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-   -   Bad Pedestrians - How do you spot them (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/81818-bad-pedestrians-how-do-you-spot-them-7.html)

Old habits maybe? This menace is everywhere. Here in Ekm, MG Road and Banerji road are the worst. Footpaths are well laid out after the metro works but still people NEED to walk on the road. Maybe this was once a necessity when footpaths were un-usable due to vendors/beggars/trash/broken slabs etc. but not anymore (well largely). Its a nightmare on Banerji road as the lanes are already narrow, buses/trucks drive in the middle and there are usually cars parked on the left lane. Only place where people actually use the footpath is the Infopark e-way, maybe coz the pedestrians are scared of being run over as people drive at insane speeds there (relatively speaking).

It is frustrating that most pedestrians here do not walk on the right side. If they walk on the road facing oncoming vehicles it is relatively less dangerous.

Medical College_Ulloor Road during the evening is even worse. Not only do they walk outside the pavement but also shift to the middle of the road without looking for vehicles. I drive really slow in sections anticipating such actions and have saved numerous fender-benders.

Drunk walkers dont make happy pedestrians!
Iwas driving to the railway station at 2 AM. Unfortunately there was this train of heavy lorries hogging the right lane, so I tool the left lane. There is no dedicated footpath, but plenty of space to my left
Saw this drunk pedestrian from a decent distance and halted well ahead as he tried to say a few "nice" words of advice. Just waited for him to run out of steam (No honking or words from me) and then we all went our own ways. I hope he made it to his destination! This road is close to the bus stop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv6MMFh8xI4

A set of young pedestrians run across the road on a small city road in the night. Thankfully I spotted them behind the auto and slowed and braked AND there was noone overtaking me on the left.
I wish that roads like this had dedicated pedestrian safety facilities like footpaths and safe places to cross.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIJ1XLzcMjo

This afternoon, in front of a major mall in Bangalore, there's a Foot Over-bridge with escalators, but some ladies, giggling and chatting, right from the gate of the corporate office on the opposite side, found it easier to run, jump the median and across to the mall. :Frustrati

Basic rule of crossing the road for pedestrians: Let the vehicle ahead of you drive away, so that you can see others and others can see you.

Basic rule for cars: Always anticipate someone is behind an auto, car, bus who is about to cross the road. Also, never gun your car on a road without a physical median.

These days on the Golf Course underpasses (yes plural: since there are three in a line). The steel railing which separates the underpass lane from the normal lanes has "gaps" -- where the underpass wall starts. People use this gap to cross, traffic hurtling at an average 60 km/h. Golf course needs FOB, urgent. Else soon people will get hurt.

This happened to me a month ago and I shudder to think how bad it could have been:

I was driving in chennai on the Mount Road from Gemini towards CIT Nagar and was on the right most lane. The traffic was moving at about 20-25kmph. Due to the metro work, there are cement barricades put up as dividers and there is rope that's tying them together to prevent two wheelers from using the gap as a u-turn spot.

While I was driving, I see a couple of guys aged around 30-35 cross the road from the other side and reach this divider. By this time, they are slightly ahead of me and they put one leg over the rope and try crossing over. Just when I am about to pass them, one of guys trips over the rope and falls into my line head first. Due to the low speed, I am able to break and stop just in time. The guy had a half smile-half dazed look on his face. I wanted to get down and give him a mouthful but just controlled myself and moved on. I am pretty sure he doesn't even know how close he was to an accident.

Honestly I cannot believe I am reading this. Just 30 minutes ago, I was driving on Golf Course, and saw a guy going over the railing -- in front of me. I wondered: what if he trips on the wire railing in front of a car. And then I read what you wrote!

Carrying on: Inside an underpass. Biker parks his motorcycle. With helmet on, starts to urinate on the wall. (Sorry for the crass language). I was shell-shocked. Inside an underpass? Please? Help us?

This may be already stated by someone:
This type of pedestrians are normally on the phone, they don't bother to turn around to see if there are vehicles coming their way and more importantly they cross the signally diagonally, right in the middle of the junction. They just go about crossing the junction as if they are taking a walk in their courtyard.

She was in a hurry and didn't assess 2 way traffic and started to run while crossing to the other side. Thankfully, this section sees too many pedestrian movements and a lot of haphazard traffic in every direction.

https://youtu.be/nCvzCAW8gw4

We both were lucky. She ran and collided with my car's ORVM and didn't suffer a fall because my speed was also slow.

I roll down and even before I could ask if she was alright, she starts to argue with me that I didn't honk!

When I said she was not even bothered to check traffic from both sides and was looking at just one side and crossing a road with 2 way traffic, she said she was missing her bus :eek:!

The argument continued till I said "if you want to see how you crossed the road, I have it recorded in this camera (Pointing to the Dashcam) and you can decide what went wrong and said thank your lucky stars that it was a car at slower speed and not a cement mixer!"

She left with disappointment minus zero bruises and I moved with a sigh of relief thinking it could have been worse if she had come right in front of my car's bumper. Am sure she would have fallen even and then crowd as obvious would have started getting judgmental. One reason why Dashcams again help, immensely in these situations.

This is a regular occurrence here in the capital city. With a multitude of organisations, unions, parties all showing their power by holding these type of rallies on the busiest stretch of the city and converging at the Secretariat which is at the heart of the city, of course :Frustrati

All I wanted was a small pause in their march so that I could squeeze by, but noooo :Frustrati


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R2CunxVYBs

This is a junction somewhere in the Bangalore to Mysore route I think. There is a pedestrian crossing, but these school children choose another point to cross the road. I was just starting to accelerate when the car in front jerked to a halt to avoid bumping into them. I reacted late, but had enough space to stop. I'm not sure if there is a school closeby, but it maybe wise to have a cop at these junctions at least during busy times/school starting and end times.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx8hB6GdBKE

Vellore is filled with bad roads, bad layouts and bad pedestrians.
The Choti Haathi (Ape) pickup turns quite fast into the road and first misses the guy in the grey shirt and makes the guy in the blue checked shirt jump out of the way. Very poor road manners from the pedestrians - bad choice of spot to cross the road and very poor visual skills!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2umprpFdKaQ

This minor accident almost looks funny but could have been worse.
https://youtu.be/hw9FHpsPcNE
The pedestrian appears to carefully look for traffic before coming. But he misjudges the oncoming bike. The biker is carrying a long pipe/wooden rods. A crash results where they all fall down. The pedestrian then slowly slinks away in the opposite direction. A car brakes to a halt after a couple of seconds. It could have proven more injurious in view of the load the biker was carrying especially if he was faster. Or if the car was closer / faster it could have been disastrous!