Originally Posted by
Daniel4
The OP would have a fit over the new UK traffic law giving pedestrians, cyclists, and horses priority over motor vehicles who must give right of way. Predictably there is a lot of back lash from, you guessed it, motorists.
But it's strange to me that this will become a new law because when I was attending driving school in Vancouver, BC back in the 1970s, we were all taught that pedestrians did have the right of way, even if he did something dangerous or unexpected. I remember the film clip with a little kid chasing after his ball that rolled into the street.
I think drivers just need to be reminded during renewals to give vulnerable road users the right of way. Either that or regularly rescheduled re-education.
You're conflating two issues--right of way with duty of care. The child with ball example isn't an issue of right of way, it's about your duty to avoid a collision regardless of issues of right of way. Right of way has to do with who is legally entitled to proceed first, it's not a license to mow people down if they don't follow the right of way rules.
BTW, last year I actually had a ball roll in front of my car while I was driving, and I stopped immediately about 10 feet from the ball (I wasn't going fast). Sure enough, a very small child started running into the street, followed closely by a panicked man yelling "stop, stop" (not sure if that was aimed at me or the child, I was already stopped but he was, of course, looking right at the kid and not me). After grabbing the kid, the man looked at me, looking rather upset. I tried to defuse the situation for him by saying, with a smile, "those drivers ed films were right!", but he didn't seem to get it and kind of glowered at me. I'm pretty sure he was full of fight or flight juice at that point, so I can't say I blame him for the dirty look. The kid, of course, was oblivious.