It's clearly not just a danger to use them whilst driving. Thankfully spidey senses were up to the job and I've just narrowly avoided running a school girl over. Gassing away on the phone looked left but not right and stepped straight in to the road. Thank **** I saw her in time and pre empted her next move. Pretty scary all the same!
Well done. The girl survived as you were concentrating, observing and anticipating, and you weren't texting or whatever as you drove. I'm not too fussed by pedestrians on the phone, they're taking a risk not putting people at risk.
You get it when walking too - people who just believe they don't have to look where they're going and everyone will move out of their way. Not [i]everyone[/i] does.. 8)
not putting people at risk.
Not really true though is it.
I was knocked off my bike earlier this year when a pedestrian (looking down at his phone) walked out from behind a parked van. I had no chance to fully avoid him and caught a glancing blow which dumped me at high speed onto the road. £180 worth of damage to gear and bike + 2 cracked ribs and a lacerated shoulder for me. He initially apologised and then started shouting about cyclists after he found his phone screen was smashed. My shoulder still hurts 7 months later. Dick.
People walking into the road whilst on mobile phones should face a penalty in the same way drivers do.
It's a flippin' plague. Not only do you have to watch out for all the other idiots on the road, now you have to watch out for all the idiots walking along glued to their screens who may just wander into your path.
On a similar note, we stayed at Comrie Croft recently in one of their fancy Kata tent thingies. They have them dotted around the woods of the trail centre. On the Saturday night I was heading up to our Kata when I saw a family of five - Mum, Dad and three adolescent kids - sitting around the fire outside their Kata.
"How nice." I thought. As I got closer, however, I realised they were sitting in total silence and each one of them was head-down on their own device. Faces lit up with that blueish light.
One of the saddest things I've ever seen......
It's not just mobile phones, it's a general spacial awareness issue, I get it all the time walking through the city I work in, people walking in one direction and looking in another, or simply expecting you to side step around them even when they are looking.
I got bored of dodging people a while back so I don't change my trajectory any more. Although I am 6'4 and 17 stone, so they tend to just bounce off me when they crash into me.
May I just point out at this point that pedestrians are road users too and the pavement is part of the road.
If you are turning off a road onto a side road then the pedestrian on the road has priority, just as you shouldn't overtake a cyclist and turn left on them and just as you wouldn't turn into an oncoming vehicle.
Pedestrians "jumping" out from behind parked cars possibly excepted, but common sense would suggest riding according to the conditions and visibility. Too many cyclists in London undertaking between the bus and the parked cars just asking for trouble.
Now pedestrians lurching into the cycle part of a shared use path, that I can sympathise with.
Think of all those young fresh organs getting donated, good job they don't have spine transplants as all these youngsters are developing a perm stoop.
