Photo Essay : Pedestrian Zone Near Misses

Sounds like a James Bond movie. I hope you found a quantum of solace in a frothy cappuccino and a crunchy biscotti.

Somewhere out there someone's compiling Photo Essay : Pedestrians Taking Photos Instead of Getting Out Of The Way

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I've seen some dangerous situations, too. Once in southern Spain--I think it was in Cordoba--some fool in a big SUV decided to drive down a narrow street in a medieval district. There were no real sidewalks; the curbs nearly touched the buildings. The vehicle's wheels were rubbing against the curbs, and I think the driver eventually found the road narrowing enough that he had to back out. It was residential street, so there were no shop doors to dive into; I ended up flattening myself into a slightly-recessed doorway.

On my most recent trip I saw an actual motorcycle being driven down a sidewalk on the way to a restaurant delivery--and that was in either Norway or Sweden. The little motorized scooters were the biggest issue, though. You really have to watch constantly for approaching vehicles that may be virtually soundless. I felt as if I was always apologizing for getting in someone's way, but at least no contact was made. (That did happen once here at home, when I carelessly walked across a bike path without looking.)

I think a Traffic Follies slide show or video would be great. I've seen some creative parking in Italy that would have been fun to document. It's just not something I think of photographing at the time.

That is just part of the ambience of European travel. However, for a real experience, be in the car that suddenly realizes we have made the wrong turn into a narrow pedestrian street going the wrong way. Excuse us for going fast. We just waned to get to the end and out. Fortunately no traffic camera -- all pointing in the wrong direction.

I think you could park your self outside Amsterdam Centraal and get enough photos of pedestrians dodging trams to fill a tram.

Edited to add: acraven, with all the apologizing we might begin to suspect you’re Canadian. 😏

You would fill a whole photo book in one day in Saudi Arabia.
The things I saw on the roads when I lived there….

one chapter will be on motorcycles driving on sidewalks. this is especially a thing in Naples, where motorcycles use the sidewalk as a passing lane and even drive 100 m down the sidewalk. But there are places like the Taormina where there is a narrow road with many turns, and now the restaurants have colonized the space with tables on either side, and barely enough room for pedestrians ... then suddenly there is a full on motorcycle amongst the pedestrians.

Another chapter would be cars speeding through pedestrian crosswalks when the crosswalks are green. This is really a ting in Palermo. But in Paris, I nearly had a heart attack when walking in the crosswalk with the light green and a car comes around and accelerates toward the crosswalk and then suddenly slams his brakes on.

Then a whole chapter about the river in Lyon. There is a road next to the river, and a pedestrian area between the road and the river. But in one section there is a parking lot in the pedestrian area. I saw a Mercedes driving about 30 mph on the pedestrian section pretty far from the parking lot. That was scary to see because it was so far from the parking lot that we were not even aware there was a parking lot strangely there.

Well, if I'm going to be flattened by a speeding car, let it be a Mercedes! ;-)

I was in a pedestrian area on a street in Rome when I was hit from the rear by a taxi. My injuries included two deep lacerations on my leg. The taxi had swerved into the pedestrian area to drop off a passenger.
The taxi driver was sobbing, I was bleeding, people kept walking by and drivers were honking their horns and yelling. The first doctor who treated me did not provide me with the correct treatment. Finally got a good doctor and follow up wound care at home was six weeks long.

I will never forget in the city centre of Granada Spain they have street where poles come up automatically, I think to stop people from driving on the pedestrian roads. One American couple didn't realize this and got their car stuck on one of these barriers. Of course the husband and wife get out of the car and start yelling at one another. Men from the various shops nearby come out to see the commotion and start yelling out suggestions in Spanish. The husband finally gets the car back on the road after a 10 min yelling match with his wife and they drive off.

It was very entertaining if you weren't a part of it but please don't try and drive in the center of Granada. That said, in Seville I was amazed/terrified at how my cab driver just speed around the Jewish quarter leaving pedestrians to have to flatten themselves against walls, all while the cabbie was telling me how bad life in Spain was and turning his head to me. Not religious but some prayers to Mother Mary were made that day.