to actually start to hate car drivers? And yes, I mean ALL of them!

[Rhubarb0oooo]

I probably am being unreasonable as I'm sure many of you will point out but I used to think that the majority of car drivers were courteous and respectful, until I became a proper pedestrian.

I walk a mile to school with ds, then a mile back and again in the afternoon to pick him up. During this walk we have to walk down an A road, cross an entrance to a garden centre, cross a bypass and walk down a B road into the village centre.

Cars and lorries will often come speeding up the A road doing much more than the 40 mph limit and often spraying us both with water (the lorries) as they hurtle past.

Cars entering the garden centre think that it is their right of way and will often drive onto the pavement forcing ds and I to stop or back up and some have even swerved round us as we've been crossing ON OUR PAVEMENT.

Then we get to the bypass which has a pedestrian crossing. Drivers might be in a hurry to get to work but that is no excuse to run the red light whilst people are crossing. Or toot your horn (even though the light is red) or rev your engine. And the number of people on their phones, not looking at the lights, is scary.

Now for the B road into the village where the road is narrow and the pavement only allows for one single line pedestrians. It's a 30mph zone but I have been forced to throw ds onto the steep embankment as cars come flying down, clipping the kerb. I've also had cars hit his lunch bag that is over my shoulder (which gives you an idea of how close they drive to the pavement) and had horns blaring at us for daring to be on the pavement and in their way.

I'd like to think that these are isolated incidents, but this happens to us day after day. I've told the council who are not interested and the police say it is my word against the drivers (when I tried to report a van nearly ploughing into ds and I).

So what makes these reasonable people turn into arrogant bastards when they get behind a wheel and see a mother walking her child to school?

A lot of drivers are very inconsiderate. On my walk to school I have nearly been run over on the bloody pavement by parents who when trying to park as close to the school as possible feel the need to fling their cars halfway across the pavement.

Also, when waiting to cross roads drivers regularly pull into the space where I am standing.

Many drivers seem to think that indicating is optional, as is stopping at red lights and pedestrian crossings.

I have actually been hit on the pavement by a car, when I was 18, and again a recently, due to a car who had mounted the pavement in a hospital car park and drove out of the pedestrian entrance, to avoid paying parking fees I assume, and I was walking along, not really looking where I was going as such, but then, I did not expect a car to shoot out of the pedestrian entrance onto the main pavement! Luckily no lasting damage and nothing but a few bruises!

There is a terrible set of lights near us, where there is no left turn into the road, cars are supposed to carry on straight, round the round about, and come back onto that road, turning right into it, the amount of times I have been crossing when the green man is on and someone has come flying round the corner from the left. I admit i do think "bloody car drivers" at least 10 times a day. When you are waiting to cross, and the green man is on, but you have to wait to make sure the cars are stopping, so by the time you are halfway across, the green man is flashing, and then amber is flashing for the drivers, and they are revving their engines at you!

Or my favourite, cars staying so close, bumper to bumper, and not leaving space for a crossing, so by the time the green man comes on, you still cannot get across, as there is no space in between cars on the road, so you stand therefor another 5 minutes waiting, hoping it does not happen again!

So the pedestrian doesn't have to take any responsibility...

Of course they do. I don't think anyone has seriously suggested they don't. No, a pedestrian shouldn't walk behind a reversing car any more than in front of a forward-moving one. But in either case, if it happens you're supposed to (a) be looking where you're going (b) try to stop/avoid if possible. Its not an either/or.

This whole thread is why the UK needs strict liability laws as exist in European countries. Basically the driver of the vehicle that is more powerful is assumed to be at fault in an accident unless proven otherwise.

So a ped < cyclist < car < lorry.

Til then "might is right" will continue to rule the roads. And idiots in cars and lorries will continue to exercise their presumed entitlement to drive as they please wherever they want.

Never lived in such a dangerous and thoroughly unpleasant place to be a pedestrian as this country.

Wow I had no idea this thread would take off like this!

HitTheRoadJack, I have no idea why you are so aggressive, but you do come across as such. I take it you were being sarcastic when you said that you mounted the pavement, after all, that would damage your car you know...

I have to say that as a car driver I also note the many problems that car drivers have complained about, but I think you need to get out of your cars and see how these problems are perceived from the pedestrians point of view.

For example, esp in a supermarket carpark you often don't notice a car's reverse lights on because you are watching for cars coming towards you from both ends and trying to keep hold of the kids. I've had to bang very hard on the boot of a car before now to get him to stop because he was about to reverse into us. I was not 'dancing' behind his car, he just hadn't seen us as we were walking behind the car. Yes it can be frustrating when you are trying to reverse and there are people constantly walking behind the car, but I know now that they are genuinely distracted by everything else going on in the car park and it's no skin off my nose to wait for a minute or two until it's clear.

