Neil Williams wrote:
On Thu, 14 Aug 2003 01:24:20 GMT, "Martin Underwood"
wrote:

Seeing the above Highway Code URL has reminded me of the rule about
turning into a road where pedestrians are crossing. Notice that it
says "if they are already crossing". As a cyclist and a driver, I've
seen a lot of pedestrians treating sideroads as if they were zebra
crossings - ie as if they have the right to hold traffic up
indefinitely, rather than waiting until the road is clear before
crossing :-( As a pedestrian, I wouldn't dream of starting to cross
a road (except on a zebra crossing or a pelican crossing) unless it
was safe to do so.

While many may be doing this just out of stubbornness, it's useful to
know that, in Germany, pedestrians legally have the right of way over
turning cars at this kind of junction. Indeed, the pedestrian lights
turn green when the traffic lights are still green in one direction.

It's the same in France. It saves having a separate pedestrian phase on the
lights, thus improving the traffic capacity of the junction but without
reducing pedestrian facilities. A bit too radical for the UK safety mafia
though.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)