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If I live through the summer as a pedestrian in this city, I am getting down on my knees and kissin’ the fuckin’ sidewalk!!
If I don’t get hit in a crosswalk, I’ll be blindsided on the sidewalk by some fuckin’ douche on a bicycle!! —dilligaf
This article appears in Aug 19-25, 2010.
13 Comments
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Bike lanes, bike lanes, bike lanes. People will stop riding on the sidewalk as soon as we have enough bike lanes, like every other city. More bike lanes, more bikers, so drivers and bikers get more used to each other etc.
Crosswalk peril will never go away though. Watch out.
You’ll survive a collision with a bike as well as having the opportunity to stiff arm the rider and give him a good kicking as he’s lying on the ground wondering where the lions are? Stick to the sidewalks, keep your head on a swivel and let your elbow channel Gordy Howe.
Don’t use the crosswalks. HRM drivers are retarded and very very slow, it is very easy to move around them. Play it like a game of asteroids. They are easily confused, it is best to move into and out of their view before they are even aware of your existence. Their car world-shells isolate them and insulate and dullen their perception. They are not in this world, they are in a different one.
I’m glad you use the crosswalk. Most don’t. I don’t even slow down for jaywalkers. Last year a jaywalker was hit by a delivery van on Quinpool….guess what, the jaywalker was held 100% at fault.
I jaywalk, been doing it for years. Jaywalking is safer if you do it right. When jaywalking make sure you have lots of time. If you can walk across the street without the car slowing down you’re doing it right.
pobodys.nerfect, i half agree with you but tell that to a cop. oldhand, wouldn’t Frogger be a more appropriate type game for crossing the road. Seriously though the OP has a point, and possibly the worst crosswalk in HRM has to be at Scotia Square across from Barrington Place Shops.
I still find bicycle lanes somewhat impractical in that the ones who will use them don’t need them and the ones who need them won’t use them. Similar to drivers in that those who don’t respect the cyclists probably won’t respect the cycling lanes either.
We need to develop more respect for each other on the roads and on the sidewalks. To paraphrase newtohx: people are more concerned with their rights than their responsibilities. Yes, cyclists have the right to the road, as do drivers, but they both share responsibility for each other’s safety.
For the record, cyclists DO NOT have the right to the sidewalk, nor do they have the right to ride through crosswalks. Hence the word sideWALK, crossWALK.
Oh yeah. I jaywalk too. I’d rather be responsible for my own safety and get a ticket than be a law abiding hood ornament.
I agree Broc… it’s always interesting at the end of the day to see if I get creamed.
I hit the button, start walking, and see what happens.
I’m sure one of these days I’ll get to take my long term leave of absence.
When are we ever going to get the scramble system for crossing the street at an intersection?
It’s simple.
When north / south traffic has a green light the east / west traffic has a red. No right turns allowed. Pedestrians are not allowed to cross in any direction.
When east / west traffic has a green light north / south traffic has a red. No right turns. Pedestrians are not allowed to cross in any direction.
Then guess what! North / south gets a red the same times east / west gets a red. No right turns. Then the pedestrians get to cross at the intersection any fucking way they want. North / south, east / west or diagonally.
Less traffic issues, less pissed off people and less accidents.
BTW – no damn left hand turns in rush hour traffic. (Personal pet peeve).
Go to Quebec.
Peds don’t have the right of way in the crosswalks and drivers are bat shit insane.
Halifax is a breeze compared to attempting to walk anywhere in la belle province!
Pedesting kills!
Yes, Frogger. Thank you. (Though I liked DigDug much better)
Barrington place shops crossing? The entire downtown traffic problem right there. There is even a pedway overhead that no one uses. Traffic by law, has to yield to the constant pedestrians at the crossing. Buses in particular heed this regulation. There are lots of them there. Result? Traffic does not move while fat assed secretaries waddle across the street ever so slowly as if the rest of the world did not exist.
If they banned parking on Barrington and put a set of traffic-pedestrian lights at that crossing (one where the pedestrians get a red light they have to heed) then much of the downtown traffic issues that exist would disappear. That would be far too logical though. Also, it would reduce the revenue that Securitas can bring in for them. That mess is a cash cow that they are addicted to.