ESarge

Mmm... I was quite surprised about how much courtesy drivers here will give pedestrians. If you happen to be a pedestrian crossing the road then 90% of the time the cars will stop. This *never* happens in NZ.

That said, Canadian drivers can be quite aggressive - sometimes the way the road works appears to encourage it.

The thing I really didn't like was learning how to handle unprotected left turns at lights. Whatever happened to good old filter lights?

Aviator

Does not stop them being idiots though. Walk out in front of a vehicle 'it's my right of way', its likely to do the pedestrian a lot more harm than the vehicle. Jaywalking is also an offence in many states & provinces. It has always puzzled me how a pedestrian committing an offence can have right of way. There is also such a thing as common sense, which an awful lot of people seem to be lacking.

Under marine law a vessel under power has right of way over one under sail. Who's going to sit in their sail boat in front of a 250,000 ton tanker and claim right of way. Same goes in the air, a ballon has right of way over a aircraft under power. Claim your right in front of a 747 and you'll pretty soon find yourself at 40,000' and moving a lot faster than ever before. Common sense dictates ones actions.

Some countries it's a whole different story, in Bangkok, pedestrians make great targets!

J-A-UK

Not at all ~ Pedestrians have right of way in EVERY situation...... There are several examples in the highway code.

Have a nice day ~ Chilling out somewhere

Steve_P

Right of way is something you give not take.

Almost Canadian

I see we'll have to disagree on that

minimeeze

Well, apart from no-one ever sticking to the speed limits (doing 70km/h in a 50 zone still makes you the slowest driver on the road!), and giving about a nanoseconds indication before turning (if any indication at all), the drivers around Abbotsford don't fare any better.

I have seen someone someone reversing back down the sliproad of highway one (presumably changed their mind about where they wanted to go), not once, but 3 times!

Eating a bowl of cereal whilst driving

Dogs on laps

A calf (as in baby cow) in the back seat of a pick up

People who just pull out and look at you like you did something wrong

Yesterday, someone was parked by the side of the road then decided to pull out right in front of me with no indication. They drove about 20 metres then stopped, again, with no indication.

No wonder car insurance is so bloody expensive!

Edit: Oh, and people reading a book / newspaper as they drive.

Cdnshaz

same goes here in UK, no one ever uses their blinkers and the worse tail gaters I have ever seen, my husband is a baaaad tail gater...drives me nuts, I am far from perfect driver, but I do try to stick to speed limit, don't tail gate and always make conscience effort to use my blinkers.

Maybe city drivers are more careless in areas, where I come from, if a dog crosses the road we give it right of way, we always signal, and mostly stick to speed limit. Cops get bored where I come from, so traffic is where the sneaky buggers get ya!

Alan2005

If you can forgive my sweeping generalization, what i've noticed is that:-

Bad drivers in Canada are usually simply incompetent behind the wheel - they will cut you up because they didn't even look.
Bad drivers in the UK know exactly what they are doing but don't care - they will cut you up and laugh in your face as they do it.

Aviator

Apparently not, says my OH who used to be a driving examiner in the UK. Pedestrians have to give vehicles reasonable chance to stop. When not using a proper crossing they don't have right of way. Whenever there is an accident with injury, vehicular or pedestrian the police are involved and investigate. Pedestrians in the UK have the burden or risk far more than here.

However it is not considered good form to just run people over willy nilly.

J-A-UK

Agreed to a point but the rules are the rules ~ One example

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAn...code/DG_070332

Second bullet point of Rule 170 quotes the pedestrian has priority

I think that really sums it up ~ Afterall I bet we've all stepped out at some point and hoping that the driver isn't reading the highway code at the time LoL

Almost Canadian

At a junction (and only if they are already crossing), just like they do when on a "crosswalk", they do not have priority anywhere else.

I still haven't seen any legal authority to support what you originally stated, that they have priority "every" time.

Danny B

People do not use their indicators where I live, annoys the hell out of me.

Aviator

It is a shame drivers don't read this, or perhaps the police don't enforce it!

http://www.icbc.com/driver-licensing..._penalties.pdf

I love the one 'Drive on a sidewalk $81 fine' , I guess then pedestrians should have right of way

J-A-UK

Mu Lud ~ I refer to the answer the honerable gentleman gave earlier

Shall we agree to kind of agree ish to disagree LoL

Still cant just plough em down tho

XCMTBer

Yet another example of how special Canadian drivers can be

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/dr...936/story.html