"Pedestrians Give Way to Traffic"
I've written before about the dangers of being a pedestrian in NZ, but the sign we saw the other day takes the cake: "Pedestrians Give Way to Traffic."
I'm really trying to wrap my head around the attitude of drivers in NZ, especially with regard to pedestrians.
Two things have made this stick in my head over the past day or so. One happened yesterday as I watched yet another person stand in the median on a very busy city street, waiting for a gap in traffic to sprint across. I've learned not to stop, and I don't like that. I know if I do stop, the person won't know what to do; since Kiwis have been conditioned not to expect people to stop, when you do stop, they just stand there, dumbstruck. I also know that if I do stop, I'm likely to be rammed from behind or, even more dangerously, the driver approaching from the rear will swerve to the left and attempt to pass me in the bike lane on the shoulder--and potentially hit the pedestrian I've stopped for.
The other thing happened just this morning. As I walked Evan to school with Connor on my shoulders, we had to cross a street that makes a very sharp turn, making it hard to see any cars that could be approaching from that direction. As we got to the street, Evan stopped and looked both ways and began to cross. The road was clear, but I could see what he couldn't--a car coming around the corner. Now, he wasn't in any kind of danger. The car was far enough away and he would have gone quickly enough that he would have made it safely. But, I don't want him to learn to count on the car traveling the speed limit, so I held him back.
The woman driving the car must have seen him begin to cross the road, and probably hit the brakes. I assume she slowed down because as she passed us, she gunned the engine and sped off down the road.
I've found this to be fairly typical of Kiwi drivers. Pedestrians are not people, but obstacles. The common courtesy you expect to find when crossing the street or walking in a parking lot simply just does not exist here. Last week we were nearly run down by a woman in a minivan making a U-turn in the intersection we were crossing--which incidentally is right in front of the school. She was in such a hurry to drop off her kids, she nearly ran over mine. I regularly see people in parking lots back out of spots irrespective of the presence of pedestrians, swerve around pedestrians, or refuse to stop to let people cross--even stooped-over old men and women with baby carriages.
To cross a street, one must jaywalk. It is literally impossible to cross a street at an intersection if there is any traffic at all. Most intersections (away from the tourist areas, mind you) don't have cross walks painted on them, and drivers pull out into the intersecting road as far as they can, blocking crossing at the corners. If there's a line of cars, you either have to pick your way through them, thereby risking not being seen by cars turning into the intersection, or walk up the street several car lengths (at least). If you stand on the corner, even if there is a stop sign, most cars will not stop far enough back from the road to give you space to cross.
Part of the pedestrian problem is the lack of stop signs. Almost all intersections have 'Give Way' signs or no sign at all, which means 'give way.' The result of this is that drivers approaching intersections aren't looking at the intersection, but rather looking down the road to see if they can roll right through. (This is disconcerting as a driver too, since approaching intersections means looking for drivers who may be hoping to not have to stop. Very often drivers at those intersections will stop very suddenly, with their noses nearly in the travel lane.)
I'm not saying that you don't see this kind of thing in the US. I've crossed Central Avenue in Dover often enough to know that it's something you really don't want to do. I've seen people speed out of the school parking lot. But what is noticeably bad behavior in the US is noticeably common behavior here.
As a larger issue, I'm not really sure what this says about Kiwi culture. I'd like to be able to report that the lack of courtesy ends once they step out of their cars, but I'm not sure it does. People think nothing of standing and having a conversation in the middle of the aisle in the grocery store or in the middle of the sidewalk (in front of the crosswalk, no less, so that the dozen of us crossing the street in front of Evan's school had to walk around them). They budge in line, coming from the side, and if a new checkout opens, people will literally run from the end of the old line to be first in the new one. A handful of times I've waited for help from a cashier who couldn't be bothered to allow me to interrupt their personal conversation--not with a customer, mind you, but with one of their friends who stopped by to see them or call them at work.
Yes, I actually waited about 5 minutes at Blockbuster on day while the woman behind the counter had a personal phone conversation. From her side of the conversation, it was about how much partying the other person had done over the weekend. The kicker ... when she hung up she said to me, 'Sorry, that was the new owner.'
