Your take on courtesy-

Dublin is very pedestrian unfriendly. You know it's bad when the nicest drivers in the city are the taxi drivers! There are zebra crossings here, but no one pays attention to them. Heck, no one even pays attention to stop signs! Crosswalks take forever to change to the green man, so you're waiting and waiting. Most people just jaywalk because it's faster.

I agree that in England that thing that frustrated me most was when a car came around a corner and wouldn't slow down, in fact they usually honked at you, even though you were there first. I would often select a finger to show them if they did that to me. 

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I agree that in England that thing that frustrated me most was when a car came around a corner and wouldn't slow down, in fact they usually honked at you, even though you were there first. I would often select a finger to show them if they did that to me. 

I have to agree.  In Leeds, I do notice this.  Once, when I was walking along the sidewalk, a car came out of an industrial park and actually hit me!  It was a tap, thank god so I wan't hurt.  I looked at the driver in surprise and he was shouting at me and shaking his fist!  WTF?! 

I have to agree.  In Leeds, I do notice this.  Once, when I was walking along the sidewalk, a car came out of an industrial park and actually hit me!  It was a tap, thank god so I wan't hurt.  I looked at the driver in surprise and he was shouting at me and shaking his fist!  WTF?! 

OMG, that makes me furious! 

OMG, that makes me furious! 

I know!  I was really upset.  I finally calmed down by the time I got home about an hour later. 

I have to agree.  In Leeds, I do notice this.  Once, when I was walking along the sidewalk, a car came out of an industrial park and actually hit me!  It was a tap, thank god so I wan't hurt.  I looked at the driver in surprise and he was shouting at me and shaking his fist!  WTF?! 

This has so happened to me on zebra crossings. I don't make a move until I make eye contact with the driver and have only *one* foot on the zebra crossing before I walk. 

Glad you were unhurt, though, A! 

I hate that they don't let you cross the street all in one go.  There are a lot of streets near me with an island that you have to wait at in the center (the roads aren't that big either) and while there are metal railings they are all bent and some sections missing from people hitting them.

I love standing in the middle of the road for 3 mintues while cars rush past at 50 mph.

I hate that they don't let you cross the street all in one go.  There are a lot of streets near me with an island that you have to wait at in the center (the roads aren't that big either) and while there are metal railings they are all bent and some sections missing from people hitting them.

I love standing in the middle of the road for 3 mintues while cars rush past at 50 mph.

To get to my supermarket, I have to cross a four-lane road at a three-way intersection.  I have to pass through three traffic signals, and at each signal wait for trafic to pass in every direction until it is my turn to pass.

At the zebra crossing near where I work, cars don't wait until you have completely crossed the street. When you are crossing the first half of the street, they are still zooming across the second half. They don't stop until you've placed a foot on their half of the street. And as soon as you get past the first half, those cars start moving again even though you're still in the road.

Ha! I watch that webcam every day. And everyday, I wish the webcam had two-way communication (it has sound so you, the viewer, can hear what's happening there, for those who aren't familiar with it). I find myself yelling at the computer all.the.time! SO many inconsiderate tourists! I mean, like really, it's rush hour and you all just stopped in the middle of the crosswalk for 30 seconds while your friend stands in the middle of traffic at a 3 way intersection to take a photo?! REALLY?!

Of course, if I lived in that area, I'd find a new way to get where I was going. I think the drivers can be very bad, too- cars, buses, all of 'em. Often they will come around the corner when regular folks are crossing and don't even slow down even though there are people in the road (not standing there, but crossing normally/lawfully.) Even the bus has narrowly missed people sometimes! It's crazy! I'm actually really excited to go back to Abbey Road when I visit London in November, so I can say all the things I'm always screaming at the computer. (Not really....well, maybe....)

Oh, and I watch that webcam so much that I've actually recognized people I've seen on there other days! LOL I turn it on to go to sleep at night. It's like white noise and having London outside the window... *sigh* I really miss London, I guess!

