Travel Safety for Pedestrians

Excellent tips, Big Mike. Also worth mentioning that you need to be particularly careful how you look both ways when in a country that drives on the side of the road that you're not used to.

When the last Pokeman cache game out there were significant instances of injuries as people walked around fixated on their phones instead of where they were going. Definitely a Darwin activity.
I found crossing streets in the UK a real chore because of having to look both ways but in opposite sequence. It was so weird that it actually felt so different.
When traffic is crazy, I pick another pedestrian that seems to be a local, and follow them across the street with them between me and the oncoming traffic. Not much of a buffer, but I figure it is something. Particularly in places like Cairo where crosswalks could be 1/4 mile apart. Locals just jaywalk, so I hug them like a shadow to get across. If right downtown, Cairo is a crazy place for a pedestrian. I plan my route from the balcony of the hotel if at all possible.

Americans are not the only offenders, either: London and Rome, I am looking at you! I also see many people in Europe in their cars with phone-to-ear or in hand, so you have to try to make eye contact with the driver before crossing in front of them even if there is a light.

also when plugged into audio guides...….

Tufty Fluffytail was telling us how to cross the road at least 60 years ago, but I'd agree some people need regularly reminding. It's amazing how many pedestrians are away with the faries and just step out without looking. I'd also recommend looking both ways whether you're in place which drives on the left or the right. Lots of city streets are one way so the traffic can be coming from the other direction anyway. And, of course, there are lots of idiot cyclists furiously pedalling the wrong way.

Amsterdam is another place where I try to be extra vigilant. God help you if you stray out of your pedestrian lane and cross into the bike lane. Amsterdamers ( is that a word?) must become experts at riding with one thumb always on their bell ringer..

As for crossing busy streets - I've frequently used the trick of shadowing someone who looks like a local; especially a little old lady (like me). Came in ESPECIALLY handy in Rome and Mumbai.

What an idiotic headline of article / video. Smartphones can just lay around or ring or make any notification signal. That's all - they do not cause anything.

The main question is if human beings are mature enough for it. And it seems not. To serve the raised Darwin request we could call it technology-driven natural selection of unaware beings causing their own deaths. And what about the involved people with a trauma after that? Nobody really cares.

And the annual 1.3 mn dead traffic victims? Not worth even 1 headline a year. But we simply do not care until it happens to us or close to us.

Prevention video with the disappearing trick from Lausanne police:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=roL2ie23xMQ

Yes, I tend to look for someone who knows what they're doing, and then go with them across intersections. I'm most impressed with what I assume are locals looking down at their phones and still knowing when to cross the street, maybe a quick glance up and sideways. Impressive!

Mind the gap! I never got tired of hearing that.

A very apt term, "defensive walking." I don't use my cell phone in public in Europe, certainly while crossing a street. If it rings while I'm actually crossing the street, I wait until I'm on the other side to answer it. If it's too late by then, too bad.

One should never assume the driver will see you, the glare might be in his eyes.

I was in Hong Kong a couple years ago. There were loud speaker messages when using the escalators warning people to look where they're going, not at their phones.

It is a problem in a lot of places. In 2018 in Spain there were 18 fewer total traffic deaths then in 2017, for a total of 1,180. Of those, the group of cyclists, scooters and pedestrians combined, went up from 396 to 412, and of those the pedestrian deaths went from 91 to 135.

Two years ago a well know actor here was doing a charity ride from Barcelona to Rome. While they were in France they were hit by a SUV. The driver had dropped his cell phone and was reaching down to grab it when he hit the actor and other cyclists. While it is dramatic, luckily no one was hurt. He released the video this year. El Pais published this article in January.

The good news is that pedestrian safety is much higher in much of Europe (generally) than in the US. Some reasons: physical design of streets (much more narrow, among other things), traffic calming measures, stricter speed limits and higher fines for infractions, pedestrian-only zones, and culture of "multi-modal" options that doesn't assume the car is a dominant mode and everything else is subservient. Having said that, trying to cross some streets in places like Rome and Naples can be a harrowing experience, but somehow the cars/mopeds stop just in the nick of time. Probably the biggest hazard for (largely older) pedestrians from the US are cobblestones and uneven pavement.

I was impressed with the "look right" markings at intersections England, and not just London, which I would guess must be for foreigners. It did help when you were distracted or mentally fatigued.

Cyclists were extraordinarily skilled at handling their bikes.

The "Look Right" and "Look Left" markings at crossings in big cities (mostly London, but others as well), are not for the benefit of tourists. They are for the benefit of locals. They are on one-way streets. They say "Look Right" at one end of the crossing, and "Look Left" at the other end.

Here are two photos showing both: (Click here for photo 1( and (Photo 2). Though they are perhaps indications that pedestrians are considered and catered for.

BigMike,

The problem is not limited to pedestrians not paying attention and getting hit by cars. There have been a couple of instances in the Vancouver area of people not being "situationally aware" because of ear buds and loud music, and being struck by trains. It's incomprehensible how someone would choose to walk on a rail line with music so loud they couldn't hear a 50 ton diesel locomotive bearing down on them.

@Chris F, thanks for the details. It explains why I saw these on back roads in Southampton but not the main thoroughfares. In my jet lagged state, for whatever reason they were there, they helped..

Maybe sports helped me develop a "head on a swivel" defensive driving - and walking - approach? Maybe it was driving a motorcycle as a teen (before I could afford a car)? I pay attention. I wish other people would too. Situational awareness also helps with pickpockets, scammers, choosing ATM's - generally staying safe.

Will a law change things? Virginia wants to pass a cell phone law for drivers. I'd be fine with that, if it were enforced. Maryland has a cell phone law for drivers yet I see no fewer drivers staring at their phones in Maryland than I do in Virginia. Without enforcement, a law accomplishes nothing.