I'm really trying to wrap my head around the attitude of drivers in NZ, especially with regard to pedestrians.
Two things have made this stick in my head over the past day or so. One happened yesterday as I watched yet another person stand in the median on a very busy city street, waiting for a gap in traffic to sprint across. I've learned not to stop, and I don't like that. I know if I do stop, the person won't know what to do; since Kiwis have been conditioned not to expect people to stop, when you do stop, they just stand there, dumbstruck. I also know that if I do stop, I'm likely to be rammed from behind or, even more dangerously, the driver approaching from the rear will swerve to the left and attempt to pass me in the bike lane on the shoulder--and potentially hit the pedestrian I've stopped for.
The other thing happened just this morning. As I walked Evan to school with Connor on my shoulders, we had to cross a street that makes a very sharp turn, making it hard to see any cars that could be approaching from that direction. As we got to the street, Evan stopped and looked both ways and began to cross. The road was clear, but I could see what he couldn't--a car coming around the corner. Now, he wasn't in any kind of danger. The car was far enough away and he would have gone quickly enough that he would have made it safely. But, I don't want him to learn to count on the car traveling the speed limit, so I held him back.
The woman driving the car must have seen him begin to cross the road, and probably hit the brakes. I assume she slowed down because as she passed us, she gunned the engine and sped off down the road.
I've found this to be fairly typical of Kiwi drivers. Pedestrians are not people, but obstacles. The common courtesy you expect to find when crossing the street or walking in a parking lot simply just does not exist here. Last week we were nearly run down by a woman in a minivan making a U-turn in the intersection we were crossing--which incidentally is right in front of the school. She was in such a hurry to drop off her kids, she nearly ran over mine. I regularly see people in parking lots back out of spots irrespective of the presence of pedestrians, swerve around pedestrians, or refuse to stop to let people cross--even stooped-over old men and women with baby carriages.
To cross a street, one must jaywalk. It is literally impossible to cross a street at an intersection if there is any traffic at all. Most intersections (away from the tourist areas, mind you) don't have cross walks painted on them, and drivers pull out into the intersecting road as far as they can, blocking crossing at the corners. If there's a line of cars, you either have to pick your way through them, thereby risking not being seen by cars turning into the intersection, or walk up the street several car lengths (at least). If you stand on the corner, even if there is a stop sign, most cars will not stop far enough back from the road to give you space to cross.
Part of the pedestrian problem is the lack of stop signs. Almost all intersections have 'Give Way' signs or no sign at all, which means 'give way.' The result of this is that drivers approaching intersections aren't looking at the intersection, but rather looking down the road to see if they can roll right through. (This is disconcerting as a driver too, since approaching intersections means looking for drivers who may be hoping to not have to stop. Very often drivers at those intersections will stop very suddenly, with their noses nearly in the travel lane.)
I'm not saying that you don't see this kind of thing in the US. I've crossed Central Avenue in Dover often enough to know that it's something you really don't want to do. I've seen people speed out of the school parking lot. But what is noticeably bad behavior in the US is noticeably common behavior here.
As a larger issue, I'm not really sure what this says about Kiwi culture. I'd like to be able to report that the lack of courtesy ends once they step out of their cars, but I'm not sure it does. People think nothing of standing and having a conversation in the middle of the aisle in the grocery store or in the middle of the sidewalk (in front of the crosswalk, no less, so that the dozen of us crossing the street in front of Evan's school had to walk around them). They budge in line, coming from the side, and if a new checkout opens, people will literally run from the end of the old line to be first in the new one. A handful of times I've waited for help from a cashier who couldn't be bothered to allow me to interrupt their personal conversation--not with a customer, mind you, but with one of their friends who stopped by to see them or call them at work.
Yes, I actually waited about 5 minutes at Blockbuster on day while the woman behind the counter had a personal phone conversation. From her side of the conversation, it was about how much partying the other person had done over the weekend. The kicker ... when she hung up she said to me, 'Sorry, that was the new owner.'
posted by Jon A at
9:04 AM
1 Comments:
Ah, the Meats aisle at the Moorhouse Pak & Save. Otherwise known as "The Navel Gazing Zen Garden of Personal Reflection and Contemplation."
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