would you stop on a busy main road to give way to a teenager on a pavement?

[hariboss]

driving along a main road at 8:30am this morning, children (teens) walking on pavements either side. Driving at the speed limit.
Teenager waiting to cross the road on pavement on my side. Car on opposite side of road stops the car and then gives me the finger and rolls her window down shouting at
me because I continue driving.
I've stopped pausing on main roads where
there isn't a reason (ie no zebra crossing, give way markings or traffic lights) after one incident where I did stop and child thought it was safe, but car behind drove past me and nearly knocked kid over. (they thought i'd stopped the car for some reason,
didn't see I was giving way).

Now, unless it's a really quiet road, I don't stop the car to let someone cross unless there's a zebra crossing/lights/lollipop lady etc.

Is this ok,
was she right to yell at me?

There was no crossing or anything? It wasn't safe to stop - I don't like people waving my children across the road either as I know myself sometimes people look like they're waving to you but they're actually talking to their passenger etc. Not worth the risk.
The other driver must have thought something was obvious to you that wasn't. I wouldn't give it any more thought.

There is nothing worse than people who stop to do this. It's dangerous, drivers behind aren't expecting the car in front to suddenly stop and as you said another car can overtake making it dangerous for the pedestrian also. Other driver was an idiot.

Of course she was wrong to yell at you. If you didn't think it was safe then you're right not to stop.

I do often stop when on the school run, for children at actual crossing points eg where there is a central pedestrian reservation, but that's on 30 mph quiet roads often with 20 mph school children amber lights too.

You are right - it was more dangerous to stop.

You are right not to stop. I don't drive so do a lot of walking and when I'm trying to cross a road it makes things more complicated and awkward when a car slows down or stops for me because, unlike me, the driver isn't aware of the traffic coming from the other direction.

I'm obviously looking in both directions and judging speeds and distances to decide when it's safe to cross, a driver who stops is only thinking of themselves and me. This results in ridiculous semaphore between us with me waving them on, them looking confused, me pointing at oncoming cars on the other side of the road, they often then seem annoyed at me because I'm rejecting their kindness...

She should not have yelled at you, you did nothing wrong! Yelling at any time in public is questionable, but more so when driving a car.

It's probably to do with the highway code changes from a couple of years (?) back. Now you're meant to give way to someone crossing when you're turning into/out of a road but some people have misconstrued this to mean you must always give way to pedestrians wherever they are.

Yes, sometimes I do, but only if they can cross safely ie there is no other traffic. Tbh the car that overtook you when you stopped was the one driving dangerously, not you.

I can't stand drivers who slam on the brakes every 5 seconds to let someone else cross without a crossing/pull out when they don't have right of way/stopping too soon for an obstruction (especially if blocking a junction to do so).

Real saviour complex with no thought at all to the poor sod behind them whose journey has now gotten so much longer. There's one of these on my route to work who pulls out without enough space between cars so people have to brake for them, then they slam on the brakes 6 or 7 times in one stretch of road and it drives me crazy.

They never seem to look in their mirrors before braking, either, or they'd see there was only one car behind them sometimes and therefore that it would be quicker for everyone if they just kept driving. It's so dangerous to brake suddenly without looking in mirrors.

Your are correct, you shouldn't just stop randomly to let pedestrians cross. They should be using the designated crossings. You should have told the irate woman to eff off

You are not wrong. I was behind someone this morning who did this, TWICE!! the first time I’ll let go as there was a central reservation that the family were waiting on (although no crossing). The second time, the family were over the other side of the road and cars coming in the opposite direction (same side as family) weren’t even stopping, yet the idiot in front of me waited and waited. It’s very annoying when you’re in a rush and also very dangerous to assume that other drivers will respond in kind and not just plough into the people who’ve just been waved across 😡

I suspect she's got confused with the rules that say you should stop at junctions etc. to allow pedestrians to cross safely.

Extremely unhelpful to pedestrians when some idiot driver decides to stop the show how "helpful" they are without considering that there are other cars on the road too and you can't cross anyway. Or in some cases that by the time you've ascertained that it really is safe to cross it would have been quicker for you if they'd just driven straight past.

Yes! I have this problem all the time! I don't know if it's because I usually have a buggy but people always wave me across thinking they're being helpful but without considering traffic from the other direction or they just slow down without making it clear they're stopping for me