Comments on: Road Rage (Part 3)

By: jj

jj — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:30:02 +0000

#6 – yes, “jaywalking” is illegal. but “jaywalk” isn’t a legal description. to jaywalk is to cross the street illegaly. that’s the whole definition.

anyhow, from SC Code of Laws, Title 56, Chapter 5:

SECTION 56-5-3110. Pedestrian obedience to traffic-control devices and traffic regulations.

(a) A pedestrian shall obey the instructions of any official traffic-control device specifically applicable to him unless otherwise directed by a police officer.

(b) Pedestrians shall be subject to traffic and pedestrian-control signals as provided in Sections 56-5-970 and 56-5-990.

(c) At all other places pedestrians shall be accorded the privileges and shall be subject to the restrictions stated in this chapter.

… blah, blah, blah …

SECTION 56-5-3210. Penalties for violating Sections 56-5-2720, 56-5-3190, or 56-5-3200.

A person who violates any of the provisions of Sections 56-5-3190, 56-5-3200, or 56-5-2720 is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be punished by a fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars or imprisonment for not exceeding ten days.

so, $25 fine or ten days in jail.

By: (William) Andrew

(William) Andrew — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:48:47 +0000

Japan has a nice attitute to zebra crossings from what I’ve seen (in Sendai and Tokyo). In addition to crossings going 4 ways around a crossroads they complete the whole thing with two crossings going along the diagonals! Excellent efficiency. I think they use black and white stripes much like the UK, and, of course, they drive on the left like us too.

By: geofftech

geofftech — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:04:24 +0000

And cats eyes in the UK are cool too! They have different colours depending on what the road is: White for the centre of a road. Red along the hard shoulder of a motorway Orange along the edge of a central reservation, and Green denoting the exit/entrance to a slip road at junctions. The ones I've seen here in the US have all just been plain white all the time.

By: Ian (the voice of reason)

Ian (the voice of reason) — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:58:43 +0000

Cats eyes sink into their box when they are driven over by a car. They have a sloped front and rear guide, which I imagine would have the same effect with a snow plough.

By: geofftech

geofftech — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:23:33 +0000

#4 – In South Africa, they call traffic lights “Robots”. Straight up.

#5 – Scott, but in snows in England too! And I don’t recall it being much of an issue there. I know it’s just ‘different’, but when you’ve grown up as I have in the UK where the road signs are plenitful and the road markings are all over the place, it’s strange driving round in a land where there seems to be only half of the signs/markings to what I’m used to.

It’s better that driving round in Malta as I did once many years ago, where there were like – umm, NO road signs whatsover. None. Zilcho. Nul Points. That was damn confusing and caused many an argument between the driver and navigator …

By: Shemsi

Shemsi — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 01:26:56 +0000

Is there a such thing as jay-walking in SC? I know there isn’t in TX. There are crosswalks, but there’s no legal requirement to cross at crosswalks. It’s not even that unusual to see people walking (running) across freeways. I haven’t seen that here, but I have noticed people crossing city streets wherever they feel like it.

It was nice in Atlanta that they had signs saying that cars should stop for pedestrians on crosswalks.

By: scottb

scottb — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 00:11:25 +0000

It just occured to me that part of the reason we don’t have street markings used as prominently as in Europe is because in a lot of North America (the manly bits anyway) the streets are covered in snow for quite a bit of the winter, so any painting on the pavement is rendered utterly useless. This results in us having to rely on elevated signs. It really is not a big deal if you have grown up with it, so Geoff, just keep at it and adapt. It will get easier.

I will admit, though, that roundabouts are much preferable to intersections controlled by lights, although the cloverleaf is a good system if so many people weren’t such wimpy drivers. I hate the rampant proliferation of stop lights, and my pet peeve, the four-way stop. They should be four-way yields (ie. roundabouts).

Also, when it rains here it can be impossible to tell where the lane markings are because we have no cat’s eyes on the road — they would be destroyed whenever a snow plow does its thing -making night drives in the wet quite harrowing. At least we don’t get that much rain though.

By: Johnny Alpha

Johnny Alpha — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 23:41:02 +0000

Did you know the same guy who suggested that roundabouts were called, well, erm, “Roundabouts” also suggested traffic lights should be called “Stop and Gos”. One stuck, the other didn’t!

By: sam

sam — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:20:13 +0000

Another weird thing about zebra crossings here is that cars can still turn right. Loads of times now i have started to walk when the green man is showing and nearly been run over by some maniac driver. Even though i thought the point of zebra crossings was to make it safe for pedestrians.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:06:05 +0000

Why not jaywalk? It’s great fun…