I live in the North End of Halifax – and I have found that too many drivers do not stop for pedestrians that are walking dogs. UNLESS they HAVE to – as in they are stopped at a light and rarely stopped at a stop sign (or it’s a guide dog being walked).
I don’t understand this. If I was alone, with a senior or a child – you would’ve stopped to let me cross.
It’s not like my dog runs out into the street. He’s very polite and automatically sits at any cross walk area and waits until myself or my husband tells him it’s OK to cross.
Maybe the drivers need to pay more attention to the cross walk signs and the pedestrians walking – no matter what shape or form that pedestrian may be.
This article appears in Jan 17-23, 2008.
I find a lot of people just don’t stop…regardless of who and what is waiting at the crosswalk. They only stop when you already have a foot out into the road…
I’m a driver. I stop. Unless of course you dart in front of people, with disregard to your own life, on a crosswalk, the has an amber flashing light attached to it with a button and a sign that shows you how to operate that button, and yet some pedestrians refuse to use that. So many times i witnessed people close to being hit due to not using crosswalks properly. On a 4 lane road with traffic going on all 4 lanes, a little hint to pedestrians. You’re insignificant compared to cars so we can’t see you unless you PUSH THAT BUTTON. And to the drivers on spring garden road. Slow the F down, I almost got hit by some idiot who’s more concerned with her looks in her big mercedes SUV than paying attention to the road. Great job. How the F did you get a drivers license? By the way D & B, I don’t disagree with you. Some morons just don’t stop!!
Just to interject – sometimes the button attached to those wonderful amber flashing lights doesn’t work.
Hey -I don’t just mean at the lights – I mean where there’s a pedestrians crosswalk sign and NO lights at all….it sucks because my dog’s just trying to be good and sits patiently at the cross walk and waits for a car to stop and for me to say it’s alright to cross – and not every driver stops. I rarely find someone that stops – maybe 2/10 drivers? No exaggeration – maybe it’s the North End of Halifax….
Ever drive a car? Sorry, but at night it can be hard to see people on the left side of the street at a crossing when you’re watching on your right to make sure nobody is walking out or maybe its an intersection and a car is pulling up to it and you want to make sure it doesn’t just go right into the street you are on without stopping. In the daytime it isn’t so bad.
I agree with Cranky. At night it’s really hard to see people crossing from the left since the lights of the opposing car just blind you. So to whomever i haven’t stopped for due to that, I’m sorry. Personally, I think this is an issue with our province.. we have the poorest lit streets in the world. I was in the middle east recently, over the past summer, and honestly i have never seen so many lit streets in a country. You just can’t miss anyone. you see everything clearly at night. they’re so well lite that they actually overpower car’s head lights and you don’t worry about hitting anyone. mind you a lot of people drove because over there, a brand new honda is worth $15,000 from the dealership, where it’s double that here. Hence you don’t see a lot of pedestrians. Also too hot to walk.
We make sure the dog has his light on – it’s from MEC and it’s a bright white LED turtle light…..trust me – you’d see it.