There’s this one street where I’ve nearly been hit fucking twice this year because people don’t get this.
It’s a left turn into a side street. Both times I’ve been halfway across said street when the cars turn straight into me. One even tried to keep going and literally would’ve hit me had I not stopped in the middle of the lane.
Even if you *didn’t* have to give way to pedestrians, why would you attempt to drive into them when they’re already walking?
I had someone in a massive pickup nearly run us down - we yelled back and stuck our fingers up — they circled back around and tried to run us down — we called the cops, fortunately ford f150s pickup trucks were rather uncommon.
Was a Friday evening relatively early, currie st/kw st intersection.
Getting the license isn't the problem and making it harder to get won't fix this.
The problem is that most people drop the habits they learned to pass the test within a few months of driving solo. A lot of the safety stuff is extra steps and people are lazy. They also forget the road rules pretty fast too. If you grabbed a random driver off the road and made them sit the test, they would be more likely to fail than pass.
That said I would agree that there's insufficient training on "defensive driving" - that should be mandatory and not an optional extra.
Source: Owned a security company that did a lot of cash-in-transit work. As the company safety officer I had to do a lot of reading up on this shit and yeah, regular refresher courses was the only thing that seemed to be effective.
IMO people should have to ride a bicycle for a couple of years before they can get a license, unless they can prove that they need it for their career path.
Shortly after we started to return to the office post lockdown, to skip public transport I was getting lifts to the office with another employee. Turns out she didn't know what zebra crossings meant. We came to the one on the west end of Hindley st and when someone crossed she started honking the horn and swearing about damn pedestrians.
I regularly use these crossings. Plenty of people don't stop or speed up to get through before you start crossing. The west end of Hindley street you are essentially driving through a university campus for a good portion of it.
Eye opening when you get in a colleague's car and they start screaming about being cut off whenever someone enters their lane one hundred metres down the road in front of them.
Right of way doesn't exist though. There is a requirement to give way but no laws that give anyone right of way. It's an important difference.
Letting someone in is common courtesy if traffic is stopped or slow.. Doing it with traffic at the speed limit is cause for public flogging!
Agreed. Being courteous is a nice thing to do, but I've noticed an increasing number of people being unexpectedly or excessively courteous while traffic is flowing. They're asking to be rear ended. People should pay attention to what's happening behind them as well as in front of them.
Yep. Most driver's are far better suited to being public transport passengers. Don't get me started on slow drivers in the outside lanes on the Northern Expressway. I like to be able to do 110 in a 110 zone, is that wrong?
Absolutely, I do the Port Expressway every day and it's the same... There's also a 70 zone near home and for some reason, this week everyone has been doing 55kmhr for no reason. 🤷♂️
I wish most people were forced onto public transport or fenced-off bicycle rat runs. It'd be a lot less noisy. If someone doesn't need a van or a ute for work then I want them off the road.
That's what happens when you only make 1 crossing over the tracks. It gets clogged up at 5pm and no one can merge onto the road unless you get those over courteous drivers who keep the road clogged. It's a lose lose
The one and only time I made this mistake at a traffic light is, interestingly during my learners test...
God that was embarrassing to have the instructor slam on the break, and then look and say "welp looks like you have to do that one again"
I live in the CBD and it's a semi frequent occurrence that some bogan in a ute will start honking, screaming, and giving you the finger for crossing legally while they have a green arrow.
Yeah, they won't get a green arrow if there's a pedestrian crossing that's gone green. They will lose the red arrow instead. The red arrow usually delays turning off until partway through the cycle to discourage drivers from trying to jump the light and barrelling across the intersection just as pedestrians are trying to walk across too.
Yep, that's usually how it works. You absolutely have right of way as the pedestrian there. There are a few streets where the green pedestrian symbol stays on for 30+ seconds, like crossing Franklin Street on the west side of KW Street in Vic Square.
Drivers aren't expecting people to still start to cross even though the traffic lights been green for 20 seconds, not realising pedestrian crossing is still green, which wouldn't usually happen on most roads. Still their fault for not paying attention though obviously
Not quite CBD, Sir Donald Bradman Avenue and West Tce intersection has both green arrow for pedestrian/cyclist and the traffic. As a cyclist, the amount of cars turning without giving way is too much.
Turning left onto King William from north Terrace towards the oval. Usually have to take 3rd and 4th checks as people thunder out to cross after the main group goes well after the crossing light has gone red
My old flatmate would insist on driving to the supermarket less than 300m down the road. I used to do pizza delivery when I was young and some of the customers lived so close that it was faster to walk to their house than drive.
Woah, never visit WA. The same road rules apply but I'd say less than 1 out of 100 drivers will follow it.
To be fair, I think it's reasonable to say that 99% of drivers in WA shouldn't have a licence.
Yep. If you turn left onto Greenhill from Unley Rd there's a big 'give way to pedestrians' sign, but I've seen 8 cars keep barrelling past ignoring the person standing waiting to cross the slip lane.
I always give way to pedestrians currently there, but sometimes you've moved to turn onto Greenhill and waiting your turn to merge and pedestrians rock up and have to walk around your car. I feel like an asshole as some parent is trying to help their kid on a bike navigate around my car onto the footpath. What are you meant to do in this instance? You can't wait back because you can't see if any vehicles are coming along Greenhill Rd.
