ancient wrote:I disagree with all this guff about pedestrians needing to take responsibility for their own safety. Clearly pedestrians do not need a licence to be free to walk the streets: They are allowed to do so whether healthy or unwell, whether blind or deaf, under the influence of many legal drugs such as anti-histamines (which are recommended against whilst operating machinery). They are of all ages and abilities. They are allowed (and should be expected) to be distracted. They are to be expected to cross along desire lines which do not match some engineer's decision, because their destination is the other side of the road and not 'somewhere down there' where a crossing has been built.
The operators of vehicles bring the extra speed and frequently mass, which turns a harmless bump into something which risks someone's life. Looking the wrong way when crossing the road is not something that deserves a death sentence (nor is stepping back in confusion when shouted at). It is the operators of these vehicles who bear moral responsibility to mitigate the increased danger they bring to the public streets; that responsibility increases with the size, speed and likely lethality of the vehicle in a collision.
If you mean that pedestrians shouldn't have to take all the responsibility, then you're correct.
But if you mean that pedestrians shouldn't take any responsibility for their own safety, then you are the one talking utter guff. I don't think it was you, but your comments remind me of the complete buffoon on the old IAM forum, who said that cyclists have zero responsibility in the event of a collision. Yes, he was an idiot and a misguided fool, and was a good reason why we should never have allowed the cyclists to have their own section of the IAM, but even so.
I strongly suspect that you wrote your comments knowing that they would be misinterpreted, but most of the chaps on here seem wise to that, so you may have to try harder. Obviously if your comments are misunderstood, and you only mean that pedestrians
share some of the responsibility, then yes, everyone will agree with you I'm sure.
P.S. your Straw Man comment about "looking the wrong way is not something that deserves a death sentence" did not go unnoticed, but was instead ignored.