As for making myself more visible - we don't walk to and from school in the dark. 8.45am and 3.15pm is not dark atm but yes we do have reflective strips anyway and it is not a rural road but the main road into the village with a 30mph speed limit. You know, another think HitTheRoadJack said was that it was not her fault that the speed limit is 60 into a village. Well that limit is just that, it is the maximum speed at which you can drive, it doesn't mean to say that you HAVE to travel at 60mph. Personally, if you are in a village then I wouldn't drive at that speed because if a child did step out, it wouldn't stand a chance. But I suppose that would be the child's fault for not realising that you do not run out onto a road for your football/dog/playing tag and that all children should be tied to a stake in the garden well away from these car drivers who are perfectly entitled to hurtle through their village at 60mph without having to bother looking out for pedestrians.

Right now the walk to school has just been made more problematic because they are digging up the pavement just on the bend, which means we have to cross over right at the point where the pavement on the other side of the road begins. It's a dangerous spot to cross but any higher up the road and we'd be crossing where there is no pavement on the other side; we can't go lower down because of these roadworks. So we wait and we wait and we wait and not one car will let us cross. They don't have to of course, but it would be nice.

This thread is about car drivers not realising what it is like to be a pedestrian and I bet those who have bleated on about the rights of car drivers hardly ever get out and walk. You see pedestrians as bothersome people who get in your way. We see you as always in a bloody hurry (why not leave the house 5 minutes earlier?), rude and aggressive. To some car drivers, we are invisible - especially when we are waiting to cross.

Let me ask HitTheRoadJack (sorry to pick on you but your name stood out on the thread, I'm sure there are others who share your views) if you have ever walked on a pavement where cars are driving inches away from you at 40mph? Do you know what it feels like to have the cars so close that you can feel the air currents on that side of your body? Have you ever had your son's lunch bag clipped by a car? I understand that the road is narrow and that they have to pass close by the pavement if there is another car coming on the other side, but surely if the road is narrow and there are people on the equally narrow pavement, they would slow down? But of course I forget, they are entitled to travel at that speed and so they do.
Can I also ask if you've ever been behind a car that has suddenly started reversing? Or been just about to cross the road as the cars come to a stop when one screeches past? Because I bet that if you spent just one week walking everywhere, you would soon understand just how vulnerable it feels. If I were to trip, or my son's lunch bag become caught around a wing mirror, I wouldn't stand much chance. And I don't want my son to be without his mother. All I want to do is to be able to walk him to school and back without feeling as though I'm committing a huge sin by daring to be outside on my two legs rather than in a metal box.

I now walk armed with my camera and I will send all photos to the council. There are consultations to have the speed limit on the road into the village reduced to 20mph and I fully support that.

Hope you manage to get the speed limit changer, Rhubarb.

60mph is just the national default limit for single carriageway roads. It applies anywhere it hasn't been explicitly changed. The derestricted sign doesn't mean 'now you should drive at 60'. At one end of our village it is immediately before a single-width humpback bridge, with a sharp corner beyond. Fortunately just about everyone uses common sense and courtesy, going slow and taking turns. No one for a moment thinks, 'its not my fault the limit here is 60' and tries to do 60!

I cannot stand annoying pedestrians. Moaning away like they own the friggin place and tarring every driver with the same brush.

I know NoobyNoob. Bastards, aren't they? Scum. Not much better than cyclists. Moan moan moan. "Stop knocking us over. Stop polluting where we live. Stop scaring us with driving too close to the kerb."
Bit of National Service. That'll knock them into shape.

What you need to do is have a chat with your local police office (non-emergency number, obviously!) and ask for an increased presence during the school run. illegal driving is NOT on, and it's amazing how much more considerate drivers get when they see a cop car...
Depending on your local MP (mine is decent, not all are), you might want to email them as well.
(havent read the whole thread yet, so sorry if this has already been said! Just take it as a long winded YANBU!)

@ Pan.

Today I will actually be picking him up in the car as it's much too dangerous with the roadworks now there. Plus it's pissing it down. Perhaps I shall turn into a grade one knob once I'm sat behind the wheel of my nice, warm, dry car and start harrassing some wet and tired pedestrians. I know, I'll only give myself 5 mins to get there thus ensuring that I have to put my foot down and treat all other road users, cyclist, pedestrians and those fucking horse riders with utter contempt. I love beeping my horn as I go past those horses - bloody stupid creatures!

MrsMP - spoken to police who say they can do nothing. There is some police presence in the village already as locals have complained about the school run and cars double parking, setting off without indicating and going too fast when there are parents with children trying to cross. Most of them don't live in the village you see, they come from all around but want the luxury of sending their kids to a village school.
So it's a problem that I am not alone in experiencing and the police are fully aware of it.

Absolutely Pan, couldn't have put it better myself.

Arf.

It occurred to me just now in Sainsbo's carpark that the reason some of you are having such trouble with people walking behind you when you reverse in such places is that mostly they are not really pedestrians, but drivers forced out of their cars for a few yards who forget their temporary lower status