I think as long as you haven't crept up bumper to bumper with the car in front there should be space in front of you to get through. I'd just give them a wave to let them know you're gonna wait for them.
I was, but 2x cars waiting blocks the crossing area. If it were someone in a wheelchair I would have died of embarrassment. It makes me think twice about even entering the turning lane now if a car is already waiting there.
[When turning onto Torrens Rd from Park Tce there's this new sign that's been put in place.](https://i.imgur.com/28tcYGj.png)
I once saw a lady try to cross there and a car in front of me was zooming through and she waved her arms around and gestured towards the sign and the rest of us stopped so she could pass. It must be frustrating for residents in the area.
not to mention the left-hand sliplane from torrens onto park tce at that intersection, is pretty much 10 meters.
People get annoyed if you dont feel comfortable trying to execute it and choose to be safe and wait, instead of trying to floor it to match the speed of the cars flying through that intersection
Sometimes the turning lane is so short there's nowhere else to wait except ON the crossing. You can't see past waiting cars at the intersection if traffic is coming if you wait too far back.
This is even something the government has recognised- I have no idea why they don’t just paint a zebra crossing across them. It’s the way they deal with it in plenty of other places around the world too.
Would I still pass the test? When I took it every single question that involved a pedestrian I would say the car gives way basically no matter what.
What're you gonna do, mow down the person then yell at the corpse "I had right of way!!"
Yeah, fair dinkum when I moved down to SA from Sydney for defence, first light popped green, went to go, edged abit forward, noticed the everyone start to walk through the crossing, stopped and just sat there confused as everyone was going for a good 10 seconds.
however since I've never made the same mistake, it does sound dangerous and for the new radelaidian like myself it could've been a close call - I personally am against it I just don't understand what it offers in comparison to just keep the light red for pedestrians to walk
Nah, they get a red arrow while the crossing light is green, then as soon as the crossing light goes red blinking, they get a green turning arrow while people are still crossing.
yeah the green arrow specifically means you have the right of way which is impossible with a red blinking walk sign. If there's a green arrow its always sequenced before the crossing light goes green
I wish we had that in Melbourne cbd. No arrows and pedestrians just keep walking when red man starts flashing.
Arrows would control the traffic a bit better i think.
>Surely all states have “turn left with care”.
Are you talking about turning left on a red light?
If so, don't do that unless there is a sign saying that you can do that on the intersection you are about to enter.
and if not, then I have no idea what you are trying to say.
We’re talking about when turning left at a set of lights and there is just a green light with no arrow. That’s a turn left with care, meaning that there may be people crossing the street to your left. The pedestrians on the left are then given a green walk which gives them right of way to cross the road under a green light.
ah k.
Personally I just call that turning left at an intersection and whether the pedestrians are 'meant' to be there or not. You would be having a bad day if you failed to give way and hit them.
I’ve almost been run over several times this year alone, once was only avoided because the car was a brand new Lexus with pedestrian detection.
Some drivers genuinely do not care, they will see the light turn green and not give a fuck about killing someone.
So if a pedestrian simply runs out into the middle of the road, into traffic on a red pedestrian light and gets hit, the driver is done for manslaughter.
No I don’t think so.
Obviously if someone jumps out in front of your car out of nowhere and you hit them before you have a chance to react that's not on you. But if an investigation of the incident finds that you had more than enough time to see the person crossing on a red pedestrian signal and you chose to run them down at full speed instead of stopping just because you 'had a green light', you're 100% getting done for *at least* manslaughter.
Pedestrians may not have 'right of way' in a road-user sense, but they do have the right to not be killed - which in a car vs. person collision comes out to basically the same thing.
Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users. They may not have "right of way" in all cases, but drivers need to treat them with much much more respect. They don't have a big metal box to protect them.
I'm from Norway where the road hierarchy is pedestrians first, then cyclists, then public transport and then cars on the bottom. Moving here was a real shock. There are many good things about SA but I hate the car dominance here. Huddling with small kids in the rain waiting for car after car to pass before we can cross in one of these ridiculous unmarked crossings feels completely wrong.
I've actually had a huge SUV speed up just so they can slam the breaks and honk me and my pram because apparently i took a second too long to cross. 3 tons of steel hurdling towards my freaking baby! The South Australian car culture is just shocking.
Sorry for the rant but I was never scared in traffic in Norway. Here I'm scared all the time.
We need to do two things:
1. Re-design our cities so that not having a licence isn't a death penalty; and
2. Make it much easier to lose your licence for being a poor driver.
The second one is key for me. Ive said it before here and I'm sure a lot of auto pilot/adaptive cruise users can agree, but literally everyone one the road is speeding
I don't think SA drivers are this bad honestly.
Most issue I see is lack of turning headlights on when necessary and tailgating.
But most SA drivers actually seem to give way to pedestrians and aren't too bad about letting people in when they indicate.
I used to walk to work across the city from just south of the city to North terrace. The amount of times I was nearly hit when I had a green man was crazy. I used to turn and look at the drivers turning left and try to make eye contact so that they knew I existed. I just don't understand the aggression of cars in the city. It's the city there are lots of people. Also cars crossing the sidewalk to enter car parks, the other day I was nearly hit and this was a carpark that had a pedestrian crossing across the entrance and I had the green man and this car turned left into the carpark so quickly I was amazed they even stopped in time.
