A rant about Rule 170 Highway Code

[JayGatsby]

Be honest: how many of you know what this is (before Googling it), and observe it?

watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way

If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way

so give way

It seems a vast majority of road users, whether motorised or not, completely ignore this rule and in fact reprimand pedestrians who have the temerity to act in accordance with it.

By that I mean, those who have started crossing a road -(and I include having one foot off the pavement as the moment one has 'started crossing a road') are usually beeped, give punitive close passes, or subjected to furious bell pings and verbal reprimands.

I used to ignore this, like apparently 100% of the population I've encountered. I'm sure there are good eggs out there, but not in my experience. In fact I can't recall a single time someone has stopped to let me finish crossing a road they were turning into. They always barge straight through instead.

I always stop now. If someone's started crossing a road I'm turning into, brakes on, after you sir or madam. They look so surprised. I think we should all do this and increase the general population's trust in cycling.

[Mick F]

Welcome to the forum!

Yes, it gets right up my nose.
Not as a bike rider particularly, but definitely as a pedestrian. If I'm crossing, I have priority over vehicles turning.
Why don't folk know this?

If more pedestrians stood their ground, the more that vehicle drivers would understand the rules. Even car drivers are pedestrians from time-to-time, so they would benefit too.

[[XAP]Bob]

I recognised it instantly, and do cede priority to pedestrians crossing sideroads.

I will also take my ground much more strongly than most people I know...

[Ayesha]

“Give way” is this instance means ‘riding round behind them.

Do not try to ride across their path, and definitely DO NOT attempt to occupy the same area of road as they are.

You do not need to stop. Stop, if there is insufficient road width between the pedestrian and oncoming forty tonner.

[[XAP]Bob]

Although in a car it generally means stop, since there is rarely enough room to slip behind someone, on a bike it means well behind them (pedestrians are good at stopping/reversing)

[beardy]

I even get cars coming on the wrong side of the road (cutting the corner) in order to violate my priority when walking across roads. I am sure some are "educating" me for my violation of the imaginary highway code rule that states cars always have priority over pedestrians (and cyclists).

[Bicycler]

Truth be told the rule could be better worded. There are various possible interpretations of the rule. Do pedestrians travelling along a road have priority over turning vehicles in the same way a vehicle travelling along a road would? If a pedestrian can see a vehicle approaching which wishes to turn should he wait for the vehicle to arrive and turn or should he proceed and expect the vehicle to wait once he has started to cross? Or is it merely making allowance for vehicles which were not visible to the pedestrian when he started to cross or pedestrians who are slow in crossing the road? Personally, I have never felt any good reason to treat pedestrians as a lesser form of traffic so have viewed them as having priority in the same way a vehicle would.

[Postboxer]

I stop for people when driving, I probably also stop if when I'm walking and I can see a vehicle indicating to turn into a road. If a car isn't indicating to turn into a road but then begins to turn, it somehow slows me down and I take a little longer crossing the road in front of it.

[Bicycler]

I stop for people when driving, I probably also stop if when I'm walking and I can see a vehicle indicating to turn into a road. If a car isn't indicating to turn into a road but then begins to turn, it somehow slows me down and I take a little longer crossing the road in front of it.

It's a bizarre phenomenon. I find myself similarly affected.

[mjr]

Is it related to the syndrome that makes people push buttons on toucans even if they're sure they'll be able to cross while no bike is showing?

[[XAP]Bob]

I stop for people when driving, I probably also stop if when I'm walking and I can see a vehicle indicating to turn into a road. If a car isn't indicating to turn into a road but then begins to turn, it somehow slows me down and I take a little longer crossing the road in front of it.

It's a bizarre phenomenon. I find myself similarly affected.

I am similarly affected, I think it is the extra thought processes around working out what the vehicle is going to do...

[drossall]

I agree that it's widely ignored by motorists (and, probably, many cyclists), like the rule on stopping at amber lights and that on driving onto pavements.

But motorists are still law-abiding and cyclists aren't

[661-Pete]

I used to ignore this

Ignore what, precisely? The "furious bell pings and verbal reprimands", or Rule 170?

[Vorpal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQxcV4lu-a4

[Mark1978]

Yet in other countries it's normal for pedestrians on crossroads to cross with traffic and turning traffic to give way to pedestrians. We don't have that so drivers aren't used to it.