Safety on streets doesn’t depend on motorists only, even though they should pay attention to road; traffic regulations are also for pedestrians to avoid accidents.
In today’s journey we are going to explore these rules, it doesn’t matter if you have or not a car, we all are pedestrians at some point of our life. It’s important to know how to transit by foot to get safe to our homes, so pay attention to the following rules and be sure of every step you take.
Traffic management for pedestrians, do you know them?
As we mentioned, traffic safety is everyone’s concern. Yes, every actor has their own responsibilities and obligations; by working together, we would achieve a better road culture.
Motorists and cyclists must follow their own rules according to the traffic regulations, all with the aim of having a better driving and put pedestrian at the top of the mobility pyramid.
However, as pedestrian, exist rules that you must follow for your well-being. Doing it will guarantee you a good returning to home or even to motorists. We will mention what are the following rules.
Obey the rules and traffic signs
As motorists must follow traffic signs as the one that indicates the maximum speed, people who walk should respect signs that mark pedestrian crossing or prohibited crossings. The traffic sign indicates the safe spots for everyone, for that is necessary to respect them.
Walk in the intended places for you
As streets are for motorists, bikeways for cyclists, sidewalks are for pedestrians. We know that the physical state of sidewalks isn’t the best, because sometimes doesn’t even exists one or are in very bad conditions, but every time you have the possibility of use a sidewalk, walk on it. It’s your safest space
It occurs the same with pedestrian bridges. Unfortunately, not many provide the required safety neither lighting and infrastructure, but cross on them and avoid to run in dangerous avenues.
Right crossings
In the previous point, we mentioned that walking on street and crossing on bridges when exist these one. In case of not having them, you have to cross the street in pedestrian crossings or intersections. Even though you cross in a one-way street, you should always look both ways, it is never known if a motorcycle or cyclist comes on the opposite direction.
Pay attention when crossing
Even though is best that authorities indicate pedestrian crossings when these don’t exist, neither bridges, there’s no other solution than crossing wherever you can. When this occurs, cross on the next sidewalk from a point that is possible to see traffic. Cross as fast as possible, but always looking both sides, and you should never, never ever try to cross before a car that comes at high speed.
Pay attention on sidewalk
Even though the safer walking in public road is on sidewalk, here we will also consider certain circumstances. Be careful with cars that get in and out of garages. As the doors that open automatically.
Never in a curve
In the previous point, we mentioned that you must cross street from a zone that allow to visibilize traffic. According to that, you should never try to cross in a curve. This is a blind spot, for you as pedestrian as for motorists; in this section, they won’t see you until they are in front of you, never before.
Be careful with public transport
If you go from one sidewalk to another, and there’s a public transport invading the passage because they weren’t able to cross during yellow, it’s important to surround it for behind instead that in front. Due their size, motorists will hardly see you if you cross in front of a bus, so they could run over you if they suddenly see you.
A little step can be a great push
Talking about public transport, if you already are an user of it, you need to be conscious about the correct way of ascend and descend at the same time… When bus stop to allow you to ascend or descend look both ways before you cross street to see if a car, motorbike, or bicycle comes. Not in few occasions, people just descend without looking the way and sometimes cyclists or motorists run over them.
Act correctly before workers
In construction zones, pay attention to signs that don’t allow passage or other instructions. In heavy duty work zones, is common that objects like that fall, so be careful.
As you can observe, these are the basic rules a good road culture provides to pedestrian. Many times traffic accidents are caused for those that cross street and not those behind the wheel.
Follow all the traffic regulations for pedestrians and make of your walking a safer one in in different streets and sidewalks.