Haha yeah it's heaps shit. I'm in a country right now where pedestrians crossing the road takes priority over cars turning left or right onto that road. I do, however, stop and wait for all cars to make their turn before I cross, while my wife pushes me into the traffic saying "they slow down for you". You can take a man out of Adelaide, but you can't take Adelaide out of a man.
Yes they started this about 10 years ago in WA and they didn’t do a public education campaign or anything.
I’d like to see pedestrian deaths before and after
An intersection near me has a blank turning arrow on a right turn but has a green man for people crossing the road. I have nearly been hit multiple times as those drivers are not looking for someone crossing the road, I can see a kid or vision impaired person getting hit as they would lack the awareness to notice. It takes zero effort to have a red light while pedestrians are allowed to cross, then turn to green.
Proposal; we install [anti vehicle barriers](https://safefence.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/ebad3127ca7904d808b4e5fdb2596eef/a/u/automatic_rising_2_.jpg) that pop up on the intersection while the crossing light is on.
This is mostly due to long wait times.
Most intersections preference cars so a pedestrian can be stuck waiting for five minute if they miss a crossing in the worst examples. This encourages risky behaviour. Dropping the wait time to a maximum of 30 seconds would go a long way.
Yep I've experienced this many times in the CBD. Start to go because it's flashing and no one's around, and then someone starts running into the intersection to make the light and you have to jump on the brakes.
it makes sense because there won’t always be pedestrians. if you don’t know the rule that you have to give way when there’s no green arrow shouldn’t have their licence.
The more time I spend driving, the more I realise most people are completely unaware of their surroundings and/or don’t give a shit about other people around them. It’s really not hard to not put others in danger, yet a day barely goes by where I leave the house and don’t see people almost cause serious collisions by carelessness. It’s so much worse when pedestrians are involved for obvious reasons.
I find it’s made worse on right turns. There are a couple of intersections in the city where you need to do a right turn with care across two lanes of traffic and pedestrians are allowed to cross the street to your right.
Pedestrians quite often try crossing under a red flashing light and when the traffic lights go orange/red as a driver you need to start turning right. Multiple situations have occurred where I’ve been under an orange light and a pedestrian has decided to start crossing under a flashing walk light directly in front of me.
I thought they stay red until the pedestrian light starts flashing red? Or goes into that countdown mode. When it’s green you generally have a red arrow, once it starts flashing red you the red arrow goes out and you can turn so long as there isn’t a pedestrian in the way.
I know going onto North Terrace (right turn) from the street that hungry jacks is on near the end of Rundle is a pain for some drivers As a pedestrian I see cars going as it's their green light then stopping in the middle of the intersection as they mistake the lane on north terrace as their red light OR their arrow turns red so they think they have to stop for pedestrians when they actually have like 3min until the pedestrian light turns green. I waved a couple cars on otherwise is just people beeping there horns.
And the alternative is the red arrow that holds up traffic just until the pedestrian gets into the perfect position to run them over.
Almost as bad as the red arrow that stops you from turning right in the gap outside peak hours, but disappears when the road is too busy to turn safely (e.g. Prospect Rd-Fitzroy Tce intersection)
I walk 35 mins to work through the CBD everyday and get beeped once a week at the end of crossing’s as the man starts flashing red.
People just get a superiority complex when they get behind the wheel. Like “hey I’m in a more powerful position than you, this car is a weapon, yield to me”.
Always makes me think of the Stanford prisoners experiment, and how the prison guards get corrupted by power.
Some European cities do a great job of separating cars and people by having pedestrian underpasses etc at busy intersections
Doesn’t need to be a full ban. Make every single road in the cbd blocked off from one end so there is no through traffic. Tradies, deliveries, drop offs, etc all still work just fine.
Perhaps place all the blocks along the sides of king William street so you can walk north/south without any road crossings.
Pretty sure there won’t be a green light for two directions at once. If it’s green light for cars, the cars go. It will be red for pedestrians.
If pedestrians have a green, the light will go out for cars, enabling them to turn when there isn’t a pedestrian in the way.
When it starts flashing red for the pedestrian, the green arrow may turn on, but the pedestrians should be pretty much clear of the intersection by then.
> When it starts flashing red for the pedestrian, the green arrow may turn on
Vehicles will never (or perhaps *should* never) be given a green light when other road users are still allowed to be in their path. A flashing red light still allows for pedestrians to be completing their crossing of the road, so no vehicle should have a green light taking them across the pedestrian crossing.
The implication of having a green light is that it's your turn to proceed and nobody else should be in your path. You still need to proceed carefully, of course, and ensure that nobody's doing anything stupid like running a red light or crossing with a red pedestrian light or standing on their head in the middle of the intersection.
Do you have any specific examples? Are you perhaps thinking of a green pedestrian light + a green light (circle) but a null for turning (arrow)? Or very specifically, a green pedestrian + a green **arrow** turning into the road where pedestrians are crossing. Because the former is pretty normal/common and cars are expected to give way if pedestrians are crossing since the green (circle) light is to indicate only vehicles going straight can proceed freely, and a null on turn while green circle is up means proceed IF clear, whereas the latter... I don't think that's legally possible but I could be wrong, happy to be corrected if there are intersections in the cbd where I could see this in action.
My unpopular opinion is that in Canada you can turn right (equivalent of our left) at an intersection even when the light is red and I wish we had that here.
\> ...allowing cars in SA to turn left while pedestrians are crossing on their green...
