Were we wrong to cross the road in this way?

[UndertheCedartree]

I was taking my DD to school this morning. There is a junction where we need to cross over the road in front then cross over the road to the left. Lots of families including us cross diagonally as it is quicker than crossing both separately.

We were late this morning so there were no other families around. We were crossing the junction and a few seconds before we got onto the pavement a car sounds it's horn loudly at us (scaring poor DD) then came round the corner and started shouting and pointing at us. I just ignored the driver as they were clearly very angry so no point in trying to have a civil conversation.

I always thought if a pedestrian was crossing a road then a car needs to give way to them. Or are we wrong to cross diagonally?

Not unreasonable. We have a crossroads in town and I do exactly that as do others. You just have to be a bit quicker as the diagonal way is longer than the straight across way 😂

Sorry, I don't quite understand. It is a crossing so the road isn't clear for them, people are crossing.

7.A, sorry. You're wrong OP and teaching your child road safety poorly.

That wasn't my point. My point was that if pedestrians have to wait long times for crossings (often at least double the time cars have to wait) then they will cross diagonally. If that was an issue and it needed to be stopped it could be done by allowing pedestrians to get across quicker more in line with the time drivers have to wait.

Ah, is it? Thank you for that.

I do this too.

You do understand you have just completely changed your story from crossing diagonally (so not on a crossing) to saying you were on the crossing. Your first picture very clearly is showing a diagonal that is not on the actual crossing and now that everyone has pointed out this wrong you have completely backtracked and pretended you were on the crossing the whole time 🙄 hopefully you have learnt something at least and will be more careful in future even if you want to keep up your charade on here.

No you were crossing diagonally not on the crossing.

We were crossing the road in front of them. As the lights changed they beeped at us as we were still crossing.

What a strage thing to do! Why wouldn't you go directly if you were crossing diagnoally? Whats with the weird half diagonlly and then join the crossing part way thing?

So you usually make it across in time but didn't today? Either you crossed unusally slowy (despite being in a rush) or rushed out just before the lights changed then. I'm guessing the latter.

That wasn't my point. My point was that if pedestrians have to wait long times for crossings (often at least double the time cars have to wait) then they will cross diagonally. If that was an issue and it needed to be stopped it could be done by allowing pedestrians to get across quicker more in line with the time drivers have to wait.

You know about the crossing, you know it takes an extra few minutes, get up earlier and stop teaching your DD bad habits.

Little point teaching her good habits, if you're then going to negate that with bad habits!

Then we agree on one thing! 👍 😂 😂

What a strage thing to do! Why wouldn't you go directly if you were crossing diagnoally? Whats with the weird half diagonlly and then join the crossing part way thing?

OP was getting a hard time so decided that the diagram she had carefully drawn, showing the diagonal crossing that she's mentioned a lot, was in fact wrong and it wasn't diagonal at all.

Someone has literally posted the rule in the thread!

I'm not sure what you mean. There is enough time to cross diagonally but we were a bit slow. Like if someone started crossing after the green man had been on for a while. We were walking across the crossing when it was green man, but the lights changed just before we reached the pavement. We did not plough through a red man, we were already on the crossing. And I had left enough time, thank you.

We were on the marked crossing for a while before the lights changed. The driver clearly saw us as they sounded their horn at us.

People cross like this all the time. I would say it is very dangerous for a driver not to anticipate this.

Yes, the green man had turned red but we were almost across. The lights were changing to amber.

@UndertheCedartree ?

Well would you be happy?

You may have asked 3 times but I am answering the questions in order! You sound as impatient as the driver!

@UndertheCedartree well would you be happy?

Well hooting at pedestrians in this situation is against the highway code too, tbf. But fair enough if it's against the highway code we'll stop doing it. Would you hoot someone on the crossing that had walked directly across but was slow so the lights changed as they crossed. I mean I didn't mean for us to be on the crossing as the lights change but there is no countdown on these lights so you don't know how long you've got. Sometimes you just happen to still be crossing when the lights change!

@UndertheCedartree you seem to be avoiding the question...... unsurprisingly

They were driving over the crossing and turning left. They were stationary when they beeped as the lights were amber. We were crossing on the green man but hadn't quite made it to the pavement. I didn't drag my DD we just walked across as usual.

Ok, thank you.

You are incredibly foolish to cross the road like that, and it's an awful example to set for your child.