When I was in Nepal, busses would round blind corners on barely-two-lane cliffside roads - meaning 100+ metre cliffs above AND below - at full speed, and their only warning was just a bunch of honks. The problem is there’s so much honking it’s hard to imagine anyone can tell where it’s coming from, especially given the people you’re trying to warn are around the corner and can probably only hear you due to echoes coming from the far side of the valley.
The game for me became, count how many busses were destroyed at the bottom of the cliffs, or hanging precariously over the edge having punched through the concrete barrier, or tipped on their side in the lowlands, or just… fucking INTEGRATED with one another after a head on collision that definitely killed both drivers and anyone sitting in the driver’s quadrant of each bus.
I definitely lost count, except for that last example of which I saw exactly one (1), and I learned that honking is no substitute for real infrastructure. Structural adjustment policies killed those people.
That’s the thing, I live near train tracks/station. The fucking train honks incessantly. There are like 4 or 5 intersections that train crosses in pretty quick succession, plus the station, so they just lay on the horn for a good mile. No one pays attention to it. It’s like the boy that cried wolf. It totally defeats the purpose of it’s trying to alert anyone to anything. Not to mention the noise pollution it needlessly creates. Idk who decided that was a reasonable solution, instead of putting up the people gates, but fuck them. That law needs to be completely abolished imo.
Trains have right of way. Cars do not have right of way at cross walks.
pedestrians should honk
Not in Mexico. Well it is kind of fluid anyhow.
I do find that it rather works well though. People don’t automatically assume they have right of way and this don’t just walk out in front of cars. Ignoring the tourists that is. It actually allows for better traffic flows and I find cars stop when it makes sense. Ie. You might see people wanting to cross and you know the traffic ahead is stopped so it makes sense to use that pause to let people cross.
And because the rules are a bit fluid, people and cars seem more cautious. People in particular. It seems more chaotic but the fatality rates are still quite low while maintaining good flow.
But what does the law state about crosswalks?
As said, it is a bit fluid. If you just walk out into a crosswalk and get driven over then likely won’t be any charges. If you enter a crosswalk reflecting all cars to stop, that is rather risky. If a car has time to stop but doesn’t, the driver will be getting charged. Generally people wait for traffic to have a pause before they use a cross walk. In some really busy areas down town there will always be people waiting at a cross walk. Literally there would be near zero movement of automobile as you could spend an hour waiting for a crosswalk to clear.
Personally from a person that walks often, I rarely wait anytime to cross a street. Traffic flows a best it can but stops enough I can easily cross. At a controlled intersection in Canada you can wait two, there, four minutes till you get a walk for example. Waiting that long is very rare as you take your turn first chance you get.
For lack of better description, they put a higher expectation of personal responsibility. Someone walking should easily be able to tell when it is safe to do something and can easily change their path to ovoid an unsafe condition. They use this same logic in shipping and flying. The smaller vessel typically gives way to the larger less easy to maneuver vessel.
In addition to the whole ‘a car is diffent from a train’ aspect; trains don’t always ‘honk’ in the US
Neither do they here (Austria) even though my driving instructor was adamant that they do. “You can trust that if there’s no honk, there is no train.”
Thanks, driving instructor, but I’d rather go with “if there is no train, then there is no train”.
Please no. Can you imagine the cacophony that’d be?
Downvotes are from the light sleepers annoyed by car honks
Not related but man it is so nice to visit places where honking is rare. I am in PV Mexico alot and honking is rare even though driving is quite random and rules are only optional. Driving is actually fairly stress free as it is rare to see anyone angry.
Then you drive in Panama city, Panama. Still no one is angry but honking is continues. Don’t turn on a blinker to lane change. Just honk and do it. Regardless of there is a space for you.
Yes, but no, please no.
What is glorious is riding high speed trains in other countries. They are built like our interstates, with all crossings either over or under. They don’t use their horn. It is just quit and smooth, and you can get up and walk around, get a tea, or use the restroom. It is far more comfortable than traveling by car.
No, it doesnt make sense for the following reason:
Trains have priority. Road users are required by law to yield to them.
Unless the crosswalk is signalized, cars do NOT have priority & are required by law to crosswalk users.
Fine then pedestrians should be honking at every crossing
If you want even more nutjobs shooting each other in public, sure, go for it. 👍
Trains only honk because they can’t stop, so all they can do is warn. Cars should not be going so fast they can’t stop on city streets. Also, trains always have the right-of-way, but cars never do, even on roads without crosswalks or sidewalks. They must always yield to all pedestrians in any situation.
You hush now sir! Things are quite loud enough as they are.
It’s seems crazy to me that they are so many crossings over train lines in the US. I think they exist in the UK but they’re rare. I remember driving over one when I visited family in Vermont and it was scary 😆
Its simple, you don’t even think about it while crossing.
Planning a drive? Maybe reroute in case a train is stuck.
Being pissed that a train is approaching and you missed the light? Sucks, shoulda left earlier.
Though I suppose more restricted access to the tracks would be beneficial.
I knew a person who chose a train as their method to exit this hellhole. Just walked right onto the tracks, and the engineer didn’t think anything of a person walking beside the tracks because it runs next to a main thoroughfare, a lot of traffic, even on foot. She just stepped on the tracks, no guardrail or anything to hop over even.
For anyone offering well wishes or to seek therapy… I knew this person from work, we were never close, and both of us had exited that job for other reasons.
Just a name and a picture in the newspaper alerted my BIL, who worked in the same building and had more of a working relationship with that person.
He isn’t fine, but that has nothing to do with the person who commited suicide via train lol.
Yeah I wasn’t even thinking of delays to transport to be fair, more the safety aspect. There was one I had to cross that didn’t even see to have barriers? You just slowly drive/walk up to it, look both ways and hope for the best.
Sorry to hear about that woman. That happens in the UK too but I guess it’s a bit harder.
Train can’t stop like a vehicle does.
I heard it takes like 1 mile 1km for a train to come to a complete stop.