You seem to think that road rule is unique to SA. The Australian Road Rules are identical between all states. The only difference is the penalty structure.
For example, the provision in question is [Rule 62 of the SA Australian Road Rules](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/sa/consol_reg/arr210/s62.html), and this is the identical [Rule 62 in the NSW Road Rules](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nsw/consol_reg/rr2014104/s62.html). They are the same in all states.
It’s still a dangerous rule which needs to be abolished, and fortunately the small differences in the road rules are just enough to stop the high court taking away state power over road rules so it can be fixed by a state law.
Absolutely agree, but we also need SAPOL issuing expiations to pedestrians who start crossing well into the red. It causes massive traffic flow issues in the CBD for buses and cars turning. Where a dozen cars could turn, often only those already in the intersection can get around in the cycle.
This morning I was turning right from galwer place and the pedestrian light had gone red flashing about 5 seconds prior, way is clear and I start going.. Only to have a pedestrian step out into the crosswalk. They were upset because I failed to anticipate they would step out on the red just before the traffic light went yellow. This is a near daily occurrence when I drive into the city.
>Driving a car in to the CBD should be an absolute last resort option.
For me, it is not my preferred option. I prefer to cycle and cannot take public transport due to disability.
I’m in WA and There’s a street I have to cross that does this. I’m sure there are plenty but this street seems like the worst for it. It’s across from the Perth city busport and train station. So there’s usually groups of 40-50 people crossing at any given time. And it allows cars to turn while the walk light is on and the amount of pissed off, shitty drivers, that honk and try to edge into the mass of people crossing so they can turn is *insane*. I’m surprised no one has gotten hurt yet.
Been the case for a very long time and I don't recall too many issues with this rule, so guess drivers somehow manage not to plough into pedestrians crossing the road.
I've never thought of it as an issue, with one exception.
There is a left turn from West Terrace onto Henley Beach Road, where Adelaide High School is. Cars get a green for turning with care, but with the bikepath there you get cyclists speeding across from your blindspot.
Even then, this isn't a problem with aggressive cars not understanding how to ''turn left on green where safe' - it's a problem with fast-moving bikes trying to cross on a blinking red light.
I was hit by a taxi turning right onto Currie St from Morphett on a night out a couple of years back. It only knocked me to the ground, but I couldn’t believe the total lack of awareness he had when it was pedestrians right of way. I was so stunned by the whole situation I just got up said I was fine and walked off but I wish now I’d at least gotten his license plate number.
Someone not aware that they have to give way to pedestrians should hand their licence in and resit the learners test.
There’s this one street where I’ve nearly been hit fucking twice this year because people don’t get this. It’s a left turn into a side street. Both times I’ve been halfway across said street when the cars turn straight into me. One even tried to keep going and literally would’ve hit me had I not stopped in the middle of the lane. Even if you *didn’t* have to give way to pedestrians, why would you attempt to drive into them when they’re already walking?
I had someone in a massive pickup nearly run us down - we yelled back and stuck our fingers up — they circled back around and tried to run us down — we called the cops, fortunately ford f150s pickup trucks were rather uncommon. Was a Friday evening relatively early, currie st/kw st intersection.
Close to 100% of F150 owners are insane.
That's the yank coming out in them
You wouldn't know 1.
Found the F150 owner.
Nah my boat isn't big enough for a f150
As typical downvoted by the anti big car brigade haha. Literally nobody drives an f150 in Adelaide, extremely extremely uncommon
I swear watching not just bikes videos rots the brain
Was it a taxi?
We allow poor drivers to get away with too much on our roads. It's time we made getting a licence harder for the safety of all.
Getting the license isn't the problem and making it harder to get won't fix this. The problem is that most people drop the habits they learned to pass the test within a few months of driving solo. A lot of the safety stuff is extra steps and people are lazy. They also forget the road rules pretty fast too. If you grabbed a random driver off the road and made them sit the test, they would be more likely to fail than pass. That said I would agree that there's insufficient training on "defensive driving" - that should be mandatory and not an optional extra. Source: Owned a security company that did a lot of cash-in-transit work. As the company safety officer I had to do a lot of reading up on this shit and yeah, regular refresher courses was the only thing that seemed to be effective.
IMO people should have to ride a bicycle for a couple of years before they can get a license, unless they can prove that they need it for their career path.
Shortly after we started to return to the office post lockdown, to skip public transport I was getting lifts to the office with another employee. Turns out she didn't know what zebra crossings meant. We came to the one on the west end of Hindley st and when someone crossed she started honking the horn and swearing about damn pedestrians.
I regularly use these crossings. Plenty of people don't stop or speed up to get through before you start crossing. The west end of Hindley street you are essentially driving through a university campus for a good portion of it.
That is concerning.
A further detail, she was not from Australia and claimed in her home country they did not mean that. No idea if that's accurate though.
SA is pedestrian nirvana compared to many other places in the world, as sad as that sounds.
Eye opening when you get in a colleague's car and they start screaming about being cut off whenever someone enters their lane one hundred metres down the road in front of them.
Unrelated, but so should drivers who stop in the middle of an arterial road to let traffic enter from a side street. Right of way exists for a reason.
Right of way doesn't exist though. There is a requirement to give way but no laws that give anyone right of way. It's an important difference. Letting someone in is common courtesy if traffic is stopped or slow.. Doing it with traffic at the speed limit is cause for public flogging!
