Doing the Zebra

[steepholm]

Okay, I'm doing this mostly to see whether I can work out how to post a poll, but I am interested in the results, as it's a moral quandary that has stumped me for years...

[Poll #1808368]

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

And intriguingly, I find that as a bye and large, male drivers are politer over giving way than female drivers which is not what I might have expected......

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Seconded!

[diceytillerman.livejournal.com]

What is a zebra crossing?

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

That´s what six pairs of more or less silly shoes and one pair of pedes in the nude walk allover on a rare, hardly known recordcover of a now long forgotten pop band from the ...er: late 1960s, I think? One has already turned into a hippie, for instance.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

You know, the term isn't used in the U.S. and most Americans don't know it. There's no need to be insulting about it.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Oh! I am so terribly sorry, I was absolutely sure you were merely joking and applying my bad sense of humour in trying to join in! My apologies, sincerely.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

I have never been to the U.S. so did not realise this, at all. I thought it was a common term in all english-speaking countries, whether american or otherwise. Lack of knowledge on my side, as you can see. No intention whatsoever to insult you or anyone, on the contrary! I thought, we were having fun...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's a pedestrian crossing, but one that's not controlled by lights (no 'Walk/Don't Walk' signs, no illuminated green or red figures). It gives right of way to pedestrians, but this is respected more in some parts of the world than in others. In Britain, for example, you're pretty safe going on one, but in Paris it's more or less equivalent to suicide.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

While in Rome there's no 'more or less' about it!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

In Britain, fwiw, the ones with lights are called Pelican Crossings. Why, I don't know.

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

By "with lights" do you include the ones with the flashing lights but not a red/green signal?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Sorry, no, the ones with flashing lights on poles are the zebras. Belisha beacons, we used to call them, after the Minister of Transport who brought zebras in (though I don't know if that's still in common use), are just there to alert drivers to the crossing's existence, rather than to control traffic. By 'with lights' I meant the ones that are coordinated with traffic lights, where you press a button and wait for the red figure to turn green.

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I assumed, but I wanted to check the UK terminology!

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Supposedly it's an acronym.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Do you know of what? Apparently there have been Pandas and Puffins too - quite the menagerie.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I believe the "P" stands for "Pedestrian", the "L" for Light, and that's as far as I got.

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

Yes! It's supposedly for PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled. Last year when I was getting my UK license I was reading all this stuff going 'why on earth do they have such cutesy weird names for crosswalks...?' ;)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

So I've been misspelling it all this time? It's actually a Pelicon crossing?

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

No, you've been spelling it right. Having come up with PELICON, someone then thought, 'Oh! Like a pelican!' and called it that.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Not to mention Toucans...

[ashkitty.livejournal.com]

British term for crosswalk. :)

[ron-broxted.livejournal.com]

Depends on the mood I am in.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Fair enough.

[larryhammer]

For reference, I live in a jurisdiction where pedestrians in marked crossings have the right-of-way, and the drivers are legally required to stop for same. (This varies in the States by state and by city.) I like to acknowledge and thank them for obeying the law of courtesy.

---L.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

If it isn't a light controlled crossing, that's how it's supposed to go here in the UK too, but it doesn't always do so........

[larryhammer]

Is it all the UK or specifically England?

---L.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's the whole UK.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I live in a place where the streets are not designed for modern traffic - there's a lot of giving way and being thoughtful required to make things work. About 90% of the time drivers politely thank each other and acknowledge the thanks. I think that makes everyone feel better and helps it feel as though the world is working smoothly.

Zebra crossings seem much the same to me. As a pedestrian I acknowledge drivers when they stop for me - if nothing else, it seems worth saying 'thanks for not being an arsehole'. And as a driver, I smile at the pedestrians when I've stopped for them.

I do also enjoy yelling obscenities at rude drivers and those who don't stop at zebra crossings.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

It's also the usual practice here for drivers to nod and wave when giving way on narrow streets or passing places on single-track roads.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Watch warily in case they decide to run me over anyway.

[joyeuce]

Yes, this - especially London black cab drivers!

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I can remember two instances of people I know being hit on zebra crossings - the first involved a car, which mercifully was going so slowly that it only bumped my flatmate, giving her a nasty shock but no injuries, and the second involved a bicycle which knocked my elderly aunt down and broke her leg.

They were both in London, come to think of it.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I think London is worse than most places in the UK in this respect.

[gillo]

I generally nod or make a polite hand gesture, much as I do if a driver has let my car out of a junction. Politeness costs nothing, even if the driver was legally required to stop.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I think what got me thinking about this again, was a radio piece recently in which someone mentioned as one of his pet hates zebra pedestrians who don't thank him for stopping. That sense of entitlement got my dander up, and an ornery part of me wants not to thank any driver lest they turn out to be of his mind. I do like the camaraderie of human-to-human friendliness, but am afraid of having it read as pedestrian-to-driver forelock tugging. Hence my quandary!

[nixwilliams.livejournal.com]

I usually raise my hand in a "thanks" gesture and make eye-approximation-contact (often I can't actually see into the car to find the driver). I do it basically as positive reinforcement so that they're more likely to stop at crossings in the future - and that's why I don't necessarily think pedestrians *should* to it!

[shark-hat.livejournal.com]

Yes, this.

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

I was going to say this too.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Random, vaguely relevant thing that fascinates me:

We visited Vietnam in 1996 and eventually learned to trust the fact that, despite the apparently chaotic and ferocious traffic and the total lack of pedestrian crossings, if a pedestrian makes eye contact with a driver and strides out with confidence, the driver will give way.

Around that time, it was reported in the UK press that a policeman had also been on holiday to Vietnam, made the same observation, and thereby realised that Vietnamese immigrants in his part of the UK were prone to getting run over because making eye-contact over here generally means that the pedestrian waits.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Coincidentally, as I drove (safely) back from Cardiff this afternoon, I heard this programme about the Shared Space movement, which sounds similar in some ways.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Coincidentally, I went through that new Oxford Circus junction on a bus in the company of someone who is involved in - really creative - campaigning for the changes to the way we use our streets.

*searches*

Here we go. It was Ted Dewan and the campaign is the Road Witch Trial.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's very impressive!

[dorianegray.livejournal.com]

Given the behaviour of most drivers approaching the zebra crossing I use most often, I generally glare at them, daring them to run me over.

Actually, come to think, that's generally my reaction to any approaching driver anywhere I'm crossing a road.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

To be honest, the friendliness of my wave and smile does tend to depend on a number of factors. The drivers who get the friendliest treatment tend to be the ones immediately after the ones who didn't bother to stop at all.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

I watch the drivers like hawks. When I make eye contact, it's to emphasize the "PLEASE do not run over me!" message. I do nod my head, smile, and sometimes lift a hand (in acknowledgement, not aggression) to those drivers who are not actively attempting to eat my leg with their car bumpers.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Somewhere between 'wave & smile' and 'surly nod' - an unsurly nod, maybe, with possible added smile if I feel that way.

Actual wave & smile seems excessive (I am English, after all).

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Quite. It could come across as sarcasm.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

In Canada, it depends on where you are. In Montreal, for example, you take your life in your hands when crossing the street. In Toronto, you can quite literally stop traffic, and the sense of power is quite heady. Here in BC, it kind of depends where the intersection is and the mood of the driver. Drivers are obliged to stop, but don't always, and I always smile at them and/or wave or nod if they do.
The term zebra crossing is not used here, either. I only know it from my British origins.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's somehow comforting to know that the Francophone part of Canada resembles Paris in that respect too.