Cottage, I'm glad you see what I mean! Today I saw a motorcyclist stoped at the crossing and he waited until the ped. had got all the way to the curb on the otherside. (over the top IMO)The cars behind him were hunking all get out. Then I saw this tourist/ped just playing around in the center of the ZC and cars were waiting to go. Why? I think the first car grazed him with his mirror because the ped. refused to get out of the way. I would have like to have grazed him with the underside of my car
This is my favorite WC also.

That's so cool!  Are there other webcams like that for other cities?  How about Dublin?

There are web cams all over but there aren't any as good as the one on Abbey Road that I know of. It is good because it has sound and its live as against so many frames per minute. Glad you like it. I used to get one in Glasgow that was good but I can't find it anymore. I think it was on Buchanan Street.
You might like the webcam for Oxford Street, London.

I've found drivers around here to be fairly courteous to pedestrians, and vice versa.

But back to the original post about the Abbey Road webcam. Wow. That is fascinating. I'm embarrassed to admit how much time I spent watching it yesterday.    It seems like so many people have a near-miss with cabs and the like.

One thing I would point out with the tourists stepping in front of cars on Abbey Road is that they might be looking the wrong direction. There've been days when I almost stepped out in front of a car even though I looked both ways because there weren't any cars approaching from the left. I saw the car approaching from the right, but my brain discounted it because for 30 years it's known that cars approaching from the right are on the other lane of traffic.  This is the other reason why my boyfriend always holds my hand when we're out walking    I've been here long enough to know better, but sometimes instinct takes over.

The stopping to take a picture in the middle of traffic thing is just mind bogglingly inconsiderate. My BF came to visit me in SF over the summer and we saw people doing it there, too, and we just couldn't believe it.

On the drivers running people over thing, the one that really gets me is when you're walking across a carpark and people just come barreling along, trying to run you over.  I'm usually trying to make eye-contact with the wrong person, anyway, but you think that in a freaking carpark they'd expect there to be pedestrians.  I mean, if nothing else, reciprocal self-interest would suggest that drivers make a point of not hitting people, wouldn't it?

Another thing that drivers do here when parking their cars is they will slow down and then start weaving around in different directions when I'm standing right next to them. So every time I think I'm moving out of their way they end up turning and driving practically on top of me. Then I try to move out of their way again based on what they are doing, and once again they turn and almost hit me. It's as though I'm invisible or that they think I can just snap my fingers and vanish into thin air rather than actually have to walk somewhere to get out of their way.

I have never had this happen to me in America. People find the spot they want and then just drive into the spot and it is obvious where they are going.

It's hard to describe, but I guess other people must have experienced this.

Oh, man, I hate most London drivers.  We live right in front of a zebra crossing, and I always walk hesitantly into it, because people FLY through it.    And definitely, as sweetpeach said, they are still flying on the other side while I'm crossing the first half.  And the speeding down the side streets gets me too.  The roads are narrow, there are ton of familes, so little kids, strollers, etc.  There's no need to go that fast! 

I find if I have the option to cross at a light, that's what I do.  I used to like zebra crossings, but the one in front of my house almost seems like an afterthought to drivers. 

Not about a car driver, but a cyclist:

Today I was walking along a narrow pavement and a guy who was blind in one eye was coming the other way. You could tell that there was obviously something wrong with one eye. He also was walking a bit funny so he probably had more things wrong with him.

Anyway, his bad eye was on the side of the pavement closest to the road and a cyclist just drove up onto the pavement and sideswiped him. He wasn't badly hurt, the cyclist apologised briefly and he cursed at the cyclist after the cyclist rode off.

The half-blind guy obviously couldn't see on that side and, since he was walking on the pavement, didn't think he had to worry about somebody in a vehicle coming onto the pavement and hitting him.

The cyclist, on the other had, probably just assumed that the guy would automatically get out of his way - didn't stop to consider that not everybody has equal physical abilities.

Just another example of how pedestrians are treated in the UK.

In addition, in at least some parts of America, notably New York, and Boston pedestrians seemed to be the same when I visited there once, it is the norm for pedestrians to start inching their way into the road and stand at the edge before the traffic light has changed to "walk",  so they can walk across the road as soon as there is a break in traffic.

Heck, in Harvard Square jaywalking is a way of life (or death)!