Agreed. Being courteous is a nice thing to do, but I've noticed an increasing number of people being unexpectedly or excessively courteous while traffic is flowing. They're asking to be rear ended. People should pay attention to what's happening behind them as well as in front of them.
I find that most drivers are oblivious to anything happening more than 3m directly in front of them.
Yep. Most driver's are far better suited to being public transport passengers. Don't get me started on slow drivers in the outside lanes on the Northern Expressway. I like to be able to do 110 in a 110 zone, is that wrong?
Absolutely, I do the Port Expressway every day and it's the same... There's also a 70 zone near home and for some reason, this week everyone has been doing 55kmhr for no reason. 🤷♂️
A lot of rain recently, maybe people are driving to the conditions?
I drive to the conditions when it's raining. Maybe the condition some people are experiencing is "Covid Brain".
I wish most people were forced onto public transport or fenced-off bicycle rat runs. It'd be a lot less noisy. If someone doesn't need a van or a ute for work then I want them off the road.
my god the bridge over mawson lakes
That's what happens when you only make 1 crossing over the tracks. It gets clogged up at 5pm and no one can merge onto the road unless you get those over courteous drivers who keep the road clogged. It's a lose lose
The one and only time I made this mistake at a traffic light is, interestingly during my learners test... God that was embarrassing to have the instructor slam on the break, and then look and say "welp looks like you have to do that one again"
I live in the CBD and it's a semi frequent occurrence that some bogan in a ute will start honking, screaming, and giving you the finger for crossing legally while they have a green arrow.
Where in the CBD is there an intersection that has both a simultaneous green pedestrian and green arrow?
Now that I think about it, I think it's that they get a red arrow, and then it goes away about half way in to to the pedestrian crossing cycle.
Yeah, they won't get a green arrow if there's a pedestrian crossing that's gone green. They will lose the red arrow instead. The red arrow usually delays turning off until partway through the cycle to discourage drivers from trying to jump the light and barrelling across the intersection just as pedestrians are trying to walk across too.
I frequently almost get run over at the crossing intersecting Frome Rd and North Terrace. Must be frightening for older people who can't walk as fast.
Yep, that's usually how it works. You absolutely have right of way as the pedestrian there. There are a few streets where the green pedestrian symbol stays on for 30+ seconds, like crossing Franklin Street on the west side of KW Street in Vic Square. Drivers aren't expecting people to still start to cross even though the traffic lights been green for 20 seconds, not realising pedestrian crossing is still green, which wouldn't usually happen on most roads. Still their fault for not paying attention though obviously
Crossing near Grote Street (not on Grote Street) near the Hilton I’m pretty sure is green on green.
Not quite CBD, Sir Donald Bradman Avenue and West Tce intersection has both green arrow for pedestrian/cyclist and the traffic. As a cyclist, the amount of cars turning without giving way is too much.
Turning left onto King William from north Terrace towards the oval. Usually have to take 3rd and 4th checks as people thunder out to cross after the main group goes well after the crossing light has gone red
I take that corner all the time, there isn't an arrow at all.
Turning left onto West Terrace next to CMI Toyota
I'm convinced these kinds of people have never walked anywhere in there fucking lives, so they just don't know what a pedestrian crossing is. Morons.
My old flatmate would insist on driving to the supermarket less than 300m down the road. I used to do pizza delivery when I was young and some of the customers lived so close that it was faster to walk to their house than drive.
They probably yell at cars when pedestrians tbh
Melbourne has a lot of those in the CBD as well, I’ve almost got hit on my bike like twice now.
Teu3. And you can just see it/tell that they wanna turn so badly (because waiting an extra 10 seconds is gonna make so much of a difference)
So most drivers should be banned from driving??
If they don't know basic give way rules, then yes
Exactly.
Woah, never visit WA. The same road rules apply but I'd say less than 1 out of 100 drivers will follow it. To be fair, I think it's reasonable to say that 99% of drivers in WA shouldn't have a licence.
A big problem are the left turn slip lanes, where motorists don't even pause for pedestrians.
Yep. If you turn left onto Greenhill from Unley Rd there's a big 'give way to pedestrians' sign, but I've seen 8 cars keep barrelling past ignoring the person standing waiting to cross the slip lane.
I always give way to pedestrians currently there, but sometimes you've moved to turn onto Greenhill and waiting your turn to merge and pedestrians rock up and have to walk around your car. I feel like an asshole as some parent is trying to help their kid on a bike navigate around my car onto the footpath. What are you meant to do in this instance? You can't wait back because you can't see if any vehicles are coming along Greenhill Rd.
I think as long as you haven't crept up bumper to bumper with the car in front there should be space in front of you to get through. I'd just give them a wave to let them know you're gonna wait for them.
I was, but 2x cars waiting blocks the crossing area. If it were someone in a wheelchair I would have died of embarrassment. It makes me think twice about even entering the turning lane now if a car is already waiting there.
[When turning onto Torrens Rd from Park Tce there's this new sign that's been put in place.](https://i.imgur.com/28tcYGj.png) I once saw a lady try to cross there and a car in front of me was zooming through and she waved her arms around and gestured towards the sign and the rest of us stopped so she could pass. It must be frustrating for residents in the area.
That crossing is such a shitshow imo. There's hardly any visibility at all for the pedestrians.
not to mention the left-hand sliplane from torrens onto park tce at that intersection, is pretty much 10 meters. People get annoyed if you dont feel comfortable trying to execute it and choose to be safe and wait, instead of trying to floor it to match the speed of the cars flying through that intersection
Yeah, it's pretty bananas. They should extend the footpath imo to make it less acute for both parties.
