/04/2889699.htm

People do the same in lifts, repeatedly pressing their floor number if new people get on, some hoping the software will make it go to their floor first to suit the "majority".

Zab

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Not if I have right away, but obviously you would still look left and right to see if anyone is breaking the right of way, or if there are emergency vehicles approaching.

Well, I was kind of taking the piss with my comment, but the point still stands. Nobody in a car stops at a green light at a crossroads.

OneOfThem Stumbled

supernova84 wrote: »

So if the lights are green for pedestrians do you still look left and right or just take it for granted that the coast is clear? If it's orange do you make a mad dash like me to get across before it goes red again? How do you go about getting to the other side?

I never look at pedestrian lights. I always look at what lights the traffic is obeying instead.

As a cyclist I'm getting pretty fed up of those lights that won't change for cyclists (if there's no other traffic). Have to sometimes wait for a car to turn up to get a green light. :mad:

barry711

Face down, ass up.

Novella

I always look both ways to check for traffic and bikes, regardless of the colour of the light, and listen out for cars too.