For those that think the french are bad drivers

[Bugsy]

Not a place I'd want to drive through

A red light doesn't seem to mean much.

.

[Pierre ZFP]

You don't have to go to the far East for that.  Just this morning me and a number of other people were nearly taken out on a crossing by a stupid woman who jumped a red right.  Close enough that my arm hit her mirror.  Thankfully no-one hurt but it did raise an expletive from me.

[Hoddy]

At least this woman was trying http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/6984693/Woman-who-drove-with-snow-covered-windscreen-prompts-police-warning.html  Hoddy

[Chancer]

All that was needed at that junction was a priorité à droite law. Around me there are many traffic light junctions that just become a free for all P.à D. at night without incident.

The pedestrians on the passage pieton appeared to fare much better than the motorists although no-one seemed to be stopping for them.

Are you sure the junction was not in France?

[Théière]

No body takes any notice of the traffic lights, It's getting a bit like that in London too.

One reason I don't criticise them for still having the death penalty. (controversial)

[just john]

Even more frightening is the after treatment. I witnessed more than several accidents like this in China, my hosts insisted on walking by, on one occasion the bikelist was dragged free to the side of the road and his wrecked bike dragged beside him. We continued to a restaurant and had a meal, on our way back the man was still lying there, this was outside the gate to a government backed industry, no emergency services and some renminbi notes tucked into his shirt pocket . . . Busy traffic passing . . . life is cheap . . .

edit; Incidently my hosts explained that the money was quite substantial and had been left by the car driver either for his medical treatment (not free) or family, they explained that an ambulance had been called but always took sometime, they were very calm about this and said it was perfectly normal, about another later while I was at the plant they told me that the ambulance had arrived and taken him for treatment![:-))]

 

[Frenchie]

Truely horrible.

And yes, most English drivers drive more carefully than the French.

And they generally respect pedestrian crossings, which are too often ignored in France.

[bubbles]

bikelist - I love it.

i'm going to use it all the time - if that's ok with you.

[Gardengirl]

I've noticed over the past couple of years that the French are much better at stopping for people on crossings, at least in our area in the south and places where we stop on the way north and south. I remember back in the past when people didn't believe we'd really stopped for them to cross; we were told at one place in Brittany that it was obvious we were English, as only they stopped for crossings! [:)]

[just john]

[quote user="bubbles"]bikelist - I love it. i'm going to use it all the time - if that's ok with you.[/quote]

Surething, nominate it for the Oxford dictionary if you like, I think it sounds more friendly than biker, Bloddy bikelist doesn't sound so intimidating[:D]

[tegwini]

[quote user="gardengirl "]I've noticed over the past couple of years that the French are much better at stopping for people on crossings, at least in our area in the south and places where we stop on the way north and south. I remember back in the past when people didn't believe we'd really stopped for them to cross; we were told at one place in Brittany that it was obvious we were English, as only they stopped for crossings! [:)][/quote]

We do too, but I sometimes worry that someone behind might not expect us to stop at a crossing and crash into us.

Tegwini

[Hereford]

Surely not "China" as they were driving on the left?  Japan or Hong Kong ??

[Chancer]

In 5 years I have never seen anyone other than myself stop at any of the passage pietons in town, I would say that I am also the only pedestrian that will walk onto the crossing in front of oncoming traffic, I always make eye contact for my own safety and get some very angry glares in return, to date I have not yet been run over except for being bumped by a woman reversing onto the crossing to park for the tabac and another that hit me whilst parking on the pavement, in both cases they were convinced that I was to blame and should have got put of the way.

Whenever I stop for a pedestrian, they will always be looking away from the crossing and it is always a guess as to whether they actually want to cross or are just passing the time of day, for some reason they seem to prefer doing it there, its probably a little safer than elsewhere on the pavement in the vicinity of a tabac, and we only have passage pietons beside tabacs! 

Those that do cross in front of me look totally bemused and it has taken me a long time to realise that they are looking for the driver in the left hand seat as he must clearly be some kind of cretin or perhaps wants to run them over, and are bemused to see what appears to be a driverless (RHD) car. .

There are 3 consecutive and very well signposted passage pietons in front of my building on the route departmental for people leaving the aircraft factory, at lunch time nothing stops for them, the drivers are far more concerned with their lunch, the pedestrians also will not walk out or even make eye contact but just demur to the drivers, it is as if they are embarrased to want to cross the road.

I saw my neighboour waiting patiently for a gap in the traffic to cross, he complained that he had waited 5 minutes and no-one had stopped for the crossing, I reproached him and said you need to do it à la Anglais and launched myself onto the crossing to show him how, the first driver when realising that I wasnt going to step back stood on the brakes, the car behind didnt even brake and ran straight into the back of him as did the 3rd car, I dicreetly slipped away amongst the chaos and recriminations that followed.

Not long after when one of the car parks (the nearest to one part of the factory) was temporarily taken out of service the illegal pavement parking became even worse than it is normally (the other car parks are less than half full but people are lazy) and cars were parking bumper to bumper on both sides obstructing the pedestrian crossing, I took some photos of near misses when people were squeezing out onto the crosing with articulated lorries thundering past and took them to the gendarmerie, each time they promised to come out and verbalize the drivers but never did, they also said that I was the one responsible for a 3 car collision, on the evening of my last visit a pedestrian was run down and injured on the last crossing whilst leaving his evening shift.