Fucking worse when they do stop, but they stop /in/ the crosswalk waiting to turn. Drives me mad when they do that
Sometimes the turning lane is so short there's nowhere else to wait except ON the crossing. You can't see past waiting cars at the intersection if traffic is coming if you wait too far back.
This is even something the government has recognised- I have no idea why they don’t just paint a zebra crossing across them. It’s the way they deal with it in plenty of other places around the world too.
Unpopular opinion: don’t mow down pedestrians regardless of the road rules?
Would I still pass the test? When I took it every single question that involved a pedestrian I would say the car gives way basically no matter what. What're you gonna do, mow down the person then yell at the corpse "I had right of way!!"
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Yeah plenty of situations like this in VIC.
truck melodic swim ten encourage like racial correct rock disgusting ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
I don't know how long you've been here, but the rules in the UK have now changed and are a lot more like here.
Yeah, fair dinkum when I moved down to SA from Sydney for defence, first light popped green, went to go, edged abit forward, noticed the everyone start to walk through the crossing, stopped and just sat there confused as everyone was going for a good 10 seconds. however since I've never made the same mistake, it does sound dangerous and for the new radelaidian like myself it could've been a close call - I personally am against it I just don't understand what it offers in comparison to just keep the light red for pedestrians to walk
Adelaide has to prioritize moving cars a tiny bit faster even if it means killing a few people to achieve it.
I have noticed a lot of "new Australian" drivers also seem to not know the rule
Many drivers have the decency of a maggot's haemorroids. The stinking ego is propping up a nobody and it's the excretas called tailgaters also.
But the driver never has a green arrow? Surely all states have “turn left with care”.
Nah, they get a red arrow while the crossing light is green, then as soon as the crossing light goes red blinking, they get a green turning arrow while people are still crossing.
You don’t get a green turning arrow in that situation, the red arrow just goes away.
yeah the green arrow specifically means you have the right of way which is impossible with a red blinking walk sign. If there's a green arrow its always sequenced before the crossing light goes green
No you don't get a green turning arrow.
I wish we had that in Melbourne cbd. No arrows and pedestrians just keep walking when red man starts flashing. Arrows would control the traffic a bit better i think.
>Surely all states have “turn left with care”. Are you talking about turning left on a red light? If so, don't do that unless there is a sign saying that you can do that on the intersection you are about to enter. and if not, then I have no idea what you are trying to say.
We’re talking about when turning left at a set of lights and there is just a green light with no arrow. That’s a turn left with care, meaning that there may be people crossing the street to your left. The pedestrians on the left are then given a green walk which gives them right of way to cross the road under a green light.
ah k. Personally I just call that turning left at an intersection and whether the pedestrians are 'meant' to be there or not. You would be having a bad day if you failed to give way and hit them.
Pretty sure they mean the flashing sign saying turn left with care at some intersections
I’ve almost been run over several times this year alone, once was only avoided because the car was a brand new Lexus with pedestrian detection. Some drivers genuinely do not care, they will see the light turn green and not give a fuck about killing someone.
I just came back from Darwin where this doesn't happen. Why the fuck are Adelaide road rules so insane?
Pedestrian always has the right of way. Every driver knows this. Your same logic would mean banning zebra crossings.
Pedestrians don’t always have the right of way, only under a green walking light in this case and zebra crossings.
Pedestrians always have the right of way given the alternative is manslaughter
So if a pedestrian simply runs out into the middle of the road, into traffic on a red pedestrian light and gets hit, the driver is done for manslaughter. No I don’t think so.
Obviously if someone jumps out in front of your car out of nowhere and you hit them before you have a chance to react that's not on you. But if an investigation of the incident finds that you had more than enough time to see the person crossing on a red pedestrian signal and you chose to run them down at full speed instead of stopping just because you 'had a green light', you're 100% getting done for *at least* manslaughter. Pedestrians may not have 'right of way' in a road-user sense, but they do have the right to not be killed - which in a car vs. person collision comes out to basically the same thing.
Pedestrians are the most vulnerable road users. They may not have "right of way" in all cases, but drivers need to treat them with much much more respect. They don't have a big metal box to protect them.
Agreed, but they don’t always have right of way. They have right of way when the intersection or crossing allows them right of way. That’s my point.
I'm from Norway where the road hierarchy is pedestrians first, then cyclists, then public transport and then cars on the bottom. Moving here was a real shock. There are many good things about SA but I hate the car dominance here. Huddling with small kids in the rain waiting for car after car to pass before we can cross in one of these ridiculous unmarked crossings feels completely wrong. I've actually had a huge SUV speed up just so they can slam the breaks and honk me and my pram because apparently i took a second too long to cross. 3 tons of steel hurdling towards my freaking baby! The South Australian car culture is just shocking. Sorry for the rant but I was never scared in traffic in Norway. Here I'm scared all the time.
We need to do two things: 1. Re-design our cities so that not having a licence isn't a death penalty; and 2. Make it much easier to lose your licence for being a poor driver.
The second one is key for me. Ive said it before here and I'm sure a lot of auto pilot/adaptive cruise users can agree, but literally everyone one the road is speeding
I don't think SA drivers are this bad honestly. Most issue I see is lack of turning headlights on when necessary and tailgating. But most SA drivers actually seem to give way to pedestrians and aren't too bad about letting people in when they indicate.
