Austin Drivers Redux or Pedestrians Beware

[sanmiguel]

The new chief of police, who came from the California Highway Patrol, has indicated that one of his priorities is to impose much more rigid enforcement of traffic rules. I haven't noticed any change and, in fact, rarely see a police car in Hyde Park. I realize that there are areas with higher crime but I think central Austin neighborhoods deserve more attention than they are getting.

[johnrex62]

Long before I moved to Austin, from San Antonio, I had a business trip to Toronto. I arrived with a coworker late in the evening. As we were driving into downtown from the airport we kept seeing these huge yellow boxes with XXXX on them suspended over the roadway.

Neither of us had ever seen anything quite like them before, except for the changeable lane direction signs in Atlanta, but these had lighted x's all the way across the road on every lane. We knew they could not indicate closed lane direction because they were too inconsistently lighted.

We must have driven under 15 or 20 of these strings of signs when we zoomed past some people in dark clothing crossing the road. We did not even see them until we were next to them and they were yelling obscenities at us. We wondered what type of drugs these Canadians were on to walk across a dark road, wearing dark clothing and not waiting for the traffic to clear.

It wasn't until the next day when it was light enough to read the unlit signs hanging between the yellow XXX signs....... "Pedestrian Crossing When Lighted. All Cars Must Stop". Boy, were we ever glad we had not hit someone expecting to be safe in that protected crosswalk at night.

[iceshots]

Originally Posted by johnrex62

It wasn't until the next day when it was light enough to read the unlit signs hanging between the yellow XXX signs....... "Pedestrian Crossing When Lighted. All Cars Must Stop". Boy, were we ever glad we had not hit someone expecting to be safe in that protected crosswalk at night.

That is the kind of "minor" thing I am hoping to find out about before I find out about it the hard way!

[Mckellyb]

"Notwithstanding Subsection (a), a pedestrian may not suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and proceed into a crosswalk in the path of a vehicle so close that it is impossible for the vehicle operator to yield. "

This is a real problem in the Portland, OR. Denver, too. There, people blindly step off curbs and expect vehicles to defy the laws of physics.

A funny thing in Oregon...let's say you're driving down a 7 lane road, three lanes each direction with a center 'lane' for turns. If there is a pedestrian who is an inch off the curb on the other side of the road, you are obligated to wait until they cross in front of you. Could be three minutes, if they're truly pokey.

I'd like to see the person able to get back in front of my car from 45 feet away before I cross the crosswalk. Sigh.

To those thinking less of central Texas pedestrians, I've noticed, just recently in fact, more than 50% of the pedestrians here tend to at least look before stepping off the curb. This isn't common, elsewhere.

Oh, and having been born-and-raised in Dallas, living there for my first 28 years, and driving for a living for about 5 of those years, I can say Dallas trumps every place I've seen for pedestrian hunting. It's what Grand Theft Auto was based on, I swear...

Vegas is bad, but there it's stumbling drunks versus driving drunks. Odd things tend to happen, and honestly, many more people should be seriously injured than are. The town thrives on risk....

[cblome]

Originally Posted by iceshots

Gonna have to get a hold of a driver's manual when I get down there so I will know which rules are similar and which are different.

No need to wait:
Texas Driver's Handbook Online (http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/ftp/forms/DLhandbook.pdf - broken link)

Craig B.

[iceshots]

Thanks Craig. I was wondering if there was an online version.