Two Road Safety Messages/Questions
1. On what side of the street should you walk on when there are no side
walks?
Answer: If you have to walk along a street without sidewalks,
try to walk on the side which allows you to face oncoming traffic. Then
you can sidestep oncoming traffic if need be, or see what hits you.
Otherwise, you are trusting that all drivers behind you, sleepy or not,
will see you.
This suggestion or guideline may not apply to all circumstances. The
advice here does not apply to travel in one direction along one-way
streets. The advice here does not apply if you are at the head or in the
middle of a column of people walking with their backs towards oncoming
traffic. But the people at the rear of the column with their backs
towards oncoming traffic may have cause for complaint. This advice also
does not apply when following it means crossing a dangerous flow of
traffic.
The other day, driving into the sun, I drove through a pedestrian
crossing. I did not see a mother and child about to cross. That was near
miss - an accident that could of been.
You too may have the legal right to walk on either side of a road, or to
cross. But put safety first. Right of way does not guarantee drivers will
miss you, even though most if not all, do not want to hit you.
even when you have have the right of way in principle, but it does not
hurt to look both ways when crossing a street, even a one way street, and
its does not hurt to walk not on the road, or at least on the road and
facing the traffice to seee what is coming, sensibly or not. Good luck.
2. What is the Best Way to Keep your hands or limb?
Do drive with you hand or arm through a car window. That invites problems
if the car comes to close to another vehicle or stationary object.
Avoid driving bicycles and motorcycles or bikes on lanes and roads shared
with cars, trucks and buses. In the case of an accident, riders in the
latter have some protection because they are surrounded by metal - the
car shell. But on a bicycle or motorcycle or motorbike in case of an
accident, there is no metal shell between you and the ground, or you and
another vehicle in case of an accident.
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