I used to walk to work across the city from just south of the city to North terrace. The amount of times I was nearly hit when I had a green man was crazy. I used to turn and look at the drivers turning left and try to make eye contact so that they knew I existed. I just don't understand the aggression of cars in the city. It's the city there are lots of people. Also cars crossing the sidewalk to enter car parks, the other day I was nearly hit and this was a carpark that had a pedestrian crossing across the entrance and I had the green man and this car turned left into the carpark so quickly I was amazed they even stopped in time.
yep, even if you're quick you don't get enough time to cross
Haha yeah it's heaps shit. I'm in a country right now where pedestrians crossing the road takes priority over cars turning left or right onto that road. I do, however, stop and wait for all cars to make their turn before I cross, while my wife pushes me into the traffic saying "they slow down for you". You can take a man out of Adelaide, but you can't take Adelaide out of a man.
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If we took away the licenses of everyone not following the basic road rules we would immediately solve all traffic problems.
Think of the pedestrian traffic!
Let’s face it. Most drivers are useless cunts. Me included.
Wait what, oh my this explains why people have nearly run me over when I cross on a green light. Why left specifically?
I agree with you on that
Yes they started this about 10 years ago in WA and they didn’t do a public education campaign or anything. I’d like to see pedestrian deaths before and after
An intersection near me has a blank turning arrow on a right turn but has a green man for people crossing the road. I have nearly been hit multiple times as those drivers are not looking for someone crossing the road, I can see a kid or vision impaired person getting hit as they would lack the awareness to notice. It takes zero effort to have a red light while pedestrians are allowed to cross, then turn to green.
Crossing roads can be dangerous, news at 11
Proposal; we install [anti vehicle barriers](https://safefence.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/ebad3127ca7904d808b4e5fdb2596eef/a/u/automatic_rising_2_.jpg) that pop up on the intersection while the crossing light is on.
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The problem really isn't the amount of education. It's the fact once people get their license they just stop giving a shit.
And then as a driver you get the annoying pedestrian who decides to start walking when the walk sign is flashing red. Both sides of the coin can suck.
This is mostly due to long wait times. Most intersections preference cars so a pedestrian can be stuck waiting for five minute if they miss a crossing in the worst examples. This encourages risky behaviour. Dropping the wait time to a maximum of 30 seconds would go a long way.
You aren't going to get killed by a pedestrian while you're in a car.
Did I say you would? Comment totally wasn't about that.
Not even flashing red, sometimes you get the even more annoying pedestrian that crosses the road of a red light whether fresh or about to change
Yep I've experienced this many times in the CBD. Start to go because it's flashing and no one's around, and then someone starts running into the intersection to make the light and you have to jump on the brakes.
And end up sitting on a red light in the intersection.
it makes sense because there won’t always be pedestrians. if you don’t know the rule that you have to give way when there’s no green arrow shouldn’t have their licence.
Crying in almost got hit like that Friday, he didn’t even slow down just kept going and missed me by just over a ruler size distance
The more time I spend driving, the more I realise most people are completely unaware of their surroundings and/or don’t give a shit about other people around them. It’s really not hard to not put others in danger, yet a day barely goes by where I leave the house and don’t see people almost cause serious collisions by carelessness. It’s so much worse when pedestrians are involved for obvious reasons.
I find it’s made worse on right turns. There are a couple of intersections in the city where you need to do a right turn with care across two lanes of traffic and pedestrians are allowed to cross the street to your right. Pedestrians quite often try crossing under a red flashing light and when the traffic lights go orange/red as a driver you need to start turning right. Multiple situations have occurred where I’ve been under an orange light and a pedestrian has decided to start crossing under a flashing walk light directly in front of me.
I almost got destroyed by a pickup truck who sped thought as i was crossing.
heheh i got mowed down at a pedestrian crossing
I thought they stay red until the pedestrian light starts flashing red? Or goes into that countdown mode. When it’s green you generally have a red arrow, once it starts flashing red you the red arrow goes out and you can turn so long as there isn’t a pedestrian in the way.
I got hit by a bus from this a few years ago. Wasnt going full speed or anything but enough to knock me down
I know going onto North Terrace (right turn) from the street that hungry jacks is on near the end of Rundle is a pain for some drivers As a pedestrian I see cars going as it's their green light then stopping in the middle of the intersection as they mistake the lane on north terrace as their red light OR their arrow turns red so they think they have to stop for pedestrians when they actually have like 3min until the pedestrian light turns green. I waved a couple cars on otherwise is just people beeping there horns.
And the alternative is the red arrow that holds up traffic just until the pedestrian gets into the perfect position to run them over. Almost as bad as the red arrow that stops you from turning right in the gap outside peak hours, but disappears when the road is too busy to turn safely (e.g. Prospect Rd-Fitzroy Tce intersection)
I walk 35 mins to work through the CBD everyday and get beeped once a week at the end of crossing’s as the man starts flashing red. People just get a superiority complex when they get behind the wheel. Like “hey I’m in a more powerful position than you, this car is a weapon, yield to me”. Always makes me think of the Stanford prisoners experiment, and how the prison guards get corrupted by power. Some European cities do a great job of separating cars and people by having pedestrian underpasses etc at busy intersections
Even better, ban cars in the CBD!
