Pedestrians on regional roads.

AndrewJRenko

amcalester wrote: »

Thats not how personal responsibility works.

Awful attitude from someone who claims to be a professional driver.

It's actually the complete opposite of personal responsibility. It is pushing the personal responsibility on to the victim. Shameful.

amcalester

bebeman wrote: »

If you choose to put yourself in harms way , accept the consequences. Walking on a road with no footpath is a danger, no law is stopping you, but know the possible outcome.

Can't argue with this level of stupid.

amcalester

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

It's actually the complete opposite of personal responsibility. It is pushing the personal responsibility on to the victim. Shameful.

And there's no way you could get that poster to understand that.

In the case of a a pedestrian A being hit by motorist B; how can individual A take personal responsibility for the actions of individual B?

ThisRegard

bebeman wrote: »

If you choose to put yourself in harms way , accept the consequences. Walking on a road with no footpath is a danger, no law is stopping you, but know the possible outcome.

Walk down a city street and there's the possibility of being mugged or attacked. But as everyone knows that you've nobody to blame but yourself if it does happen, you knowingly put yourself in harms way.

lucernarian

amcalester wrote: »

Can't argue with this level of stupid.

Ah but surely we can ban all those one off houses, or have a law preventing children and any other non drivers from living in them maybe?

If you want to walk in the area you live in, you'll have to DRIVE to somewhere that's supposedly suitable for any other crank who might complain on Boards. Bikes will also be kept for all those parks with no cycling facilities in this new world order.

ford2600

bk wrote: »

This also shows why we desperately need lots more Greenways, they aren't just for tourists.

We have destroyed our countryside with roads, one off houses and lack of access due to lack of rambling laws, forcing people to walk on roads, where trust me they would much rather not be, but have no other choice.

I get your point, but I disagree.

Greenways are great, the one in Waterford and made a huge impact to west Waterford in particular, but we have 12,000km of roads in Munster.

Most of those are empty, nearly all the time. I don't ride my bike as much as I used to, but on typical 50/60km spin I will meet 3/4 cars and usually double number of pedestrians.. One Sunday morning near Fethard I met 4 cars and 5 riders on horseback!

With modern mapping software, garmins etc there is no excuse, or just go get lost in the countryside.

It doesn't matter where, south Tipperary, south Kilkenny, Mizen, Minane bridge area etc etc the network of unused county roads is unrivalled in the civilised world. Add in the network of Coilte tracks, and there is endless choice

I love Sean nos

Rubberchikken wrote: »

I go below the speed limit and use my eyes and brain!

Is that not normal driving?

bk

ford2600, I agree that of course people should of course be allowed and even encouraged to walk and cycle on non Motorway roads.

I myself have hiked and cycled on country roads all over Ireland.

However I would also not dream of bringing my child on these same roads due to some of the insanely selfish motorists I see fly dangerously by me on these roads, they are simply too many dangerous selfish people out their unfortunately

Which is why in addition to encouraging motorists to drive slowly and more carefully, we should also be building more greenways and hiking trails so people can walk/cycle with their children and elderly family, enjoying the countryside in peace, without having to worry about morons blast by them with cm's to spare!

Besides safety, greenways/hiking trails are also nicer as you don't have the noise of cars flying by right beside you, nor do you suffer from the Diesel emissions being pumped into your face.

elperello

Good design could make a lot of busier junctions and link roads safer for all users.
Where new roads are being built it is possible to take part in consultation.
With existing roads retro fitting of safer facilities is an option.

I love Sean nos

bk wrote: »

we should also be building more greenways and hiking trails so people can walk/cycle with their children and elderly family, enjoying the countryside in peace, without having to worry about morons blast by them with cm's to spare!

Agreed. The only problem that I foresee with this is that walking and/or cycling becomes seen as a leisure activity and not a genuine mode of transport, de-legitimising it somehow. There's an example of this in the OP.
We should be building commuting greenways.

bk wrote: »

Besides safety, greenways/hiking trails are also nicer as you don't have the noise of cars flying by right beside you, nor do you suffer from the Diesel emissions being pumped into your face.

Whole other thread possible about society's acceptance of vehicle produced pollution and the health effects.

flaneur

They need to put in footpaths where possible but you also have to realise that you are sharing the road with other road users, not all of which are cars - bikes, pedestrians and even horses, cattle and sheep can be found using roads and that on centuries old Irish roads with significant wildlife living in hedgerows and historical walls and so on, it's just not practical, possible or desirable to rip them apart to put in pavements.

Other than on a motorway, you can expect mixed use and you are supposed to be taking account of that.

Nobody wants to be in the US situation where in some places going for a walk = acting suspiciously. I know friends of mine from Boston went for a walk in Texas and were questioned by cops for walking ! There was nothing illegal about it and they were really annoyed but, they saw two 30 something Bostonians out for a stroll on a warm day in a quasi residential area as "suspicious behaviour" enough to investigate fairly aggressively.

I love Sean nos

flaneur wrote: »

Nobody wants to be in the US situation where in some places going for a walk = acting suspiciously. I know friends of mine from Boston went for a walk in Texas and were questioned by cops for walking ! There was nothing illegal about it and they were really annoyed but, they saw two 30 something Bostonians out for a stroll on a warm day in a quasi residential area as "suspicious behaviour" enough to investigate fairly aggressively.

I was in California a number of years ago, staying in a town north of LA and I used to go walking every evening. Weather was great for January, like an Irish summer. I was the only pedestrian in the locale as far I know. While I didn't get stopped by the cops and questioned, I did get some weird looks from almost every car that passed.

erica74

I live on a very busy stretch of the N25. There is a hard shoulder of reasonable width but it changes in width along the road, there is no street lighting and it's a twisty road, lots of bends etc and some parts of the ditches, hedgerows and trees are overgrown and may affect visibility.
I have lived here for about 7 years and when I moved here initially, I used to walk around my area but I had to stop as I had too many "close calls". One thing in particular that used to happen quite often was drivers purposefully driving into the hard shoulder, flashing their lights as if to make the point that they thought I shouldn't be there. This used to absolutely freak my dogs out so I had to stop walking around my area. I always wore a hi viz vest and even had a hi viz vest on my dog and a blinking light attached to his collar. I was never out walking later than 7pm in winter months as it would be too dark after that time.

One problem I see with people walking on the hard shoulder is trucks, buses and farm machinery driving in the hard shoulder to allow other drivers pass and then if they come around a bend and there is a pedestrian in the hard shoulder, things can go wrong very quickly.

I know everyone has a right to use the road but my sense of self preservation is stronger than my need to walk on a road where things could go wrong quickly. If I got knocked down and injured or killed, my husband is not going to find any comfort in "well she had a right to be there".

elperello

In the US they go to public amenity areas to take a walk.
It's even common to see people loading up their bikes and driving 5-10 miles to go cycling.

Macy0161

bk wrote: »

However I would also not dream of bringing my child on these same roads due to some of the insanely selfish motorists I see fly dangerously by me on these roads, they are simply too many dangerous selfish people out their unfortunately

Whatever the illogical nature of it (that drivers quite willing to risk leaving my children fatherless due to ignorance/ lack of patience), I've never had an issue when I've been out with the children. Suddenly, all drivers seem to give appropriate space. I'm ok on their conscience, but not my children...