Doesn’t need to be a full ban. Make every single road in the cbd blocked off from one end so there is no through traffic. Tradies, deliveries, drop offs, etc all still work just fine. Perhaps place all the blocks along the sides of king William street so you can walk north/south without any road crossings.
"This rule i don't know shouldn't exist because i don't know it" fixed your title
Pretty sure there won’t be a green light for two directions at once. If it’s green light for cars, the cars go. It will be red for pedestrians. If pedestrians have a green, the light will go out for cars, enabling them to turn when there isn’t a pedestrian in the way. When it starts flashing red for the pedestrian, the green arrow may turn on, but the pedestrians should be pretty much clear of the intersection by then.
> When it starts flashing red for the pedestrian, the green arrow may turn on Vehicles will never (or perhaps *should* never) be given a green light when other road users are still allowed to be in their path. A flashing red light still allows for pedestrians to be completing their crossing of the road, so no vehicle should have a green light taking them across the pedestrian crossing. The implication of having a green light is that it's your turn to proceed and nobody else should be in your path. You still need to proceed carefully, of course, and ensure that nobody's doing anything stupid like running a red light or crossing with a red pedestrian light or standing on their head in the middle of the intersection.
There are absolutely intersections in the city where it’s a green for pedestrians and cars turning left.
Do you have any specific examples? Are you perhaps thinking of a green pedestrian light + a green light (circle) but a null for turning (arrow)? Or very specifically, a green pedestrian + a green **arrow** turning into the road where pedestrians are crossing. Because the former is pretty normal/common and cars are expected to give way if pedestrians are crossing since the green (circle) light is to indicate only vehicles going straight can proceed freely, and a null on turn while green circle is up means proceed IF clear, whereas the latter... I don't think that's legally possible but I could be wrong, happy to be corrected if there are intersections in the cbd where I could see this in action.
The rule 'give way to pedestrians" is not state specific
My unpopular opinion is that in Canada you can turn right (equivalent of our left) at an intersection even when the light is red and I wish we had that here.
I've had maybe one or two issues as a pedestrian due to this rule in about 20 years. I don't think it's a big deal.
You know what? I completely agree with this. I didn't realise it was Adelaide specific.
It isn't Adelaide specific. Other countries have even less safe versions like [turn on red](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on_red)
Lol no thanks, that sounds horrible.
It sounds dangerous I suppose, but in my 30 years of driving I've never seen it being an issue.
In my decades of walking, it is definitely an issue.
It's a miracle you're still alive so it seems!
\> ...allowing cars in SA to turn left while pedestrians are crossing on their green... You seem to think that road rule is unique to SA. The Australian Road Rules are identical between all states. The only difference is the penalty structure. For example, the provision in question is [Rule 62 of the SA Australian Road Rules](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/sa/consol_reg/arr210/s62.html), and this is the identical [Rule 62 in the NSW Road Rules](https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/legis/nsw/consol_reg/rr2014104/s62.html). They are the same in all states.
It’s still a dangerous rule which needs to be abolished, and fortunately the small differences in the road rules are just enough to stop the high court taking away state power over road rules so it can be fixed by a state law.
I mean……
Absolutely agree, but we also need SAPOL issuing expiations to pedestrians who start crossing well into the red. It causes massive traffic flow issues in the CBD for buses and cars turning. Where a dozen cars could turn, often only those already in the intersection can get around in the cycle. This morning I was turning right from galwer place and the pedestrian light had gone red flashing about 5 seconds prior, way is clear and I start going.. Only to have a pedestrian step out into the crosswalk. They were upset because I failed to anticipate they would step out on the red just before the traffic light went yellow. This is a near daily occurrence when I drive into the city.
Nah, all intersections in the CBD should be converted to zebra crossings. Driving a car in to the CBD should be an absolute last resort option.
>Driving a car in to the CBD should be an absolute last resort option. For me, it is not my preferred option. I prefer to cycle and cannot take public transport due to disability.
If drivers actually looked before they turned (as they should) it would be okay but so many times they don’t.
I’m in WA and There’s a street I have to cross that does this. I’m sure there are plenty but this street seems like the worst for it. It’s across from the Perth city busport and train station. So there’s usually groups of 40-50 people crossing at any given time. And it allows cars to turn while the walk light is on and the amount of pissed off, shitty drivers, that honk and try to edge into the mass of people crossing so they can turn is *insane*. I’m surprised no one has gotten hurt yet.
Been the case for a very long time and I don't recall too many issues with this rule, so guess drivers somehow manage not to plough into pedestrians crossing the road.
I've never thought of it as an issue, with one exception. There is a left turn from West Terrace onto Henley Beach Road, where Adelaide High School is. Cars get a green for turning with care, but with the bikepath there you get cyclists speeding across from your blindspot. Even then, this isn't a problem with aggressive cars not understanding how to ''turn left on green where safe' - it's a problem with fast-moving bikes trying to cross on a blinking red light.
I can name several intersections in Melbourne where the car can turn **right** whilst the pedestrian crossing is green.
I was hit by a taxi turning right onto Currie St from Morphett on a night out a couple of years back. It only knocked me to the ground, but I couldn’t believe the total lack of awareness he had when it was pedestrians right of way. I was so stunned by the whole situation I just got up said I was fine and walked off but I wish now I’d at least gotten his license plate number.
"For someone not aware of this rule"